Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx and Louis Gordon Marghera/Venice gig

There's an 'official' flyer up on the venue's MySpace...the usual Metamatic pic no mention of Louis Gordon altho I imagine he'll be there .. .
(thankfully no mention of U******** either so fingers crossed..)

U******* is really a forbidden word in this case (and unfortunate)

Wow - it starts at 10pm? The show in Japan was packed up and gone by then!

There was no mention of Louis on the Japan promo material (or tickets), but he was definitely there!!

Jealous of anyone going to these European gigs. Enjoy!

Interesting remark! Yes things do tend to start later over here, and in fact I'd be surprised if it starts then too..but hey it's a Saturday night and there's even a party after!

Well just by way of a 'report' rather than a 'review' I can tell you all it was good night even though we did have to wait until five minutes to midnight before John and Louis finally took the stage after a fairly bland DJ set! (7 o’clock Japanese friends take note..) The venue was fairly small and I would guess there were approx 250 people at the most, mostly of the 'dark' or 'gothic' ilk.
Anyway it was just the two of them on stage with a projection of images to the side of the stage, set a little bit back (so if you were at the front you wouldn't have seen it) and from what I have read/seen of the Cargo gig it was the loop which was shown before the London show rather than images of James Stewart or whatever.
The setlist was also the same so we kicked off with the new one which bounced and crashed along quite nicely together with Million Cars / Dislocation / The Man Who.. which all set the tone and were well received by the crowd. Then onto the Camera / Uptown duo which again created another kind of atmosphere (and thanks again to that young lady who chatted away in a high pitched voice during both...). The 3 Metamatic era ones were the real favourites of the night and I would have gladly have gone on in that era with maybe a My Face or even Plaza but we were once more catapulted forward with Shadow Man which personally doesn't do a lot for me and neither did much for the crowd. The pause after came as per Cargo..(if I hadn't known I would've felt a little disappointed!) re-opening very well with The Garden despite the bad sound (some kind of technical hitch?). Travel and Furniture up next although I'm not a fan of either and I felt they didn't do much for the gig as a whole . But Young Savage got things going again nicely thank you and there was much punky shouting along. Incredible that some of these songs are 30 years (or more) old... My Sex also well received and the finale with Endlessly and Shifting City brought things to an energetic end, with both John and Louis giving it their all. End of gig.

Immediately after a queue was forming for the photographs/autographs and mercifully John came down very shortly after to do the duties, affable and likeable as ever. Unfortunately the 80s disco was playing very loudly so we couldn't say much but I did (try to) tell him that perhaps he should read and contribute to the forum! HA! HA! HA! Anyway a great night and a real treat for Italian Foxxians. A lucky crowd and long may John continue to come over occasionally!
My thanks again to Federica and her husband for the help in finding the place (!) and they have some excellent photos so hope they can get them up soon for us all to enjoy. Gloria..where were you??
On a technical note (and I’m no techie) Louis only had one keyboard whereas I see at Cargo he had two - he had the one with 'Journey to the centre of the earth' written on the front (I wonder if it was still in working condition after getting a damn good bashing after Shifting City..) and John seemed to be doing a lot more actually ‘playing’ with respect to the gig I saw in Cento, Italy 18 months ago almost to the day.

CDs and T shirts were duly on sale (manager Steve supervising ) and seemed to go quite well. Would've been a good idea to have sold at least Glimmer as well as the other remasters too, since they are hard to find over here.

PS found some photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/temple1201/sets/72157608183721211/ and there was a lot of professional looking equipment and people around so I imagine more will crop up.

Nice review - thanks for sharing.

Sounds like a good night was had by all - although the midnight start might have been a challenge

Start time noted! Wow! Well I guess they didn't have much time after the Cargo gig to get there, set up, etc...

Sounds like same keyboard setup as Japan - too much to carry through customs??

Cheers for the review D!

And yes you're right Solenoid - seems like John still retains the same minimal tour ethic as the '79 US SoR tour!

Where's Freddie Laker when you need him eh?

..indeed. I think it finished around twenty to two.

Poor quality amateur ([my]sex) video...

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=nTbH3osB1eQ

Wow - what time is the last gondola home?

Seriously though, did everyone stay in Venice that night?

I've no idea! There was a lot of stuff I wanted to ask John and Louis -including where they were staying and stuff - but the music was just too loud (well it was a disco!).
Actually to get to one of the most beautiful places in the world - Venice - you have to pass through one of the ugliest - Mestre, of which Marghera is a part - a huge chemicals factory, industrial units, warheouses and so on, a maze of roads . .it could be anywhere it the (industrialized) world. Maybe they spent Sunday amid the fountains, squares and colonnades...or on a gondola.

Thanks for the review, and good to hear that Louis is still playing Shifting City in the appropriate stylee

There are now videos of My Sex and Underpass up on YouTube from this show

And some photos...
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cf...&albumId=920996

nice pix, thanx for posting

Thank you for putting those up, Federica. There's some very nice photos there, including some very good ones. Looks like the lighting was very good. I also notice the stage was quite low, which also helped show more of John and Louis.

Thanks for the link Federica, very nice photos.

Sounds like the sort of place John writes songs about!

Thanks for everyone's reviews.

Love the photos you've taken, Federica. Thanks for posting the link. Great photo angles & I really like the lighting too.

Thank you very much for your great snapshots, Federica!

Hi

lighting was excellent in Maghera. do you know John has his own lighting designer... oh yes it's me
thanks

with regards to Louis Keyboards .. he was using as he was in Japan .. the journey to the centre..
which is a Yamaha CS1X and the same one the he has been knocking the f**k out of since 1997 .
The other he used at Cargo which was not taken to Venice , due to weight restrictions on flights was a Ronco Fuzzaway, a delightful keyboard that Yamaha badge-engineered as a SY85.

Best

Chris1

oh, perhaps this is an old (and slightly off topic) question, but when did you start doing the lighting for John's shows

I was thinking the same to, from the youtube vids. Nice work Chris.

The overhead light is a new idea - works really well.

..

a few years . i have been involved since the first omnidelic exotour and fully involved since the second part of that in april 98 .. andy birch was the lighting designer for that until the from trash tour after which he unfortunatley died . thats when i moved from the stage to the lighting desk.
Myself and andy had worked together for 28 years and we swapped roles often as evidenced on the midge ure tours as andy was the designer up until glorious noise and i took over with the european move me tour
Best
Chris1

Yes quite right. I'd like to think that was one of the reasons he chose the place as it is all industrialised and just a little bit worn down, but at the same time you are minutes away from the fountains, squares and canals of romantic Venice....
..or perhaps the gig was just there by chance...

Yes excellent photos Federica, and thanks again also for doing those of me and John! (not shown here..ha ha!)

BTW readers may like to know that as a result of the Marghera gig an Italian John Foxx myspace page has been set up to keep Italian fans up to date with all things Foxxian.
http://www.myspace.com/johnfoxxitalia
(end of plug..)

Yes the my sex part 2 is mine actually http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=nTbH3osB1eQ ) sorry about quality and brevity but it was done with a fairly poor quality camera when standing at the back.
Viewers my like to compare it with tokyohunter's rather more admirable clip done with the same (part of) song done at Cargo with that other chap on stage. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eij5ZI9CAWU

Ok last post on the subject..

a bit of Dislocation here as well:
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=ay2HbhBnrTc

Ok very last post ....
some very good pictures on the venue's myspace :

Fucina Controvento

..I think the album is visible to all, if not let me know.

And a interview on player

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=161310473

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MemberD:
[QB] Gloria..where were you??

Front row, left side, a "coppola" on my head, glasses, black jacket. Jumping, screaming...

I don't think Marghera is so ugly! In fact, it was a surprise. The centre of the town, around the Municipio, is nice: small buildings, tiny gardens, mysterious narrow roads... almost romantic, very foxxian. I slept at a small hotel, a pinks two storey villetta, in a nice quiet room. There was also a little garden with some statues, a cat and a dog (they were alive, not stone!). Then I spent the nexy day in Venice, among hords of tourists, hoping to bumpt into J & L, who (as L had told me) were going to have dinner in Venice. But no foxxes around, just some other pretty cats.
Then, back home, back to reality... sigh!

Hey Gloria...I'm sorry I missed you, and your coppola, that night..and Marghera too . .I only saw the chemical works, the industrial units and the multiscreen cinema! ..

Anyway here are some more pictures I found .. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kissylvie/sets/72157608276434775/