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Brian Offline OP
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I would have done more. I would have seen more if I had the time.

I could stand on either side of Waterloo Bridge taking images of a mist drenched London Skyline....




But first things first I had to get my ticket changed @ the BFI due to having the first row removed for staging.

This was not a disadvantage as I was now in the middle of row D.
A much better seat.

I bumped into Rob Harris (and his friend Rob) who I almost always bump into at every Foxx venue before the show.

Rob informed me that taking pictures during the show was not going to be allowed so they were off to photograph & video the rehearsals.
Fair enough. It means Evidence of Time Travel will get my full attention as it should be.

Next on my agenda was the Chris Stein Blondie photographic exhibition at Somerset House.


I really enjoyed this.

I studied every picture and read every note.
I travelled back in time to the mid 1970s & early 80s.

This was Chris Steins's Evidence of Time Travel.

Images of Harry,Bowie,Warhol,Giger & the Ramones amongst many others of that time.

Sadly so many of them no longer with us.

I grabbed a copy of exhibition notes.





Next was the Foxxgate @ The White Hart in Cornwall Street.

When I arrived every table had a reserved notice on it.
I picked one at the rear which was available until 5.30.

Eventually Mark (Church Puddle),Peter(Metalbeat) & Martin (Birdsong) & his other half turned up and also a complete surprise was Chris (Solenoid) from Japan.

Garry (Radiobeach) & Tapio (Mr Normall) were unable to make it to the pub so we would see them at the venue.
It was nice to catch up and chat for a couple of hours.

Also luckily the people who had pre-booked the table never turned up so we got to keep our seats.

With hindsight with it being a Friday evening in middle of London we should have booked a table.
The beer was cracking. Thanks for finding it Garry.
It was then time to move onto the venue.

The BFI itself was quite interesting venue. I could have spent a lot more time there.

All of the BFI toilet doors had all been changed to Star Wars & Star Trek type iconography.




The opening film and music was Paul Prudence Cyclotone II.
The whole film was computer generated.
It was OK but I thought it went on a bit.
No music as such more sound effects than anything.

Then it was time for Kaborn, John Foxx & Steve D'Agostino in front of banks of synths,drum machines & laptops.

The familiar Evidence of Time travel album was augmented with audio samples of Ballard & others with extra segway links added between the tracks.
I think this lifted the whole thing.
Then the immense projected images .Some familiar from the graphic novel some not.

The other worldly images look like pictures of people stuck in a cathode ray tube from another universe.
The whole experience was fully immersive & I got lost inside it.

I really enjoyed it.

I took only one picture during the film & few when it had finished but quite a few had ignored the warning notice on the way in and the glow of phone cameras was apparent.







Afterwards we hung around outside the room that was hosting the after show party which I initially didn’t try to enter ( a few with me tried but were ejected).

I said hello to Karborn who I’d not met since the DNA exhibition at The Horse Hospital in 2009.He was unable to stay due to dismantling & removing kit for the gig.

A few of us then went up to the top bar for a drink.
Whilst there we saw John Foxx leave so we went back to the after show party.

I knew Tapio was in there & I had some Guinness & Stuff for him which he can’t get in Finland so I had to see him before I left.

This time a few of us got in.

I finally got to meet Jonathan Barnbrook & also Steve D’Agostino.
I also had a good chat with Tapio & Garry over a quick drink.
Sadly I had to leave at 10.30 to get my train but the party was already winding down.

Overall a great afternoon & evening.

It was great to catch up with Mark,Peter,Martin,Chris,Tapio,Rob & Garry

Until the next time.

Brian

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Good stuff Brian, thanks for sharing

I enjoyed the evening and the whole day laugh


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Cheers Martin.

It was a great day.

Apologies for the image quality but I did not have my best camera with me for low light stuff.

I also forgot to mention I also got to meet Tania Shropsire Blurred Girl on Twitter and
Chi Ming Lai from the Electricty Club Website.

Nice to meet you both.

Brian

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My reflections on a day of Time Travelling through London is here:

http://translatedbirdsong.wordpress.com


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“Foxxhall and I” – for the “review” please skip to “THE NIGHT”

DAY ZERO (AND DAYS MINUS)

How much packing do you need to do? Always need something to read, something to drink, something to write in, something to write with, a spare something to write with, something to take pictures with, something to listen on, and many somethings to listen to. Then there’s maps and directions. A modern phone would accommodate most of that …

DAY ONE

Finally the decisions are made. London. England. Again. A three hour train. First time since Camden. Lots of thoughts so lots written down - verse form seems to make the most sense. Or gives a brief puff to the chest. At the time. Grey damp day. Tisbury looked like an ideal place to spend a mild Christmas. I was wrong-footed by someone sitting in the seat next to me when I returned from a quest for comfort. Someone who wasn’t there before. Momentarily lost and confused. Almost amused. Then came Andover which never fails to inspire (it’s the name more than anything else). Then use the legs, the eyes and the maps. First time ever in London without using the underground? Junctions are the worst as a pedestrian – a recurring thought that we need to start again with a decent numbered grid system of streets. But then think again. Landmarks are plenty on the South Bank so you almost have permission to get lost and so you do. Time disappears. I booked to stay in Vauxhall which was cheaper but a mile or so down the road, some road, one road, maybe this road? Eventually the right road. Realised I’d taken a long way around. Back the same way but different, with dusk lighting the lamps and Aphex Twin “Syro” for the first time – excitement at first then a poignant piano track through Lower Marsh. A new memory. Yes. Hardware store full of Christmas tat. Not quite ready for that. Still in November mode. Remembrance.

THE NIGHT

The pub, the people, Friday night, friends old and new then off to the venue. Again. Ticket collected earlier. Another new path taken.

Happy to sit down again. Latecomers galore – slightly annoying, here comes the usher’s torch again and a six foot silhouette but I do understand and of course gracefully stand. They all say thanks. This time the seat next to me remains empty – the seat won’t stay down. Why did I offer her my seat? In too good a mood perhaps, probably because we had already seen a good deal of Paul Prudence’s work. Very much like the Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite section of 2001: A Space Odyssey. But black and white. Imagined violets in the greys. Very trippy, arrows of lightning in and out, exploding orbs, vast shimmering auroras. Near and far. Scale unknown. Full of cosmic life. I didn’t pay so much attention to the music which seemed to exist like a summer storm does, humming, crackling, booming and whistling. Nothing wrong with that.

A two minute break which some took to mean time for more liquids, collecting and depositing. No.

A black and white start, then patches of colour as we moved in for a twisted kiss. My first experience of both the visuals and the music. Plenty to project onto, plenty of distortions, ghosts lost but preserved. Film One a starting point but consistently drilling off into lots of directions. A scrambling like analogue satellite channels used to show once the preview ended. Eight-bit text on a detuned channel 36. Was it 36? Years later the credits like a tape loading but this time in reverse.

You can stop reading now.

THE NIGHT PART II

Hanging around the wreckage. The world too clean and defined. Far too early for trains or walking to bed. Talking of places and times far away. Willing the next times. People who don’t exist* (* on Metamatic, smily face, I'm still an egg on Twitter so I don't exist either.). Waiting. Dwindling. Back outside, no other option. Never can say goodbye. A Winged Victory For the Sullen. Another new direction. St George Wharf Tower outside now lined with light. TV too ordinary.

DAY TWO

Early up and out and ready to explore. Never really did the touristy thing, never knew exactly where most things were. Back then it was all CD shopping – Oxford Circus was the centre of the universe. Now we are free. Crossed over. Aimed for Battersea but ended up passing the Cenotaph. Smaller than I’d imagined. Still in November mode. Remembrance. Or “Remember Ants” – suddenly every face alert, every screen pointing somewhere. Then Trafalgar Square, also smaller. A giant blue cockerel. Imagining Nelson listening to the long track off Bish Bosch. Then the National Gallery. Was expecting to visit the Tate(s). Another direction. Something about Norsemen. Peder Balke. Never heard of him. Loved the lot, bought the book. Eventually the feet were instructed by the brain to stop doing so much walking. Eating and waiting. Passing crowds. Then travelling alongside where I’d walked and accelerating down the hours - never hoping to catch the sun, which had been hiding since Day Zero. However it left evidence of itself, a pale yellow strip near the ground in the far west, like a hurried but sincere promise to return.


If you read all that, I thank you or apologise as appropriate to your circumstances. I also thank the usual crowd old and new – Brian, Peter, Martin (+ friend), Chris, Tapio, Rob, Karborn, Garry, a Blurred Girl. Thanks again Brian and Martin for your accounts here and elsewhere. And special thanks to the owner of seat L32.

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I have to be blunt and say I thought this show was a load of old bollocks sleep

It was very well attended, I'll grant you that. And the NFT1 cinema seats were mercifully comfy.

I hadn't realised we were getting a "support act" (B-movie feature) - it was some guy with half an hour of immaculate black and white 3D computer graphics and accompanying electronic sound effects. It was technically quite astounding, but entirely abstract, zero narrative, just pure form (something like an ever morphing satellite dish or summat)... and as we'd no idea how long it was gonna go on for, it did begin to try my patience a little. Also, he started pretty promptly after 7, so for most of the half hour we were subjected to usherettes showing in more and more and MORE people who'd turned up late and were trying to find their seat. One daft bint in front of me decided, upon turning up 20 mins late, that "sorry, you're in my seat" (even though there were empty seats right beside her precious M19) and was standing blocking everyone's view for about 2 minutes while she ejected some other punters and made them go to a different row. FFS! People, eh? smirk
Quite clearly though, the NFT1 video and soundsystem are superb - the picture and audio of this supporting feature were immaculate and extremely hi-fi...

...not something which was taken advantage of by our heroes from Chorley, Lancs.!!
I've quite enjoyed the CD of "Evidence of Time Travel", not least cos Steve D'Angostino had gotten the sound on it "just right", making it sound very nicely analogue and old school (cassette based, even! wink ) - I'd frankly wished he'd been allowed to do the same for some of the overly clean John Foxx & the Maths albums!
But I dunno what the hell they were doing in the NFT, but they bollocksed up the sound of it into a slightly wearing boomy muddy mess (the throdding pump of the bass drum plods getting particular wearisome).
And this was very much matched if not surpassed by Karborn's "lo-fi" visuals. These were pretty much all designed to look like they were on an ancient 405-line black & white telly, viewed up close under a magnifying glass.
Before the show began, the BFI compere had said something about "come and see the rest of our sci-fi program - many excellent rare films shown on the big screen the way they should be experienced" -
well I'm sorry, but old 405-line tellys zoomed in up close should NOT be experienced on a "big screen" - Karborn was looking at his 15" laptop screen, tellingly! - on a big screen they looked like hell! I mean, OK, I can enjoy the "aesthetic" to an extent, but ultimately, combined with the badly EQed soundtrack, it was just giving me a headache.
One piece was just a woman's face for 7 minutes with those 4 horizontal "noise bars" you used to get on a VHS player with "helical scan" in fast-forward mode. I mean for goddsakes! OK, I "get" the "concept" ("I was always trying to see you through the noise") as the picture gets more and more broken up, but it's an ordeal to watch.

Ultimately, whilst I see in a way "what they're trying to do", I just don't think the experience works on a practical level. Being stuck in a cinema as if your eyes are 6 inches away from a broken TV screen isn't a very pleasant experience.

I also really do not see what the POINT of John & Steve's dicking around at the front with the "soundtrack" is. They were NOT (as far as I could tell) actually "playing" anything, but fading stems in and out on a bank of mixers and triggering the odd extra sample. It's not a "performance", it's just two guys dicking about on a laptop. The music honestly would've sounded better if they hadn't been there and had just played the CD. I don't think anything they fiddled with improved the "music" - the mix was rubbish compared to the CD, their variations were entirely arbitrary and added no value.

Oh and that stupid bint in front of me began taking photos on her phone about half way through. (This was when Karborn started, blessedly, to use some COLOUR images which were really rather tasty). Nothing better than being at a cinema when someone starts wielding a phone right in your eyeline!!
I confess I resorted to kicking the back of her chair rather forcefully until she stopped. whistle

I dunno - it was a Friday night after a week at work, I'd rushed up from Brighton on the train, maybe I was tired, maybe I hadn't had my dinner, maybe I was just in a grumpy mood -
but I still think the show was basically a load of old bollocks smile
I thought I was gonna get to hear John and Steve actually play analogue synths and drum machines live, whilst Karborn did some interesting visuals.
What I actually got was John & Steve making a muddy mess of their pre-recorded soundtrack which Karborn projected retina-addling visuals.
I think they need to rethink how they present something like this!

REAL MUSICIANS playing REAL ANALOGUE INSTRUMENTS is entertaining - people dicking about on a laptop and mixer is not. And they need to think about how the visuals work on a cinema screen as opposed to a laptop screen.

NAP-TIME smile

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They had some real analogue instruments too. I saw them laugh

And John's hands were moving upon them. Playing stuff.
Which is why they rehearsed it.

But I do agree a) with the nobs that came in late and stood in front of people and b) started half-clapping in the middle of the film and c) filmed it on low-fi hand-held devices

But 'dicking about'?
Really? I mean, really??

Really NOT


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The Electricity Club review:-

http://www.electricity-club.co.uk/john-foxx-steve-dagostino-live-at-bfi-south-bank/

Talking of The Electricity Club.

Chi from TEC sent me this from Friday night at the BFI.

Me,Tapio,Chi from TEC,PaulD & who made Thomas Dolby,B.E.F & Kim Wilde videos & Jim Doran.

From Chi's camera,I think Peter Young actually took the picture but I could be wrong.




Brian

Last edited by Brian; 11/27/14 10:30 AM.
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Ken Harrison's Gig Junkie review:-

http://www.gigjunkies.com/band-reviews/j...-november-2014/

Brian

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Brilliant Mark!

I LOVED reading that. Thank you laugh


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Let's get the easy bit out of the way, a huge thanks to all the forum members I met that night for being so incredibly warm. It really felt good to catch up and reminded me that although SNS has taken over a lot of human interactions, there are still a few refuges like this that shine. I'm very grateful and will try to contribute more in future!

The event? Well I hadn't bought EoTT yet, so went in blind. It was bollocks. The dogs bollocks! Mr Foxx continues to expand his delivery through collaborations, and this for me was a masterpiece. The visuals were stunning, keeping me focused through the whole performance (performance, not a gig, hence the comfy chairs!). I love this branch of his work and the "fresh but so parallel" angle that Karborn brings to the table. Musically it was what I wanted/needed to hear. But Steve D'Agostino has always harmonized with John so well, that I really shouldn't have worried about enjoying myself. Which I did, evident in the fact that I only bought my ticket on Thursday. I didn't know if the format was going to work (and it didn't for everyone, which is understandable) but it pressed my buttons!

Now that the world premiere is done and dusted, it must be time for the world tour! Can Japan be first stop?

Well worth the trip and overall, a really great night out. Thank you all!

9.75 out of 10. The markdown due to those latecomers, many of whom thought that they may have been invisible!

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Originally Posted By: Birdsong

They had some real analogue instruments too. I saw them laugh

And John's hands were moving upon them. Playing stuff.
Which is why they rehearsed it.


Meh. Interesting... any more info about what they had or what they were actually playing? It didn't look (or sound) like they were doing anything more than faffing on little mixer desks to me.
John *always* busks away on the keys, it doesn't mean he's playing anything. I've stood at the front of too many of his gigs and watched him! It's just like a little comfort blanket thing so he he has something to do with his hands.

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Originally Posted By: feline1


Meh. Interesting... any more info about what they had or what they were actually playing? It didn't look (or sound) like they were doing anything more than faffing on little mixer desks to me.


John played a Roland JX-3P

I'm not remotely technical, but here for the record is a really crappy picture of the kit. I wish I had paid more attention to the stats etc...



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good grief! Of all the synths he could bring, he brought a JX3P!! wierd laugh

The small keys is a MIDI controller for soft-synths on the laptop, presumeably.

Heaven knows what that wierd custom-built knob box is for!

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D'Agostino was twiddling that. Not Foxx


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