To celebrate 30 years since John Foxx's The Golden Section World Tour, Metamatic Records has licensed a 5 song performance on Spanish TV in 1983.

We'll have details about this limited edition DVD in the next few days.

In the meantime, here's the artwork

It's nice to see something new out of the archives. Looking forward to this DVD. Certainly John's "Golden era" .

Age old question, what else is lurky in the archives...

Peter

Would have been ideal for Metadelic!

Nice cover, fitting for the period.

Nice. Very Christmassy.

It was originally hoped that the tracks which are on the In The Glow Madrid 1983 DVD could've been included on Metadelic - and even some early versions of the artwork reflected that. However, there were some licensing issues which - despite all efforts - ultimately prevented that from happening. So, the only way which this material could be made available was for a stand-alone release to be created - as that avoided the licensing issues which prevented their inclusion on Metadelic.

Rob

I second that!

The sleevenotes for METADELIC had to be re-drafted when the licensing got tangled up...

Who did the artwork?

'.'

PS: my first post in 8 billion years. And you're welcome!

The artwork has been done by Paul Agar.



Lovely to have you back...

Rob

Hi Rob,

I guess this is the same footage as the DVD bootleg that has been circulating?
Does the used footage have those Spanish lyrics at the bottom as well? Or did they manage to find a copy without?


Anyway, ordered a copy

Yes, the footage does have lyrics and text running across the bottom of the page in some places.

It's the original broadcast tape of the performance with remastered audio.

Rob

This is sweet to have in full quality. I have an ancient bootleg tape of this and it was several generations down but still better quality than many Foxxy vids I've seen back in the day. I'll have to order this once I get my finances in a state. Rocktober has been extended this year through December and there's records to still sell off...

Thanks for the reply Rob! curious how it sounds now

My copy has arrived this morning.

lovely looking package.

Brian

I received my copy yesterday. Nice cover. Although it's the same footage as on youtube the sound quality is excellent. John's synth playing on The Hidden Man is fantastic.

Agreed brilliant Arp Odysey solo.

I also notice all of the logos on the keyboards are covered up by gaffer tape.

Spanish TV rules?

Brian

I enjoyed watching the DVD more than I expected. It's so nice to have a first generation version, instead of a bootleg. It was well packaged. I found the text a bit anoying along the bottom of the screen but still you can't have everything.

Finally got and watched this at the weekend there.

Interesting! Not exactly John's best ever songs, from not exactly his best ever period, but well worth making available as the recording and filming (well, videoing) quality are well above average for an early 80s Euro TV show.

I think this video tells us quite a bit about why John's career never turned into superstardom:

- he looks stunning, but his body language and dancing look awkward, really - you can tell he's not entirely comfortable with this lark!
- his singing mostly fine but there are some awful howling moments - most unfortunately at the start of the first song, where he's dreadfully out of tune. Ouch.
- the band are competent but hardly making the best use of the sonics that John oughta have been capably of:
- the synth drums aren't *too* offensive sounding but they don't really help either - it was just the fashion back then, but acoustic drums would've served just as well if not better
- the bass guitar is all "funky licks" and "slap" which again was the fashion then, but was it really the best style for numbers like "Pater Noster"?! (Is *anything* the best style for that?! lmao )
- Robin Simon's playing is beautiful as ever, but very underused - better arrangements could've made more of what he was playing and let it stand out. Quite often you'd hardly hear he was there.
- the synths, again, seem a bit sonically underused.
The Roland Vocoder VP330 is often being used to add a choral halo to John's vocal (hence the dual mics)... the ARP Odyssey seems to be basically set to the same lead sound throughout (it's a great lead sound though) - but it can do more than that!
- there are at least two other synths in the rig (Juno 60? Prophet 5?) but they just seem to be set to bland fuzzyish pads and don't really grab the ear.
- there also seems to be other synth/keyboard sounds on a backing tape? (e.g. in The Hidden Man, there's a sequenced bleep and piano chords mysteriously happening throughout).

If I were John, I'd have expanded the band by one extra keyboard player, allowing them to go to town on the sonics more. And found a more appealing way to do the drums.


Anyways, 21 years later, these are just quibbles over milk long spilt - overall I enjoyed watching it, The Hidden Man in particular kicked ass when John joined in on the Odyssey.