Hypnotica's Gig Reviews 2006

John Foxx @ The Social, 23 Pelham St., Nottingham, Uk 28/07/06

Support group: The Rubicks

Entry £7

Prologue:

Having rung the venue beforehand I knew that the support group had pulled out at the last minute & it was unlikely they would find a replacement at such short notice but the doors were supposed to open at 7pm and wanting a decent view we made haste to reach the venue in time...

It was a roasting July evening & drinkers were literally flowing out of the pubs and onto the streets. We were amazed at the length of the queue even at 7:15 but it transpired that the doors couldn’t be opened until 8 as John was held up in traffic! So we hit the lower bar to keep us entertained. On my travels around the bar I spotted the man himself! Obviously just arrived – shades on and looking very distinctively John Foxx!

Finally we were allowed upstairs into a tiny room with a small stage and a bar & that was about it. The room was at least a third full straight away and it was roasting! There was no aircon and it was all standing so not the most comfortable of venues but at least a good view was almost guaranteed as the stage was about 2 metres in front of us.

By the time the gig was about to start the room was packed ( and it was even hotter….). The kit was on stage but couldn’t really get a good look without losing my place so chose to look afterwards.

We waited in anticipation, as we had no real idea what was likely to be played – I have heard as much of John Foxx’s ambient output as his synthpop but I expected more of the latter as it was a live set. Suddenly there was an announcement that there would be another further delay (but only for an extra 20mins or so as there was a strict 10 o’clock curfew.)

And their off...

At last the gig started with a cheer from the audience as John Foxx & Louis Gordon walked onto the stage. The set started very strongly with some fairly aggressive sounding vocal techno pop, it was an impressive start. For me the set got better as it went on, especially when the classic ‘Underpass’ was played – the bassline was unbelievable.

I can’t give a definitive set list but retrospectively I would say it was pretty close to that on the John Foxx & Louis Gordon CD ‘Live from a Room (As big as a city)’

‘No One driving’ complemented the retro section but the music was so good that old & new tracks mixed very well & you would be hard pressed to instantly date them unless you were a hardcore John Foxx fan. That’s a pretty impressive statement especially when some of the tracks date back over 20 years – the man was ahead of his time….

Both John & Louis seemed confident throughout & there were no technical problems at all despite a few times when they were so carried away it looked like their Synth racks might fall over! The audience of primarily male 30 'something's' seemed impressed & sang along with their favourite tracks

Plaza was a new track to me, but was superb, ‘squidgy, teutonic, basslines’ which sounded crisp and futuristic yet you could tell the Ultravox 80’s Synthpop genes in there somewhere.

I guess the gig lasted approximately 90 minutes though I could be wrong….there was one set of encores which John & Louis seemed to enjoy doing but John is a man of few words on the mic – just thanking the audience and that was about it. At the end of the gig there was an good 25 minute wait at the merchandise stall but it was well worth it as there was some good stuff for sale.

Luckily after the ‘queue fest’ I was lucky enough to spot John (advantages of being a small gig) and had a quick chat & got him to sign my ticket. Sounds like he is still a fan of his analogue gear and uses it as much as he can (even sequencers) though that fat bassline on Underpass I think (from memory) he said was from a Yamaha CS1x – a much newer Synth so he is not using only his original Analog gear live.

All in all a great gig and I shall now have to start filling in the gaps in my John Foxx collection with his backcatalogue….