I was fortunate indeed that John Foxx's concert, to celebrate 30 years as a solo artist, coincided with a business week in London. I've long admired his work but concerts are rare. It was an opportunity not to be missed under any circumstances.
Having chatted briefly to a number of fellow Foxx fans at the pre-show 'Foxxgate', it was time to head off to The Roundhouse for the first part of a busy evening.
The seminar, 'Moving Through Old Daylight', sounded intriguing. The theme was roughly a discussion on how memories of the past are infused into the present, via buildings, old films and the like. The host was Matk Fisher and the speakers were author Iain Sinclair and 'Ghostbox'
Unfortunately, the seminar wasn't problem free. A very late start - due to technical problems - made for somewhat flustered presentation and a late finish. This left little time to catch up with people and/or find something to eat before the long evening.
Nevertheless, the seminar raised some interesting issues and the idea of the past bleeding through to the present took on a further resonance for me over the course of the week.
There was a long queue to get into the concert hall and it's 'standing only' inside. Standing for five hours or so becomes uncomfortable.
The evening was so long due to three DJ sets bookending the John Foxx concert. The second of these was supposed to be Gary Numan, but he ended up taking the final slot having been delayed.
The first DJ set was by Jori Hulkkonen.
The audience was now expecting Gary Numan, but the slot was taken instead by Mark Jones.
Armed with a leopard skin suit and a box of records, Mark bravely spun away amid cries of 'Nuuuuuman!'
After the whole 90 minutes of DJ-ing had concluded, anticipation of John Foxx's arrival on the stage grew.
'Parallel Lives', a surreal short film by Alex Proyas with a new version of John Foxx's 'Film One' as the soundtrack,was shown and then John Foxx appeared, complete with the band, the curiously named 'The Maths'.
The show started magnificently with 'Plaza', swiftly followed by several more classics from 'Metamatic'.
Set List
Plaza
This City
Burning Car
He's A Liquid
No-One Driving
Underpass
Shadow Man
A Million Cars
An Ocean We Can Breathe
Running Man
Summer Land
Watching A Building On Fire
Catwalk
Dislocation
Quiet Men
Slow Motion
Encore 1
The Man Who Dies Every Day
Destination
Good Shadow
Encore 2
Just For A Moment
Serafina Steer
I didn't catch all the names of the band members, so I'm open to amendments.
Benge on the synthesisers
Following the Metamatic selection, Louis Gordon came on for three songs...
His style is in a complete contrast to John's. The latter stands still, at times virtually motionless, while Louis jumps around like a man possessed.
Robin Simon came on for the next set of songs. The former Ultravox guitarist was the most eagerly anticipated guest of the night.
Steve D'Agostina
...and then, after the second encore, the main event drew to a close.
Gary Numan and Ade Fenton finally came on to do their DJ set around 11.15 p.m.
More photos could well follow in a future post...
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