Foy Vance: Blog

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Temple Bar

20 Nov 2008. 0 comments

I'm heading to Dublin first thing in the morning to the music video shoot, of Be With Me. Joanne's already there. She was cast as the lead female, which is interesting as we made sure her video was sent anonymously, so that there'd be no favoritism... the Director and the casting director both picked her out; being that the song was written about her in the first place, I find in sort of poetic. I think she'll be great. She has to play the temptress to a gullible lead male, which she's used to doing of course, but this time I'm not the lead male...

I'm really looking forward to being back in Dublin, however I won't get much time to hang out there... I've gotta head up the road to met the other women in my life... which sounds very rock 'n' roll in passing, but in reality I'll end up watching Pixar films with one, and be answering a steady stream of questions from the other, like "are you eating enough?... I hope you're not working too hard?... do you have clean underwear?..."

I've written a Christmas song for this twisted Christmas gig I'm doing in the Barbican, called 'no jingle bells ring out here in the snow'.... I'll also be doing a song by Jules Maxwell, which you can see & hear on youtube ...odd that I should be announcing that here, when I haven't even cleared it with Jules yet, but I'm sure he'll be happy to let me go ahead... Maybe I should release a Christmas EP!!

I think I may have new neighbours... as I'm sitting here writting this they're having the loudest sex known to man... at first I though may be a bear eating a pig, but no...two people! I think it's all fur coat and no knickers though because the noise ended as quick as it began. One minute they're chatting and laughing, listening to music, within two seconds there straight into bear Vs Pig syndrome, and within 2 minutes they're back to chatting!!! Very bizzare... I don't know what's more bizzare actually; that I'm sitting here, so privy to another couples love life, or that I'm now effectively sharing it with the world!!?

Sunday Supper Club

17 Nov 2008. 2 comments

Just back from our friends house(our old neighbours), where we've agreed to set up a Sunday Supper Club with the 6 of us...7 if you count my cub...7 and a bit if you count theirs... Next month is Italian night at our house. Just in case you're interested tonight was a stormer, Spinach and lentil soup, followed by a sort of spicy, ricey dishy thing with caramelised cashew nuts (can't remember what it was actually called)... and chocolate & pear tart with cream to finish... nyum nyum!

The Go Awards were interesting on Friday, however I think I took too much notice of the courtesy drinks. James Nesbit was the host, and a right cheeky one at that. There were three finalist but only one winner, and every time the runners up were asked up to collect their certificates James would be shouting "loooooser, loooosers!"... I was pissing myself! All in jest of course (?) It was good to celebrate Belfast!

I'm heading to see Paul Pilot and the Royal Trumpets tomorrow night at Olivers bar... Paul's been focusing mainly on other people's music for a long time (Producer of Duke Special, player with Beth Rowley etc...) but his own stuff has always been unique and intriguing, so I'm really glad to see he's focusing on it again. The Royal Trumpets are a couple from New Zealand who are just gloriously left field in their approach to music.. if you're able to get down, you should... Greenwich has got it going on... starts at 8:30... The owner is Olivier, a mad French man with the facial hair to prove it. On cold nights he lights the wood burning stove and cooks pheasant for the customers... the other week I walked down (it's in a basement) only to see him education his clientele on the finer points of cheese, the bar counter taken up with a huge cheese board and wine... what a guy.. c'est bon, said I to myself! Or, as I once heard an American guy say it with a full on Texan accent 'kest bawn!'...

Nizlopi and a little faith...

14 Nov 2008. 2 comments

I played a gig in Wye sometime earlier in the year when I met Luke and John (nothing to do with Matthew and Mark) from Nizlopi as they were on the same stage... we instantly hit it off, as is often the case with people in the brotherhood of music. I remember Johnny Cash talking of this brotherhood in his autobiography; how artist and/or musicians can become like brothers in no time at all...there's an unsaid understanding. Anyway, I felt like I'd always know the guys when I first met them. Almost a year later (if not more than that) they asked me to come and play a gig with them at ULU in London, of course I said yes. When I get there I find out that it's there last gig for at least 12 months, possibly ever - a lot can happen in 12 months right... I must say, I felt truly honored that they would ask me along for such an occasion. It was a great night and the guys gave out just as much love, positivity and 'make it Happen-ness' as they always do... I left feeling restored, replanted, like a cat by a fire, at peace, a squirrel in a tree house... they can't say squirrel in Japan you know; they don't have diphthongs....

So here's what's happened... between that last sentence and this one... I have had a conversation lasting 1 hour, 34 minutes and 18 secs with my eldest brother, Easton... I only called him to say/ask " right, how do you spell diphthong?" ... next thing I know, we're talking life for over an hour and a half.... no better man to talk life with though... Easton's a writer, and a bloody good one... trouble is, he's been playing his cards close to his chest, much like me I guess... maybe it's hereditary... we both wanna hold on to it until we're 100% sure it's right? who knows?

Anyway... I'm sure I've mentioned that I'm working on a feature film at the minute (?) ... well, I'm now working on a couple of shorts too... one of them is called 'A Little Faith', essentially about deceit, truth, pornography and reality... I think?...at least that's what it seemed like to me. So, I'm writing songs in the vein of the Isley Brothers and Marvin Gaye.... no pressure then eh... I've been working at it solid and it still sounds like a chav trying to write a concerto ... hoping that I'll get somewhere soon...

right...it's 00:21 and I've got a phone interview with Citybeat tomorrow morning at 08:30...so enough of this blibber blabber... speak soon... hopefully more coherently than I have been in this post (I've had three big G&T's during this post.......oops) ...

the Nizlopi boys on their last night...

Al, movements and Jules

10 Nov 2008. 2 comments

well what can I say... Al was something else... every bit the legend that you'd expect! That said, it all really felt like trying to relive the glory days, not just from his point of view...in fact mainly from ours! The way to see a man like that, a heart like his, a soul merchant like him is, of course, not in the Apollo in London in 2008, but in an old smokey club or an old Church hall, somewhere deep in the South at the time when it was all making sense.. like watching the Clash or the Pistols in the 70s....Jimi Hendrix on his first visit to London... Christy Moore in his home town pub, in a hushed room full of people with their eyes closed...

You know what I'm getting at, I reckon... it was a great gig, but it was a little bit in the 'show' tradition, like we might have been watching 'The Al Green Extravaganza, featuring Joe Blogs as Al Green' type thing... having said that, there were moments where it was quite evident that we were watching the real deal. At one point, during a rendition of Amazing Grace, he made up a verse (not on the spot I wouldn't imagine) about his Mother, at which point I felt like I'd been hooked up to an electric charge and bolted to the floor.. it was heartbreaking and wonderful!

The fact that he had as much of a vibe as he did is just testament to his purity and calibre... because, let's face it, as wonderful as he surely is, is not what's happening right NOW!

Not that there is anything happening right now... there are a lot of great things happening in many corners of the world, but no Punk, Soul, Beatles, Rock n Roll or the like.. everthing is so evenly spread now... all the big movements seem to have moved on to Politics...yikes!

Naively I used to think 'hope' was the new punk.. not my album 'hope', but 'hope' itself... it's always felt like the new taboo, in an age when all the old taboos have been grinded down into pulp and washed down with whiskey... It still feels taboo in my ways and circles but it doesn't sound off the Tsunami alarm that all the former movements did... if anything, hope will be a quiet revolution!

Right, enough thought vomit for one night, I have a gig at a Dance Agency tomorrow morning, where I provide music/noises for dancers staying subtle on a day off.. keeps me on my toes... then I'm going to see Jules Maxwell playing tomorrow night in Greenwich, it's going to be good... Jules, singing... his songs are usually covered by other people so I'm really looking forward to hearing them all in one sitting, sung by the man himself... I always like the writeres version of their own song, better than the covers.....anyway... ni night...f

Toilets and the Reverend Green

06 Nov 2008. 7 comments

For those of you not on the mailing list (all aboard, we're about to depart)... just wanted to let you know that I've just released an Exclusive Download EP here on the site, featuring the songs from 'The life of the Toilet Tour Part I' and also a couple of bonus tracks for good measure. I plan to make this the start of a deluge of material that's been biting at the bite to get out into the open fields. To be honest I'm not completely sure why I've played my cards so close to my chest... Paul Buchanan of the Blue Nile, always keeps his course work to himself, and I've always admired it. He only releases stuff that he deems to be entirely worthy of release. I feel like my opinion is changing though, feel like I might just be alright with releasing an incoherent collection of songs, just so that they're out of my way, off my desk, making room for new stuff. Like pruning a rose bush.

..well... it remains to be seen...till then:

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ranch... I'm going to see the Reverend Al Green tonight at the Hammersmith Apollo. He played last night in the Royal Albert Hall and a few friends went along, and said it was outrageously good! I'll keep you posted....

Uncle Mike wants you!

03 Nov 2008. 2 comments

I was in Greenwich today meeting with a young Film Director from New York - Michael K Wright - who's making a music video for the Free Association Remix of Be With Me.

Hotpress in Ireland asked 12 Directors at NYU to make 12 music videos with Irish artists, of which I am one.

We'll be shooting in Dublin in late November, and here's where you come in... we need some extras for the set... and your Uncle Mike Wants You... if it's something you'd be up for then you need to email Mike with a photo of yourself, and you also need to be free Friday 7th Nov at 3pm....

if that's you then...

oops!! Amended date for Nizlopi gig...

31 Oct 2008. 6 comments

The Nizlopi date was put up wrong... it's actually 12th NOVEMBER !! not December as it was on the site and in the newsletter...

If you are about in London tonight and want something to do, you should come along to St Lukes Church in town... Iain Archer and friends type vibe... I'll be there, will you?

Facebook and the local

31 Oct 2008. 2 comments

hey... just went on Facebook there and got introduced to live chat... not the kind of live chat that you get odd emails about... "I have a web cam and I'm alone and randy, wanna live chat" sort of thing... but more the IM ( I'm told that's what it's called)... There's a guy called Gary Curtin (I'm afraid he'd heard all the gags before, and wasn't impressed with mine) has recorded a few of mine songs...mine songs? I mean my songs... check them out if you get the chance. I wouldn't want to be spending too much time on Facebook mind you... you could piss away a lot of precious time, that's for sure... As Van Morrison says "Precious time is slipping away..." ...bet he doesn't piss about with live chat... to busy being wonderful I should imagine.

I was round at my local tonight... it was wonderful!!! I can't wait for Joanne to get back so she can come and see it (she's in Belfast)! It like a real life East Enders, but without the boring house scene bits... in fact all of the bits in East Enders are horrifically boring, but if you imagine a pub like the Queen Vic, and what would actually go on in there, it's this place. They had a band on, playing blues and folk all night. A guitar player and a Violin player. The latter had a teddy boy, slicked back hari-do and a pencil thin moustache… he was 54 but only looked 44 (he told me his age)… there was a woman there that looked like a “who” from one of the Doctor Seuss stories. She was vay vay drunk, and dancing like a badly controlled puppet. What a wonderful site it was though… she made me happy to watch. I told her I thought she was a wonderful dancer, and that set her off for the night… every time she passed me she wiggled her hips the whole way through the room and out the door for a good pull on a Mayfair light…

I was there with a friend called Nahim (pronounced Na-eem, case you’re wondering) and we took in the vista with much delight and played pool… I won! Cha ching!!!!

Mondays

Dingwalls tonight!! & Belfast Crowd

27 Oct 2008. 9 comments

Just about to head out to Dingwalls for the gig tonight (hope to see some of you there!)...

Had a great night in Belfast on Saturday at the Urban Hymns gig... I know I know I know, it wasn't up on the site, it was all a bit last minute. It was a night of music with the Inishowen Gospel Choir. Along with myself, there was Duke Special, Burning Codes (Paul Archer), Bronagh Gallagher, Ken Haddock, Ciaran Gribben and Talking Drums... we each did one of our own and one cover. I sang Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, possibly my favourite song of all time. The on person I didn't mention above was the big surprise for me; a guy called Ray Curran... he was outstanding. The link is to another project which is more dance orientated, but if you can find anything of his solo stuff, buy it!! He also does Tom Waits tribute nights were he takes on Tom's persona like no one else you'll see...

As good as it all was,the highlight for me was Ken Haddock singing The Air that I breath by 'The Hollies'... it made my bones feel like strawberry laces, and that I may have been sent home in a bucket!!!

I made a short recording of the Belfast crew last week and promised to post it the day after... I was speaking in Irish terms of course... here it is guys, where Wally?

back in prison...

24 Oct 2008. 9 comments

I just played in Wormwood Scrubs prison yesterday, for Black History month... I know.... I thought it was an odd request too: asking a whiter that white guy from Bangor Co-Down to come and play music to the prisoners, and celebrate Black History! Funnily enough I've been asked by the inmates at most of the prisons I've played to come back and play during Black History Month, but Wormwood Scrubs is the only one I've been able to get back to this time.

Maybe I could be the first white Irish guy to do a Black History Month Prison tour this time next year.... and hey...maybe some of you could get to see the gig if you play your cards wrong...

As it turns out, Black History Month has actually been revamped as diversity month with a focus on black history, just within Wormwood that is. I don't think that's what should happen in the outside world but I think it's useful in prison to have it like this, otherwise every month would have to be focused on each group for the inmates to feel they're treated equally, and there aren't enough months in the year for that. It's surprising to see the cross section of people in any given prison, not least of all Wormwood Scrubs. Africans, Jamaicans, Puertricans, Irish, Americans, Canadians, Polish, Czechs, Chinese, Blacks, Whites, Buddists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, everything in between and everything beyond… in many ways it’s the ultimate melting pot. The unfortunate truth is that, even though they’re all in the same (or a similar) situation, there’s still a clear divide in the groups… the old 'stick with your own' mentality. But there’s so much scope for reform with such a diverse group of people, it just seems impossible to cross the boundaries. Which is why I find ‘Diversity Month’ something of real worth. To play to such a varied group and know that there’s a lot of focus on accepting and appreciating their differences, is a wonderful thing. If you deliver music right, it unites people irrespective of colour, creed or culture…

anyway…sorry about that… this wasn’t meant to be soap box rant…

just to say that if you find you’re having difficulty dealing with diversity, maybe you should consider doing something that means you have to serve time, and try to get yourself into Wormwood Scrubs; the Cathedral’s simply delightful…

Should maybe add that I'm not serious, just in case there are some very literal people among you that go and rob a petrol station saying "Foy said I should do it to help my intolerance of other cultures"....