Post #15 — Better than the Magic Numbers

One year and six weeks after our first ever gig at the Hope & Anchor, The Foxes went back to Exeter — the city where Alex and I had met, to open for The Magic Numbers at the University Summer Ball. A Mercury-nominated band at the top of the bill, and us, the local boys made... well, not good yet, but certainly back. This is the week the homecoming actually happened, and it gave us one lovely piece of luck. We did almost nothing to earn it (that’s the point of luck, no?)

The Summer Ball ran from 8pm Monday to 5am Tuesday, across the whole of Devonshire House: The Magic Numbers, The Big, us, a free fairground with a casino, a Bucking Bronco and — yes — the Human Gyroscope. The diary caught up two days later:

27.06.07. Myspace friends: 4483.

“Well, the Magic Numbers gig in Exeter went really well. The PA arrived really late from Glastonbury so we hardly got a sound check, but the gig itself was good, even though my guitar stopped working and we had to use the spare. There weren’t a huge number of people in the Great Hall when we were on, but those who were there were really enthusiastic, and more than one person came up to us after saying we were better than the Magic Numbers.”

Better than the Magic Numbers. I pass no comment on the accuracy of this assessment.1 I merely report that more than one person said it, and that I wrote it down within 48 hours, which is how you know it mattered to me.

And then, the logo. Last week I told you it ended up on the wall at exactly the wrong moment and exactly the right one. The diary, which only ever calls it “massive,” makes its own case:

“During the Magic Numbers sound check we noticed that their name was projected in huge letters on the wall behind the stage, so we asked if the lighting people could download our logo and have it displayed when we played, which they said would be fine. As it turns out they completely forgot about it when we played, but must have placed it first on their list of images because when it came to The Magic Numbers coming out to play (to huge cheers from the packed audience) imagine our delight when THE FOXES appeared behind them in massive lettering for a good 30 seconds!! Better advertising than we could have ever hoped for!! At the start of their second song our logo came on again…our cheers drowned out amount of any other crowd noise, as did our jumping up and down laughing. It’s good to have these little pieces of luck!”

Above is the soundcheck and the moment we got the idea. We asked for our logo. They forgot. And so the universe arranged for THE FOXES to appear in massive lettering behind The Magic Numbers, in front of the packed Great Hall, at the precise moment everyone was actually looking at the stage. It’s hard for me to express how happy this mishap made us. In the days when we’d pay hundreds for a tiny ad in NME, we got this to a packed room of students for free. The four of us at the back of the Great Hall in Exeter, jumping up and down, cheering with glee at a wall.

The actual famous people were lovely about all of it:

“Anyway, we spoke to Romeo after we played, and he’d watched us from the wings when we were on and said he really liked us. We gave him a CD so you never know (as always!) He was a lovely guy anyway and was happy to talk to us for a few minutes which was nice! They played well too.”

Romeo Stodart, watching us from the wings. Another CD into another pair of famous hands, so you never know (as always!) — by this point the phrase was practically band liturgy.

There was, of course, a row first, because there’s always a row first (and often, after).

“Jonno and I had an argument with Alex before we played as he didn’t want to play Dancing2 (not commercial enough) and do a cover of Last Nite by The Strokes instead (’to be more commercial’) We won, despite our apparent ‘lack of commercial acumen’ ;-) We do all love Alex…but fuck doing cover songs at our own gigs!”

Part of me — now — understands why he wanted to do it. And maybe if there was a way of making it our own or doing something interesting with it, it would have been good. But not playing it straight, which we would have done.

While we were busy being better than the Magic Numbers, another thread — one that had been running quietly under all of this since April — finally surfaced. I should back up.

Some weeks earlier, the diary had logged a new and genuinely exciting name on our ever-expanding list of contacts:

“Ben Parks – photographer who did all The Kooks album stuff amongst others. He’s seen us headline The Clapham Grand and is really keen on doing a shoot – we’re booked for 29th April at a nominal rate.”

The man who shot The Kooks (he did their debut album cover) wanted to photograph us, at a nominal rate, because he’d seen us headline the Clapham Grand and liked what he saw. His agent, Dan Saunders, worked for Virgin. This was not a contact we’d begged for. This was a real photographer, with a real client list, choosing to point his camera at four men from London who still had day jobs.

The band mailout that went out on 24 April put it with characteristic restraint:

From: The Foxes (info@thefoxesband.co.uk) Date: Tuesday, 24 April 2007 Subject: The Foxes @ The Water Rats

“We will be being photographed by the lovely Ben Parks this Sunday, who is responsible for, amongst others, all The Kooks, Bloc Party and Interpol photos.”

The Kooks, Bloc Party and Interpol. And then us! We did the shoot. And the morning after, emailing the designer Jo Mirowski I dropped in the detail in a way I’m quite proud of:

From: The Foxes (thefoxesband@hotmail.com) Date: Monday, 30 April 2007 15:33 To: Jo Mirowski Subject: Re: As promised, our new track.

“We had our photo shoot with Ben Parks on Sunday, shortly before he jets off to follow The Kooks playing in New York. He took about 20 rolls of black and white and colour, and thinks we’ve got some really great shots. He should also be there tonight for some live shots, so I’ll send them on to you when they’re ready.”

Twenty rolls. Black and white and colour. Shortly before he flew to New York to follow The Kooks. The man left our shoot and got on a plane to photograph a band who’d had a number one album, and in between he’d spent his Sunday on us. If you’d shown twenty-seven-year-old me only that one email and asked him to predict the next five years, he’d have predicted all of them correctly and then been wrong about every single one.

And then, as was the way with absolutely everything in this story, nothing happened for a while. Twenty rolls of film went off to be developed, and the band went back to flyering toilets.

It took three months for them to come through. He’s a busy man! The photos themselves were lovely. They are, to this day, some of the best images that exist of the band - the proof, in black and white and colour, that for one Sunday in April 2007 we looked exactly like a band who were about to make it.

That 27 June diary entry — the one that recorded the Exeter gig — wasn’t finished. At the bottom, in capitals, was a postscript, and you can hear the door of the next chapter swinging open:

“Guess what?!! We’re going to be a big MYSPACE FEATURED MUSIC ARTIST!!!! Yes, that’s right! Every time someone logs onto their account and looks down at the left will see a photo of US and a link to a huge section they’ll be doing on the main myspace music page!!!! (it's Josh Weller right now, but it'll be us in the next few hours…go and have a look to see just how BRILLIANT this will be!) This is all through Bexy who we’re doing the Unsigned Heroes gig for at The Macbeth on 5th July…she works for myspace and really likes us! Apparently our hits will go up by THOUSANDS, as will our play figures. She said to get ready for a massive influx of friend requests as well. This is SUCH GOOD PUBLICITY!!!!”

In 2007, this was the equivalent of being put in the shop window of the internet. Every single person who logged into MySpace, and in 2007, that was pretty much every single person,3 would see us.

I read that entry now and what gets me is the innocence of it. Apparently our hits will go up by THOUSANDS. Apparently. We didn’t really believe it. You don’t, until it happens. A woman called Bexy who worked at MySpace had made us a promise at a gig, the way people in this story were always making us promises at gigs, and we’d written it down with four exclamation marks and gone to bed.

It was a promise. But did it come true….?

Next week: it comes true. The counter starts spinning, a major label slides into our inbox asking for a demo, Dave Ambrose finally watches The Foxes play and delivers his verdict — and two of us begin, very quietly, to talk about giving up our day jobs.

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