Last week, we had America calling us from multiple angles. An EMI rep emailed at one in the morning. A woman called Elizabeth in North Carolina offered to fly four men and their gear across an ocean because we were, she said, worth it. And a plan we’d written in the diary back in March to leave our jobs and tour the States, stopped feeling like a daydream and started feeling like a date in the calendar. Because that’s exactly where it was.
What I didn’t dwell on last week was the secret two of us were carrying. Jonno and I were going to leave our day jobs and hadn’t told the other two. The plan was to tell them at The Borderline, on the Saturday, moments before we walked on stage.
This is that night.
Saturday 14th July. The venue’s advance email survives: load-in 4pm, soundcheck half past, capacity 275, Doll and the Kicks at quarter past eight, The Cut Outs at nine, and us at quarter to ten, with a curfew of “10:30pm STRICT as club nights follow after the gig.”
It was the best gig we’d ever played and the best reception we’d ever had. The MySpace feature had had a big impact which was more easily seen in London than Luton. People cheered before we’d even played a note. It was a tantalising taste of success.
17.07.07.
“The Borderline gig however WAS packed and went very well. Elizabeth came from America just to see us, and loved it – she’s going to get us some other gigs when we go over and wants us to play in Hawaii as well (she’s got another house there).”
She’s got another house there. In Hawaii. Elizabeth had very kindly flown three and a half thousand miles to stand in an underground venue off Charing Cross Road and watch us play for forty-five minutes. She wrote the next day, and I’ll let her speak for herself:
From: ELIZABETH (MySpace) Date: 15 Jul 2007, 16:31
I was right.... you guys have talent which has not been seen or heard in a very long time. You have your very own sound..lyrics are very well writen...tight performance and the chemistry is evident. I am very glad I took the spontaneous trip here to meet you all and see you preform. I had always planned to come sometime but this was a little quicker then I thought. Oh well....that is me.
I need to know what type of contract you wish ie. pay.
Also what effects you wish for your set. There will be a background but if there is anything special you wish let me know.
If you have a few cds and such I can take with me and present to venues in and around Greensboro as well as Hawaii....would be really great. I will work hard on getting you into as many as I can.
Talk w/ you soon.
Elizabeth
hotel: 020.7823.3000 room 611
She signed off with her hotel’s phone number and her room number1, like a character from a film that hadn’t been written yet.
It was a good night to be in a full room. The diary is fond of it, while remaining the diary:
“I had to deal with a few slightly insane girls at the end (”Look at my fox head necklace…I bet you’ve never seen anything like that before”) but overall it was good.”
She was correct - I’d never seen anyone wearing a fox-head style necklace before. But there is a particular feeling, the first time a stranger turns up to your gig wearing jewellery to celebrate your band which they bought (or made) of their own accord, of having accidentally become a thing that exists in other people’s lives. It felt good.
The night had its own small domestic drama too. At nine minutes past one in the morning, Doll and the Kicks2 emailed in a panic:
From: Doll and the Kicks Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007, 01:09 Subject: Missing guitar from Borderline....
Hi Foxes,
Great to play with you tonight but we’ve had a shock since we’ve got home to realise that we left a guitar at the venue - a cherry Gibson SG to be precise in a black Hiscox flight case - and having called the venue up it doesn’t appear to be there any longer. We’re just hoping that someone with you guys or the Cut Outs may have mistakenly picked it up. Can you get in touch if you have done we would be extremely appreciative and will forever be in debt to you!!!
DATK xxx
The breakthrough came from Jonno, with the curiosity of a man who has never once minded his own business:
From: Jonathan Bretman Sent: 16 July 2007, 18:00 Subject: RE: Missing guitar from Borderline....[Scanned]
when i went back in to get the banner it was on the floor by our backstage room, out of curiosity i actually opened the case the see what it was and it was a cherry gibson. that was about 1.30ish i think.
I can see, in my minds eye, Jonno spotting the guitar case and thinking “Ooh, lovely, I wonder what guitar it is and if I should get one” and having a good look. Anyway. Mystery solved, panic over. I passed it on, the Borderline confirmed, and their reply that evening is the kind of thing that makes you remember why you did any of it:
Thanks for all your help Nigel! We’ve been on the phone with them and I’m going to trundle down there tomorrow to go and get it. Panic over, thankfully. We had such fun playing with you guys - if you need any support acts at any point, just drop us a line!
And then, the reason for the whole evening. Just before we went on, Jonno and I told Alex and Geve.
*”Jonno and I told the others that we’ve resigned and will leave work at the end of September…excitement and childish dancing all round. Geve can’t resist the lure now either, and is going to quit too. Four out of four.”
Alex agreed to quit too. Four out of four. There it is. We had walked in to the venue as part time musicians with a dream, and we walked on stage as soon to be full time professional musicians with no money and the same dream that felt just a little bit closer to reality. No discussion of how it would work. No spreadsheet (yet!) Just excitement and childish dancing all round, backstage of a packed 275-capacity club, and then forty-five minutes on stage.
Jonno had handed his notice in that Friday. His text is in the diary, and reading it back now does something to me that it didn’t do then:
“They were begging me to stay! But the call of the foxes is too strong! Today is a glorious day!” Text from Jonno on Friday.
He had a steady job where, so he told me, his fish filleting skills were highly valued (his manager told him he was making "a big mistake”), and yet he chose us. “Today is a glorious day”. It really was.
There’s one more email from that Sunday that I can’t leave out. My dad, replying to some new band photos I’d sent him (which he hated but that’s a story for another week), added a postscript about the night before. He didn’t yet know what we’d announced in the dressing room:
From: ian thomas Date: 15 July 2007, 14:23
Sounds like a lucky strike with Elizabeth, is this the point at which you will be full time musician? Hawaiian shirts all round!! Perhaps she could be tempted into investing in an independent label at some point?
Is this the point at which you will be a full time musician? As usual, he was ahead of the curve.
The same weekend, a stranger called Carl messaged us on MySpace: “Was at your show last night..... Enjoyed it as lot. Check out Ents24.com in the near future for a review written on it.” 3
The review, when it came through, described us as a breath of fresh air, praised the white jackets and the rapport with the room, comparing us to The Hives and The White Stripes which we didn’t mind at all. “…the sound The Foxes create leave the crowd in awe.” I liked it so much I sent it straight to Dave Ambrose, the man who, the week before, had told us we had no style yet, with a flourish of bravado: “Just thought I’d send you our latest review from ents24.com who came to our headline show at The Borderline on Saturday. It’s not for release until tomorrow.” Not for release until tomorrow. In case he wanted to share it earlier! I’d also forwarded it the evening before to our friend and champion at XFM, Kate Beveridge, who fired back the next morning: “Brilliant stuff - was out with Jay last night x”. The same radio station would, within weeks, start playing the EP.
So perhaps it was less insane than it looked or looks now. Plus I should add - we had at this point complete and unshakable belief in ourselves. We were offered flights to play in America - when were we going to get that opportunity again?! Did we try to all negotiate time off? Or should we take the leap, give up the jobs and book ourselves a full US tour? All in. It made sense. We were GOING to make it.
And Elizabeth? A week after flying home, she sent the message that turned the whole thing from an idea into an itinerary:
From: ELIZABETH (MySpace) Date: 22 Jul 2007, 20:43
Love the new pics.
I have booked you for some gigs. Usually ticket price is between $7-$9 for NC. Let me know what works. I will get some for you here in Hawaii if you are serious. I have a place for you to stay here in Hawaii.
Call me because I don’t always have internet access.
Elizabeth
IT WAS HAPPENING.
The next morning I was writing to Joe Trivigno, the American from March who’d started all the transatlantic talk, telling him “we’re coming over to America in October for a month or so.” The plan from the spring, the woman from MySpace, and four resignation letters had all landed in the same fortnight.
The EMI man from the Borderline, the diary noted almost in passing, “enjoyed the show too apparently, and wants to come and see us at The Water Rats in August.”
The Water Rats, in August. Hold that thought.
Next week: five hundred CDs, the funniest argument about money in the band’s entire history, and a message from a member of New Order.
The Chelsea Harbour Hotel. She’s long since checked out. Don’t try calling.
A lovely band from Brighton who disbanded in 2011.
The full review. I’m still proud of it: In a music industry where every day the same old stuff is being churned by identical bands, The Foxes are a breath of fresh air, truly something different and unique, they have a style and swagger that suggests they are seasoned pros when in fact The Foxes, as they are now, came about in early 2006. The band is made up of: lead singer/rhythm guitarist Nigel, lead guitarist Jonno, Geve on drums & Alex on bass/backing vocals. Anticipation is high and the area in front of the stage fills up quickly, fans eager to see the band perform, up close. This leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind that it’s The Foxes people have come to see tonight. The band have been receiving rave reviews around the country while filling up venues like this one almost every time they play and suited in matching white jackets, they emerge to a welcoming round of applause and cheers. The Foxes are best described as a lively, catchy rock band with a melodic base and as they fly into the opening song, Bill Hicks, it’s clear to see why. The singing is extravagant and highlight what a talent vocally this band is, the song Lover, Killer being one where each low moment is felt deep down by all and every high note raises hairs on the back of necks. Thrown alongside the exceptionally fast-paced drumming, wonderful guitar riffs & knee-shaking bass strums, the sound The Foxes create leave the crowd in awe. A comparison to The Hives and The White Stripes doesn’t seem that unbelievable once you hear the band live. As well as all this they have an excellent rapport with their fans; they are enjoying the music and the band enjoying playing it for them. Hits such as Suzy, Your Fire and Coming To Get You are so well received you would believe they had been being played on the radio all month. A 45 minute set comes to a close with the fun-filled song Run and the crowd wondering where the time has gone.
The noise made by the satisfied crowd as the band leave the stage says it all; The Foxes have a bright future ahead of them. Expect to hear them all over a radio soon and see them headlining much bigger shows.
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