Posts Tagged ‘foy vance

12
Dec
11

Foy Vance Conquers &Union

13597aThe true merit of any musician is not measured in a recording studio, it is measured from the minute they step onstage until the minute they step off.

As a performer it can be intensely nerve wracking, especially if you’re going up there alone in front of a crowd a hundred thousand miles from home that knows you for one or two songs if you’re lucky.

But if Irish singer / songwriter Foy Vance was nervous before he went onstage at &Union in Cape Town last Friday night to deliver one of the best performances I’ve heard this year, he sure as hell didn’t show it.

From the first few chords of the gospel / blues anthem “I Got Love” to the audience singing the chorous of the soulful acoustic ballad “Guiding Light” over and over, long after Foy himself had stopped playing, his performance was nothing short of inspirational.

It was interesting to note that, over the course of the evening, everyone I spoke to about his set professed to not only know exactly who he is, but were also proud to say they owned at least one or two of his albums.

 

 

Whether this was true or not I’ll never know, but either way it shows that his music struck a chord with the audience gathered at &Union on Friday, though to be honest I could have guessed that just by watching their reaction to his set.

His set was split down the middle between his own material and his favourite covers which included the Paul Simon track “You Can Call Me Al”, one of my favourite Hendrix songs of all time “Crosstown Traffic”, the Michael Jackson classic “Billy Jean”, the most soulful rendition of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” I’ve ever heard and even a cover of the long lost Joan Osborne song “What If God Was One Of Us?”

But for me, the highlight of his set was hearing him play “Hold Me In Your Arms” which, I found out later is one of his original songs. There’s something in the stark honesty of that song, the way it builds slowly to it’s howling, heartfelt climax that tears me up every time I hear it and Friday night was no exception.

Looking around at the sea of happy faces laughing at his jokes, clapping and singing along to his songs and demanding he go back onstage for an encore that ended up lasting another 40 minutes, I couldn’t help but feel like for that brief moment, everything was right in the world.

The wind whipped through the trees on either side of Foy as he played and his voice rang out through the streets for a five block radius from Hout Street to Wale and Loop Street to Buitengracht. The mic was his pulpit and we were his choir, the holy spirit blowing all around us while we danced and drank and celebrated being ALIVE brother!

 

 

After Foy finished up at &Union, we jumped in the car and hit the Shack to shoot the breeze and play some pool (he kicked my ass 2 games to 1, but we teamed up to play some challengers and mopped the floor with them).

I got to know the man a little better over a couple of rounds of drinks and can honestly say his talent is outweighed only by his humility and his soulfulness by his quick wit, which is sharp as a tack and had us laughing until the early hours of the morning.

It’s no surprise to me that his songs have continued to ring out inside my head from after I shook his hand and bade him farewell sometime around 3 on Saturday morning right up until now as I struggle to put the experience of meeting him and watching him play into words.

Suffice to say, Foy taught me something I consider extremely valuable, that what I previously thought was gospel – that the true merit of a musician is measured from the minute he steps onstage until the minute he steps off – isn’t actually true.

The true merit of a musician extends far beyond his performance. If the man himself doesn’t weigh up to the man onstage, his authenticity of both his character and his music becomes compromised.

Foy is a great musician because he is a great person. The two go hand in hand, and I only hope that his career continues to grow from strength to strength in the coming years and that sometime in the future, at a nameless bar on a nameless night, our paths may cross again.

 

 

-ST

09
Dec
11

Foy Vance Gig Tonight

foy-vance-300Here’s the dealy-o – at this very moment, there is a singer / songwriter in Cape Town that I had the privilege of hearing last night who is not only phenomenally talented, but is also a stand up guy on all counts.

His name is Foy Vance and he was flown out here from Northern Ireland to play a gig at a brand event we were working on yesterday.

I was standing not 2 meters from the stage while this man was performing and just the memory of that, I shit you not, is giving me goosebumps.

I’m not going to go into a description of his style, I’ll let the videos below speak for themselves, but what I will say is that Foy is a rare example of a musician who can not only bring the entire room to a standstill with just an acoustic guitar and the power of his voice, but can also plug in and rock loop and effects pedals to make it sound like he’s an entire fucking band.

 

 

It was amazing to watch this man live. For one track, he detuned his top string to play the bass parts and then deftly started layering the track he was playing, one riff at a time, adding harmonising vocals as he went and even singing into the pickups inside his guitar at one stage, which created a vocal sound like nothing I’ve ever heard before.

South African audiences might not know him but he’s toured Europe and the States, generally performing to smaller crowds and his music lends itself better to intimate clubs and bars than it does to gigantic, vapid spaces.

His father was a preacher in the Church Of Christ in Northern Ireland where the only accepted form of music was acapella singing, instruments of any variety were forbidden. Despite this, Foy’s father played the guitar and taught his son everything he knew starting, as you do, with House Of The Rising Son.

Foy speaks fondly of the man who taught him how to play and passed on his love of music and singing to Foy at a young age. Foy’s love of music is a bond forged in blood, something he feels more than he understands, a religion to which he has fully committed his life.

 

 

Being a brand event, the audience were receptive but distracted by the fine whiskey that was being served, which was what got me and my new partner in crime Texx thinking.

What if we could get Foy a gig in a venue slightly better suited to the whole singer / songwriter vibe where he could play to a crowd that would love him the same way we did?

Ten minutes later, Texx was on the phone with the Powers That Be at &Union and I am fucking excited to say the second they Googled him and heard his stuff they were like “BOOK HIM”.

So tonight, for the first time ever, Foy Vance is going to be playing at &Union, kicking off sometime between 7.30 and 8 so let’s show this man some fucking love people!

Dig this video of him playing “Hold Me In Your Arms”. I tried to find out if this is his song or if it’s a cover but couldn’t find out enough about it.

I don’t think it matters though. It’s a deeply moving, incredible song performed with a lot of heart, that’s what counts.

 

 

You guys HAVE to be at &Union tonight.

Until then Winking smile

-ST