James 'Foz' Foster (born 1960) is an English composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the lead guitarist in the art-rock band, David Devant and his Spirit Wife, and in the 1983-5 incarnation of The Monochrome Set. Foster also plays guitar, musical saw and vibraslap in the house band of Karaoke Circus and occasional saw in Martin White's Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra. He plays ukulele and other instruments as part of the double-act, Foster and Gilvan, and is also musical director of Sawchestra – a band of musical saw players who perform Foster's compositions to accompany silent films. He also presents the radio show, 'Adrift with Foz'.
Foster grew up in Pimlico, West London. In his late teens, he formed his first band, the New Romantic Los Apachés, in which he was songwriter and played lead guitar. Los Apachés became press darlings for well over two months in the winter of 1979, and Foster was 'nicknamed the Kaftan Kid by the NME for some strange reason'. [1] In 1983, he was talent-spotted by Andy Warren, bass player of The Monochrome Set, who was looking for a replacement for the departing guitarist, Lester Square. The band had just released the single, "Jet Set Junta", which 'nodded to the previous year's Falkland Islands conflict, becoming a big indie hit and garnering extensive play.' [2] One of Foster's first tasks was to appear in the video for "Jet Set Junta", miming to Lester Square's guitar part. Foster went on to play on the band's fourth album, the pop-flavoured The Lost Weekend (1985), which included the singles "Wallflower" and "Jacob's Ladder". In the video for the latter, Foz dressed in a bear costume – the first of many animal costumes he would wear on stage. Although these were the most commercial-sounding records released by the Monochrome Set, sales were disappointing, and the band split up.
In 2009, when The Lost Weekend was re-released on CD by Cherry Red Records, The Guardian journalist, John Robb, wrote, "It's clearly time we resurrected the Monochrome Set, arguably the first truly postmodern pop band." [3]
After moving to Brighton, Foster met the artist and songwriter, Mikey Georgeson and, at the beginning of the 1990s, they formed David Devant & His Spirit Wife. All the band adopted stage names, with Georgeson as the Vessel on vocals and guitar, Professor Rimschott (Graham Carlow) on drums and the Colonel (Jem Egerton) on bass. Foster was renamed Foz?, pronounced 'Foz Questionmark'. A Devant gig was an unforgettable theatrical experience, incorporating stage magic with cardboard props, manipulated by the 'spectral roadies', Iceman and Cocky Young'un. The Vessel might be fired from a cannon, levitated or sawn in half, and the climax of every show was the appearance of the Spirit Wife, who manifested herself in the form of a Victorian lace nightie waved on a long pole. The band won a fanatically loyal following and positive, though sometimes bemused, reviews. Caroline Sullivan described a 1996 show in the Guardian: 'Led by a quiffed and moustachioed waif called the Vessel, they offer penny-dreadful glam rock augmented by a host of special effects. The music alone is worth the price of admission ... but the Devants strive to provide a more complete experience... Long may they do their strange thing.'. [4] The theatricality of an early Devant show was captured in the video for their debut single, "Pimlico".
In 1997, the band released their first full length album, Work Lovelife, Miscellaneous. In March, Radio-One breakfast presenter, Mark Radcliffe, chose the single, "Ginger", written by Georgeson and Foster, as his record of the week. Radcliffe said, 'Initially I was intrigued by the look of them, by the name, by the image. Then I heard some really good songs...Unless the records themselves work there is no point to all the theatricality. But this lot are messing about with the concept of what makes a pop band. Their act isn't just a gimmick. We need more bands like them.' [5]
Although Foster left the band in the late 1990s, he rejoined for their third album, Power Words for Better Living (2004). David Devant and his Spirit Wife still perform two or three times a year, and released a new album, Cut out and Keep Me in 2019.
Foster's next collaboration was with another fine artist, Christopher Gilvan-Cartwright, known by the stage name Baron Gilvan. As Foster and Gilvan, they wear clown make-up and perform their own songs, with Foster playing ukulele and other instruments, and Gilvan singing and playing the trombone. Foster and Gilvan often work with the puppeteer, Isobel Smith, who is Gilvan's partner. Baron Gilvan has also performed as a spectral roadie for David Devant, and is a resident judge at Karaoke Circus.
In 2008, Foster, Sara Passmore and Andrew Page (raxil4) created Sawchestra, a band of musicians playing saws and other instruments. Their first show, 'Sawchestra perform Musical Surgery' was staged at Brighton's live art venue, the Basement, on 4 October 2008. The space had been converted into an operating theatre and the band wore surgical gowns and masks. Foster went on to compose a soundtrack for the 1926 animated classic, The Adventures of Prince Achmed . In 2011, Sawchestra performed Prince Achmed in various theatres and festivals, and at the Folly for a Flyover, a pop-up venue beneath a flyover on the A12 in Hackney Wick. Foster's next soundtrack was for the 1920 horror film, The Golem: How He Came into the World , which Sawchestra performed at the Apollo Theatre, Piccadilly, as part of the 2011 London Sci-Fi Festival. Wired, reviewing the festival, wrote, 'Particular highlights included a screening of silent German classic Der Golem , its score played by innovative musical ensemble Sawchestra using a variety of household tools and unusual implements.' [6] There was also 'Adrift with the Sawchestra', on 17 July 2011, when the band staged a series of floating performances on a barge on the Regent's Canal, as part of Barbican Bite's contribution to the Shoreditch Festival.
Foster is a long-standing collaborator with Martin White, playing in his Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra and in the house band for Ward and White's Karaoke Circus, where comedians sing karaoke over a live band. After singing with Karaoke Circus, the comedian Dave Gorman wrote in his blog: "I was stupidly excited to be "singing" because the lead guitarist in the band is Foz from the excellent David Devant & His Spirit Wife. I'm a fan. Now I've sung with their lead guitarist. Life is daft." [7]
Foster is musical director and sound designer for Touched Theatre, the puppet company, creating scores for their shows, including Blue [8] Me and the Sea [9] and Human Remains. [10] For Grist to the Mill, he provided the scores for Kissing the Gunner's Daughter an installation in a bathing machine on Brighton beach in 2012. [11] Christina the Astonishing in 2013, [12] and Sisters of Hera, a collaboration with Aurelius productions, performed in Italy in 2014. [13]
Foster has continued to use the name 'Adrift' for durational musical performances at festivals and in unusual spaces. In 2023, he started his own radio show, 'Adrift with Foz', on Totally Radio, featuring "found sounds, generated electronic signals, acoustic instruments, radio fragments, static and the spirit of the Shipping Forecast". [14] In an interview with Alan Rider, he described some of the instruments he uses, which include "the Leaf Audio Microphonic Sound Box, Assam Bells Horror Cinematic noise generator, Cometogetherasone Noise box, Waterphone, and home-made spring with plunger." [15]
The following outline provides an overview of and topical guide to entertainment and the entertainment industry:
Oingo Boingo was an American new wave band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a surrealist musical theatre troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, that Elfman had led and written material for in the years previous. Their highest-charting song, "Weird Science", reached No. 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
California Jam was a rock music festival co-headlined by Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, held at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California, on April 6, 1974. It was produced by ABC Entertainment, Sandy Feldman and Leonard Stogel. Pacific Presentations, a Los Angeles–based concert company headed by Sepp Donahower and Gary Perkins, coordinated the event, booked all the musical talent and ran the advertising campaign. Don Branker worked for Leonard Stogel and was responsible for concert site facilitation, toilets, fencing and medical. The California Jam attracted 250,000 paying music fans. The festival set what were then records for the loudest amplification system ever installed, the highest paid attendance, and highest gross in history. It was one of the last of the original wave of rock festivals, as well as one of the most well-executed and financially successful, and presaged the era of media consolidation and the corporatization of the rock music industry.
In American theater, summer stock theater is a theater that presents stage productions only in the summer. The name combines the season with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes. Summer stock theaters frequently take advantage of seasonal weather by having their productions outdoors, under tents set up temporarily for their use, or in barns.
David Devant & His Spirit Wife are an English indie/art rock band from Brighton, England. They are named after the English magician and early film exhibitor, David Devant (1868–1941).
Didier Malherbe, is a French jazz, rock and world music musician, known as a member of the bands Gong and Hadouk, as well as a poet.
Jonathan James English was an English-born Australian singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He emigrated from England to Australia with his parents in 1961. He was an early vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Sebastian Hardie but left to take on the role of Judas Iscariot in the Australian version of the stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar from May 1972, which was broadcast on television. English was also a solo singer; his Australian top twenty hit singles include "Turn the Page", "Hollywood Seven", "Words are Not Enough", "Six Ribbons" and "Hot Town".
The Monochrome Set are an English post-punk/new wave band, originally formed in London in January 1978. The most recent line-up consists of Bid, Andy Warren, Athen Ayren and Stephen Gilchrist.
Lewis Frederick William Caddick was an English folk singer-songwriter and guitarist, particularly noted for his songwriting and as a member of the innovative and influential group Home Service.
David Fonseca is a Portuguese musician, singer-songwriter, and photographer. As a musician, he plays several instruments, including acoustic guitar and organ. He is recognized for his successful music career as a member of Silence 4 and, since 2003, as a solo artist. He is also responsible for the graphic design of his album covers and the art direction on his video clips. Between 2004 and 2006, he was also part of the Humanos tribute project.
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the live performing arts in Australia: performed, written or produced by Australians.
The Martians are an Edinburgh, Scotland based rock band, consisting of brothers John, Gerry and James Kielty. Their musical The Sundowe won the Scottish "Highland Quest For A New Musical" competition in July 2006. It was then produced by Cameron Mackintosh as a full stage musical, with the world premiere in November 2007 at the new Eden Court theatre Inverness, Scotland. Following a three-week run at Eden Court it toured the Scottish Highlands in January and February 2008.
Charles Matthew Egerton Hazlewood is a British conductor. After winning the European Broadcasting Union conducting competition in 1995 whilst still in his twenties, Hazlewood has had a career as an international conductor, music director of film and theatre, composer and a curator of music on British radio and television, Motivational Speaker and founder of Paraorchestra – the world's first integrated ensemble of disabled and non-disabled musicians. He was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in May 2019 and became Sky Arts' Ambassador for Music in January 2021. In 2023 Hazlewood was recognised for his 'outstanding contribution to the musical life of the UK' when awarded the Sir Charles Groves Prize by music charity Making Music.
David Reed is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is one third of comedy troupe The Penny Dreadfuls.
Hugh Alexander “Sandy” MacIntyre (1935–2021) was one of the most respected artists in the tradition of Cape Breton fiddle music.
Martin White is an English musician, comedian and animator. As well as performing solo with an accordion around the London comedy circuit, White also fronts the Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra and the Karaoke Circus live bands. He performs jingles regularly in the comedy podcast Answer Me This!.
Mikey Georgeson is an English artist, working in various media. He is a painter and illustrator, who regularly exhibits his work at Sartorial Contemporary Art and other galleries. As "the Vessel", he is songwriter and singer of the cult art-rock band, David Devant and his Spirit Wife. Side projects have included Carfax, a collaboration with Jyoti Mishra, Glam Chops, a glam rock band formed with Eddie Argos of Art Brut, This Happy Band and Mikey Georgeson and the Civilised Scene. Georgeson has also performed and recorded on his own, as Mr Solo. Peter Kimpton, writing in The Guardian praised Georgeson's "impish genius for melody". Ashley Hames, in the Huffington Post, described Georgeson as 'an original British songwriter of lasting quality. He remains a presence somehow transcendent and other-worldly, bringing us songs that seem to have always existed, holding up the mirror to connect us to something we can truly love.'
Jonathan David Klein known professionally as Jon Klein and sometimes as John Kline, is an English guitarist and producer, best known for being a member of Siouxsie and the Banshees for seven years, from 1987 until 1994. Klein has worked for other artists including Talvin Singh and Sinéad O'Connor. More recently he has worked as a co-producer and guitarist with Fangoria, Space Tribe, ESP, Shriekback, Micko and the Mellotronics and Jah Wobble.
The Getaway World Tour was a concert tour by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers that was in support of their eleventh studio album, The Getaway which was released on June 17, 2016. It marked the first time since June 2014 that the band has toured. The tour began with benefit shows and North American festival dates in February 2016 followed by a summer festival tour with dates in Europe, Asia and North America starting in May 2016 and ending in August 2016. The headlining tour to support the album began in Europe in September 2016 and lasted until the end of the year with the North American tour beginning in January 2017 and concluded in July 2017. Another European leg and dates in South America followed along with rescheduled shows and festival dates in North America in October 2017 to wrap up the tour. The band had festival dates in March 2018 for South America but they were not considered part of this tour. It was also the band's last tour with their guitarist Josh Klinghoffer before his departure from the band in late December 2019, as their previous guitarist John Frusciante rejoined the group at that time.
Wesli is the stage name of Wesley Louissaint, a Haitian Canadian Singer-songwriter, guitarist and a record producer. He is most noted for winning the Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2019 for his album Rapadou Kreyol.