Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Foz Foster

FOZ FOSTER

James 'Foz' Foster (1960-) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the lead guitarist in the art-rock band, David Devant and his Spirit Wife, and the 1983-5 incarnation of The Monochrome Set. Foster also plays guitar, musical saw and vibraslap in the house band of Karaoke Circus and ocasional 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.

MONOCHROME SET

Foster grew up in Pimlico, West London. His first band in which he played lead guitar, was the short-lived Los Apachés. In 1983, he joined the Monochrome Set following the departure of 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.' 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 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 most commercial-sounding records released by the Monochrome Set, sales were disappointing, and the band split up.

DAVID DEVANT AND HIS SPIRIT WIFE

After moving to Brighton, Foster met the artist and songwriter, Mikey Georgeson and, at the beginning of the 90s, they formed David Devant and his Spirit Wife. All the band adopted stage names, with Georgeson as the Vessel on vocals and guitar, Professor Rimschott (Graham Carlow) on drums, the Colonel (Jem Egerton) on bass, and Foster becoming 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....Long may they do their strange thing.' . The theatricality of an early Devant show was captured in the video for their debut single, Pimlico.

In 1997, the band released their first 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 along with the concept of what makes a pop band. Their act isn't just a gimmick.'

Although Foster left the band in the late 90s, 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.

FOSTER AND GILVAN

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.

SAWCHESTRA

In 2008, Foster, Sara Passmore and Andrew Page created Sawchestra, a collective of musicians playing saws and other instruments. Their first performance, ‘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 wearing 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 in Hackney Wick. Foster's next soundtrack was for the 1926 horror, Der Golem, which Sawchestra performed at the Apollo Theatre, Piccadilly, as part of the 2011 London Sci-Fi Festival. Wired Magazine, 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.'

KARAOKE CIRCUS

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, comedian, Dave Gorman, wrote on 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.'