Foy Vance, with Bonnie Bishop – One Ninetyfour, Piccadilly – 04/03/26
“Then, the dog spoke just as I got close
But it’s what he said that surprised me most
‘I’m the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost,
And I ain’t sold on time.’”
“It’s been too long,” said Foy Vance, beer in one hand, acoustic guitar in the other, his twisted handlebars like antennae above his grin. In the basement of an overpriced bar in Central London, Foy was ready to bring his latest album, The Wake, to an audience of what couldn’t have been more than a couple hundred; the audience, responding with maddened whoops, were evidently ready too.
Without delay, he headed straight for a keyboard and started on ‘I Think I Preferred The Question’. It was an odyssean opening, a track whose chorus Foy belted, the tendons of his neck flexed like a lizard ready to spit. Throughout the next two songs – ‘Closed Hand, Full Of Friends’ and ‘Fiberoptic Love’, his voice filled the room’s every crevice, every wrinkle, every grouting on the green tiles behind the stage. His face was scrunched with an impassioned zeal, a prophet on a street corner. I half-wondered if he would every touch the three guitars set up on his right.
Before we get to the guitars, however, can I confess an irk? How can you be an adult, a proper adult too, like 40+ years of age, and not understand audience etiquette? A man’s phone went off twice during the set. A woman just down from me, as a song reached its emotional climax in the low light, started filming Foy with her flash on, realised her flash was on, sat down to change it, and started filming again with her flash on. The person directly beside me kept trying to start a clap-along during some of the jauntier songs – and some of the not-so-jaunty ones – and, when it didn’t catch on, kept loudly complaining with a thick twang that she’d never have this problem ‘in the South’. Plenty of other audience members were shouting things at Foy in the second half of the set, too. Harmless, perhaps, but a man is bearing his soul on stage and you’re treating him like a pantomime dame.
Anyway, Foy took to an acoustic and began with the Fogerty-inspired ‘Hi, I’m The Preacher’s Son’, before going to the falsetto-led ‘Call Me Anytime’, both of which were played with an intense intimacy, an insight into Foy’s private life that resonated throughout the room. Even when something went wrong, a string snapped during tuning or an input was loose, Foy’s warmth and humour kept the room focused.
The majority of the setlist derived from The Wake, but an unnamed, unreleased album recorded in November last year kept cropping up. These were a great insight into Foy as an artist, tireless and unrelenting, the tracks full of memories and hope and authenticity. Clapping and stomping did start, much to the delight of the person beside me, for songs like ‘I Ain’t Sold On Time’, and the mood was lifted once again as country singer Bonnie Bishop took to the stage to duet more unreleased tracks with Foy.
Strangely enough, it was one of these November songs that encapsulated The Wake most succinctly. For those who don’t know, Foy Vance’s father died in 1999. Foy woke up to hear of the death while playing a residency in Lanzarote, and over the next 26 years, he released seven albums to mourn his father, culminating in The Wake.
“The Wake was finished 26 years to the day my dad died,” said Foy. “I was driving home afterwards, and a feeling came over me. I was having a deeply creative outburst, or a manic episode. It was bizarre, like I’d been upgraded. I think I heard my dad singing a song over a celestial mountain.”
The song he wrote after this was called ‘Walking Towards The Light’, a rumination as powerful as it is optimistic. The room was silent during its performance, save for the clinking of ice in my ten-pounds-too-expensive whiskey. It was a profound spectacle, seeing someone accept loss through their music. When he finished his set a couple of songs later, Foy was received by his own words sang back at him, a hymnal chorus of worshippers. I imagine that’s better than applause.
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