Fosca
Encyclopedia
Fosca was a British
band, combining indie pop
songwriting with synth pop instrumentation. They released a total of three studio albums between 2000-2008. The band was named after the protagonist in Stephen Sondheim's
Passion
based upon the translation of Lawrence Venuti
of the novel Fosca by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti
, 1869.
side project by Dickon Edwards
, then concurrently the guitarist and lyricist for the Romo
band Orlando
, together with Orlando's live drummer David Gray and a bass player named Peter Theobalds
. Edwards recruited laddish lead vocalist Sav in what he would later describe as "an experiment of the Laddish Lion lying down with the Limp-wristed Lamb.". This line-up performed five concerts between September 1997 and February 1998 - the first two predating Dickon's final appearance with Orlando, which he left to concentrate on Fosca. The final concert featured Charley Stone as guest guitarist.
They also recorded four tracks for a putative EP, one of which, The Leopard Of Lime Street would, later in 1998, feature on a volume of the sampler album series "Snakebite City" on Bluefire Records. In February 1998, Dickon removed Sav from the band as he felt the singer, "through not being an immediately apparent misfit, with consummate irony didn’t fit in Fosca." Initially, David Barnett, the future Suede
biographer auditioned to replace Sav, however by April 1998 Theobalds and Gray had drifted away to a new band Akercocke
, while Stone was otherwise committed to the band Gay Dad
.
After several months of inactivity, a new version of Fosca debuted on Friday September 25, 1998 at Queeruption
in London. From this point forward, Dickon himself became the frontman for the band. For the first show, the band included seven members, while the next, on New Year's Eve 1998, featured only three. In early 1999, Fosca made their first attempt at recording debut album On Earth To Make The Numbers Up
at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith
, London
. This was eventually aborted after the budget ran out and one track, Storytelling Johnny was accidentally wiped by the DAT recording machine. However, one track from these sessions, File Under Forsaken, would later be released as the lead track for Fosca's debut single Nervous, London
along with two additional tracks featuring Rachel Stevenson on folk-style lead vocals.
The remaining eight songs for the album were rerecorded in 2000 with a new synth-based sound not dissimilar to that of Orlando, and released, still under the title On Earth To Make The Numbers Up
, and preceded by the single The Agony Without The Ecstacy
on Shinkansen Recordings (an offshoot of Sarah Records
who in early 1995 had released the Reproduction Is Pollution EP by Orlando under the alternative name Shelley). By this time, the band had stabilized into Dickon Edwards on vocals and guitar, Rachel Stevenson on keyboards and vocals, Alex Sharkey also on keyboards and vocals and Sheila B on cello. In 2001 the band released Supine On The Astroturf
as the first single from their second album. By the time follow-up single Secret Crush On Third Trombone
and the parent album Diary Of An Antibody
were recorded and released in 2002, Sharkey had been replaced by Kate Dornan, formerly the editor of Orlando website Orlando Magichttp://pulpfreak.tripod.com/
After a gap of some six years due to the collapse of Shinkansen, Fosca signed with the Swedish independent record label But Is It Art?http://www.butisitart.org, on which they released a live album in 2007, followed by their third studio album The Painted Side of the Rocket
in Sweden on March 5, 2008. UK release on April 28. The label also released a book of Dickon's lyrics for Fosca and Orlando,The Portable Dickon Edwards. Lyrics and Other Alibis 1993-2008. By then, the current line up was Dickon Edwards on vocals and guitar, Rachel Stevenson on keyboards and vocals, Kate Dornan on keyboards and vocals, Tom Edwards on guitar and former member Charley Stone performing live on guitar. A further single, The Man I'm Not Today/My Diogenes Heart was released later in 2008. Dickon disbanded Fosca in March 2009 with the final concert being at Klubb Republik in Norrköping, Sweden on 14 March.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
band, combining indie pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
songwriting with synth pop instrumentation. They released a total of three studio albums between 2000-2008. The band was named after the protagonist in Stephen Sondheim's
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
Passion
Passion (musical)
Passion is a musical adapted from Ettore Scola's film Passione d'Amore . The book is by James Lapine, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Central subjects include obsession, beauty, power, manipulation, passion, illness, and love...
based upon the translation of Lawrence Venuti
Lawrence Venuti
Lawrence Venuti , American translation theorist, translation historian and translator from Italian, French, and Catalan.-Career:...
of the novel Fosca by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti
Iginio Ugo Tarchetti
Ugo Iginio Tarchetti was an Italian author, poet, and journalist.Born in San Salvatore Monferrato, his military career was cut short by ill health, and in 1865 he settled in Milan. Here he entered literary study, becoming part of the Scapigliatura, a literary movement animated by a spirit of...
, 1869.
History
The original version of Fosca was founded in the summer of 1997 as a hard rockHard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
side project by Dickon Edwards
Dickon Edwards
Dickon Edwards is a London-based indie pop musician, writer, critic, DJ and online diarist. Although his parents named him Richard Edwards, they also chose to call him by the archaic derivative of Richard, "Dickon"...
, then concurrently the guitarist and lyricist for the Romo
Romo
Romantic Modernism, more commonly known as Romo, was a musical and clubbing movement, of Glam/style pop lineage, in the UK circa 1995–1997, centred around the twin homes of Camden-based clubnight Club Skinny and its West End clone Arcadia, as well as concerts by the chief associated bands.The Romo...
band Orlando
Orlando (band)
Orlando was the most successful and visible band to emerge from the extremely brief Romo movement of the mid-'90s. Formed from the ashes of Sarah Records band Shelley, Orlando were led by lyricist/guitarist Dickon Edwards, and singer/songwriter Tim Chipping...
, together with Orlando's live drummer David Gray and a bass player named Peter Theobalds
Peter Theobalds
Peter Theobalds is an English born musician and artist. He was originally guitarist for a multitude of underground bands including Xerox Girls , Photographing Girls , Three Days By Camel , Salem Orchid and eventually turned bassist with indie...
. Edwards recruited laddish lead vocalist Sav in what he would later describe as "an experiment of the Laddish Lion lying down with the Limp-wristed Lamb.". This line-up performed five concerts between September 1997 and February 1998 - the first two predating Dickon's final appearance with Orlando, which he left to concentrate on Fosca. The final concert featured Charley Stone as guest guitarist.
They also recorded four tracks for a putative EP, one of which, The Leopard Of Lime Street would, later in 1998, feature on a volume of the sampler album series "Snakebite City" on Bluefire Records. In February 1998, Dickon removed Sav from the band as he felt the singer, "through not being an immediately apparent misfit, with consummate irony didn’t fit in Fosca." Initially, David Barnett, the future Suede
Suede (band)
Suede are an English alternative rock band from London, formed in 1989. The group's most prominent early line-up featured singer Brett Anderson, guitarist Bernard Butler, bass player Mat Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert. By 1992, Suede were hailed as "The Best New Band in Britain", and attracted...
biographer auditioned to replace Sav, however by April 1998 Theobalds and Gray had drifted away to a new band Akercocke
Akercocke
Akercocke is an English progressive blackened death metal band from London, England. They take their name from a talking monkey in Robert Nye's interpretation of the Faust-legend, and are notable for their heavily Satanic and sexual lyrical content....
, while Stone was otherwise committed to the band Gay Dad
Gay Dad
In 2001 the leading single from Transmission - "Now Always and Forever" - was released. It fell just short of the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. An extensive UK tour was followed by a limited edition single "Harder, Faster". The third single "Transmission" was released just before the album came...
.
After several months of inactivity, a new version of Fosca debuted on Friday September 25, 1998 at Queeruption
Queeruption
Queeruption is an annual international Queercore festival and gathering where alternative/radical/disenfranchised queers can exchange information, network, organize, inspire and get inspired, self-represent, and challenge mainstream society with DIY ideas and ethics...
in London. From this point forward, Dickon himself became the frontman for the band. For the first show, the band included seven members, while the next, on New Year's Eve 1998, featured only three. In early 1999, Fosca made their first attempt at recording debut album On Earth To Make The Numbers Up
On Earth to Make the Numbers Up
On Earth to Make the Numbers Up is the debut album by the English indie pop band Fosca. It was released on October 2, 2000.-Track listing:# "The Agony Without the Ecstasy" - 2:55# "It's Going to End in Tears " - 5:57...
at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. This was eventually aborted after the budget ran out and one track, Storytelling Johnny was accidentally wiped by the DAT recording machine. However, one track from these sessions, File Under Forsaken, would later be released as the lead track for Fosca's debut single Nervous, London
Nervous, London
-Personnel:*Dickon Edwards *Rachel Stevenson *Sheila B...
along with two additional tracks featuring Rachel Stevenson on folk-style lead vocals.
The remaining eight songs for the album were rerecorded in 2000 with a new synth-based sound not dissimilar to that of Orlando, and released, still under the title On Earth To Make The Numbers Up
On Earth to Make the Numbers Up
On Earth to Make the Numbers Up is the debut album by the English indie pop band Fosca. It was released on October 2, 2000.-Track listing:# "The Agony Without the Ecstasy" - 2:55# "It's Going to End in Tears " - 5:57...
, and preceded by the single The Agony Without The Ecstacy
The Agony Without the Ecstasy
-Track listing:# "The Agony Without the Ecstasy" - 2:54# "Confused and Proud" - 5:23# "Weightless" - 5:41-Personnel:*Dickon Edwards *Rachel Stevenson *Alex Sharkey *Sheila B...
on Shinkansen Recordings (an offshoot of Sarah Records
Sarah Records
Sarah Records was a UK independent record label active between 1987 and 1995, best known for its recordings of indie pop.The label was formed in Bristol in 1987 by Clare Wadd and Matt Haynes, and grew out of the fanzine scene at the time, Haynes having previously edited Are You Scared To Get...
who in early 1995 had released the Reproduction Is Pollution EP by Orlando under the alternative name Shelley). By this time, the band had stabilized into Dickon Edwards on vocals and guitar, Rachel Stevenson on keyboards and vocals, Alex Sharkey also on keyboards and vocals and Sheila B on cello. In 2001 the band released Supine On The Astroturf
Supine on the Astroturf
-Track listing:# "Supine on the Astroturf" - 3:40# "Square in the Social Circle" - 2:54# "My Body Isn't Me" - 3:42-Personnel:*Dickon Edwards *Rachel Stevenson *Alex Sharkey *Sheila B...
as the first single from their second album. By the time follow-up single Secret Crush On Third Trombone
Secret Crush on the Third Trombone
-Track listing:# "Secret Crush on the Third Trombone"# "Diary of an Antibody: Entries 1-22"# "Diary of an Antibody: Entries 23-30"-Personnel:*Dickon Edwards *Rachel Stevenson *Kate Dornan...
and the parent album Diary Of An Antibody
Diary of an Antibody
Diary of an Antibody is the second album by the English indie pop band Fosca. It was released on August 12, 2002.-Track listing:# "Secret Crush on the Third Trombone" - 2:35# "Idiot Savant" - 2:14# "The Director's Cut" - 3:02...
were recorded and released in 2002, Sharkey had been replaced by Kate Dornan, formerly the editor of Orlando website Orlando Magichttp://pulpfreak.tripod.com/
After a gap of some six years due to the collapse of Shinkansen, Fosca signed with the Swedish independent record label But Is It Art?http://www.butisitart.org, on which they released a live album in 2007, followed by their third studio album The Painted Side of the Rocket
The Painted Side of the Rocket
The Painted Side of the Rocket is the third album by the English indie pop band Fosca. It was released on March 5, 2008.-Track listing:# "I've Agreed to Something I Shouldn't Have" - 4:15# "It Only Matters to Those to Whom It Matters" - 3:23...
in Sweden on March 5, 2008. UK release on April 28. The label also released a book of Dickon's lyrics for Fosca and Orlando,The Portable Dickon Edwards. Lyrics and Other Alibis 1993-2008. By then, the current line up was Dickon Edwards on vocals and guitar, Rachel Stevenson on keyboards and vocals, Kate Dornan on keyboards and vocals, Tom Edwards on guitar and former member Charley Stone performing live on guitar. A further single, The Man I'm Not Today/My Diogenes Heart was released later in 2008. Dickon disbanded Fosca in March 2009 with the final concert being at Klubb Republik in Norrköping, Sweden on 14 March.
Studio albums
- The Painted Side of the RocketThe Painted Side of the RocketThe Painted Side of the Rocket is the third album by the English indie pop band Fosca. It was released on March 5, 2008.-Track listing:# "I've Agreed to Something I Shouldn't Have" - 4:15# "It Only Matters to Those to Whom It Matters" - 3:23...
(2008) - Diary of an AntibodyDiary of an AntibodyDiary of an Antibody is the second album by the English indie pop band Fosca. It was released on August 12, 2002.-Track listing:# "Secret Crush on the Third Trombone" - 2:35# "Idiot Savant" - 2:14# "The Director's Cut" - 3:02...
( 2002 ) - On Earth to Make the Numbers UpOn Earth to Make the Numbers UpOn Earth to Make the Numbers Up is the debut album by the English indie pop band Fosca. It was released on October 2, 2000.-Track listing:# "The Agony Without the Ecstasy" - 2:55# "It's Going to End in Tears " - 5:57...
(2000)
EPs
- The Man I'm Not Today (2008)
- Secret Crush On Third TromboneSecret Crush on the Third Trombone-Track listing:# "Secret Crush on the Third Trombone"# "Diary of an Antibody: Entries 1-22"# "Diary of an Antibody: Entries 23-30"-Personnel:*Dickon Edwards *Rachel Stevenson *Kate Dornan...
(2002) - Supine on the AstroturfSupine on the Astroturf-Track listing:# "Supine on the Astroturf" - 3:40# "Square in the Social Circle" - 2:54# "My Body Isn't Me" - 3:42-Personnel:*Dickon Edwards *Rachel Stevenson *Alex Sharkey *Sheila B...
(2001) - The Agony Without the EcstasyThe Agony Without the Ecstasy-Track listing:# "The Agony Without the Ecstasy" - 2:54# "Confused and Proud" - 5:23# "Weightless" - 5:41-Personnel:*Dickon Edwards *Rachel Stevenson *Alex Sharkey *Sheila B...
(2000) - Nervous, LondonNervous, London-Personnel:*Dickon Edwards *Rachel Stevenson *Sheila B...
(1999)