WHILE Foy Vance has been one of the north’s most acclaimed musical exports for the best part of 20 years now, there are still some venues closer to home that the Co Down-born singer-songwriter hasn’t played yet - like the main theatre at Belfast’s Grand Opera House.
However, that’s about to change: November will see the Bangor-bred troubadour playing a run of six special You & I shows - named for his fan favourite co-write/duet with Bonnie Raitt - at the historic Great Victoria Street venue.
In another first for Vance, the shows will be ‘all-request’ based affairs featuring songs chosen by the audience.
“I’ll be requesting a few myself,” admits the Aberfeldy-based Vance, who has already been canvassing his fanbase for setlist suggestions on social media, “but I’m just gonna go and play whatever gets shouted out as much as I possibly can.”
The people have spoken… Well, the people are about to speak!
— Foy Vance (@foyvance) June 3, 2024
Head to the link in my bio to submit your desires for my request set at the You & I Shows. Send me what songs you’d like me to play or what song you’d like to hear a story about and why. pic.twitter.com/V4YpM3t6pK
With six albums under his belt at this stage, including his most recent release Signs of Life (2019), that could be a tall order in terms of being put on the spot to remember songs that might not have been aired live for a few tours - or perhaps ever.
However, it seems Vance is looking forward to the challenge of attempting to conjure up whichever one of his tunes is requested across this run of special shows, which find him being backed up by some of the north’s up and coming comedy talents as the opening act.
“If it means I need to get my daughter to go and Google it for me first, I’ll just play another couple of songs and then we’ll figure it out,” he chuckles.
“Being that they’re curating the the set, essentially, if it’s a bad night then it’s all their fault.”
One number likely to be fresher in Vance’s mind is A Beautiful Game, which was written for the final episode of Apple TV+’s hit show Ted Lasso.
A specially commissioned co-write with his friend Ed Sheeran, who signed Vance to his Gingerbread Man record label in 2015, and Swedish producer/songwriter Max Martin, this stirring, Sheeran-sung anthem secured the trio an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics back in January - much to Vance’s shock on the night of the awards ceremony itself.
“I was genuinely caught off guard,” admits the singer-songwriter, who has been getting some practice playing songs from his back catalogue at recent shows celebrating his 2019 debut Hope and its 2013 follow-up, The Joy of Nothing.
Oh the joy of nothing... Is a sweeter something and I will be heading across Europe to see you in about a month from now.
— Foy Vance (@foyvance) September 13, 2024
Grab yours at the link below!https://t.co/fcjGqpHpGT pic.twitter.com/M00cOMIC1O
“They were giving us instructions at the start of the night and were like, ‘For those of you that know you’re going to win, we’ve already run through this with you - but for those of you that don’t, here’s what to do’. That’s when I realised, ‘Oh, so some people already know they’re gonna win’.
“The guy sitting next to me was up for the same award. They seemed to know everyone else who was winning, giving them the thumbs-up and all this. And they were sitting on the end of the row too.
“So I was thinking, ‘Ah, we’ve lost this’, and was just having a good night. Me and Bonnie [Raitt] were there having the craic. She was saying, ‘I think you’re going to win this’, but I was like, ‘Nah, definitely not’. So I was absolutely shocked.”
As mentioned, A Beautiful Game was written specifically for the final episode of the football themed comedy/drama starring Jason Sudekis, to a ‘brief’ supplied to Vance and co by the Ted Lasso producers and its music supervisor, Tony Von Pervieux.
“The brief was hilarious,” recalls Vance, who is currently working on songs for a new album to be released next year.
“‘A modern day anthem for the ages’ was one of them, and ‘a modern day Bohemian Rhapsody was another one’. I was like, ‘Yeah, here, listen: let me just finish making this ham sandwich and then I’ll knock that out for you, shall I?’
“The music supervisor, Tony, and a guy at the publishing company I used to be with, Marty, they pitched it to me, and then I spoke to Ed. Before I’d even told him the name of the show, he was like, ‘is it Ted Lasso?’
“I’d never even heard of it, but it was Ed’s favourite show. He was watching it religiously, so he was like, ‘Let’s go - let’s do this’.
“The three of us got together for a couple of days to write it: I’d say we wrote that song within the first 20 minutes of getting the guitars out. I was like, ‘Shoot, should we write another one, just in case?’ But Ed was like, ‘nah’.
“So we recorded A Beautiful Game, put it on the hard drive, and then spent the rest of the next two days writing other songs.”
When asked about the decision to invite local comedians like Dave Elliott and Shane Todd to open for him at his upcoming Grand Opera House shows, Vance explains that he has a longstanding fascination with stand-up comedians - and pugilists.
“If I’m asked about ‘What’s inspiring you at the minute?’ I wouldn’t go straight to music. I think it’s more comedians and fighters,” he reveals.
“Comedians are putting their livelihoods on the line if they were to kind of say something controversial ‘in the moment’, especially in a day and age like this. And fighters are putting their lives on the line testing how well they know their art against how well the other fighter knows theirs.
“That’s kind of a frightening concept, isn’t it? There’s kind of a lot to be inspired by in that. There’s something about even the desire to want to do that that inspires me.”
Vance will tick off another ‘career first’ next week when he’s interviewed live on stage during Bangor’s Aspects Festival at a special ‘in conversation’ event hosted by BBC Radio Ulster broadcaster and Irish News columnist Ralph McLean.
“I’ll need to think of something interesting to say,” he tells me of this already sold-out event at Studio 1A.
“If I’m actually honest with all my answers, it’ll be a pretty boring night.”
Somehow, we doubt that.
