Fosca Biography

Based in London and Worthing, Fosca is a foursome formed by Dickon Angel (aka Richard Dickon Edwards, lead vocal, lyrics, some guitar) after spending some years in the group Orlando, who released several singles - including one under the name Shelley (Reproduction Is Pollution, Sarah Records, 1995) - and an album, Passive Soul (Blanco Y Negro, 1997). His previous adventures also include modelling at various "unusual" fashion shows, playing guitar for the band Spearmint, and keeping an almost notorious Internet Diary ("Website of the Month", Select Magazine, 1999).

After leaving Orlando in 1998, Dickon experimented with the Fosca name via several line-ups, lead vocalists and musical directions, playing a handful of London shows and releasing a self-produced EP along the way (the Galaxie 500-bothering Nervous, London (Something Velvet, November 1999), before realising two things: (a) that he needed a musical collaborator for guidance and direction, and (b) that he should take the lead vocal duties himself in the interests of Lyrical Truth.

Fosca Line-Up
Rachel, Alex, Dickon, Sheila
[photo © Nic Goodchild]

photo © David Hill

The former he found in February 2000: Alex Sharkey (guitars, bass, keyboards, programming, backing vocals). Alex's own history includes the groups Brighter (several singles and an album on Sarah Records in the early 1990s) and Hal (one single, Vinyl Japan, 1994). Dickon cites Brighter's Christmas (from their Laurel album) as one of his favourite tracks of all time, and when Alex wrote and suggested they tried making pop music together, he leapt at the chance.

Fosca was completed with the invaluable presence of two players who had both appeared on Nervous, London and at various pre-Alex Fosca shows. One was Rachel Stevenson (synth, backing vocals, band organising), who'd first met Dickon in the audience at a gig - a show by Brighter, in fact - and the other Sheila B (cellos, rehearsal space), a Londoner friend of Rachel's and member of a 1960s-style dance troupe. This permanent version of Fosca made its live debut in March supporting Trembling Blue Stars at London's Spitz Club.

April was spent recording an album, On Earth To Make The Numbers Up, with producer Ian Catt, whose previous credits include Saint Etienne, Kylie Minogue, Trembling Blue Stars and Shampoo. A single, The Agony Without The Ecstasy, was released on Shinkansen in June, and the album followed at the start of October.

At the start of 2001, Fosca began work on their second album, Diary Of An Antibody, again with Ian Catt. Due to various delays in the recording, an EP featuring the first three songs from the sessions was released in October, with Supine On The Astroturf as the lead track.

The band played a short tour of France with Trembling Blue Stars in April, and played the farwell Benno festival in Sweden in July. The band are currently hugely popular in Sweden - they've appeared on the front covers of fanzines, and Dickon has been interviewed by national radio - and they'll be returning there in mid-October for a 4-date tour. This tour will also see the debut of new recruit Kate Dornan on keyboards, as Alex has decided he no longer wished to play live.

FOSCA ON FOSCA
[by Dickon, Rachel, Alex, Sheila]

Fosca are a co-operative of reprobates creating sinister misfit melodies. Fosca are driven souls. Fosca are nervous and shy, but defiant and sly. Fosca are pro-style and anti-fashion. Fosca are solipsistic and selfish, but in a good way. Fosca are anti-social and sporadically reclusive and elusive. Fosca like to make dysfunctional dance music with one hand and coruscating chamber pop with the other. Fosca are coldly serious. Fosca never have their tongues in their cheeks. Fosca prefer to have their tongues in others' cheeks. Fosca are svelte, rootless and fearless. Fosca are slinky pseudo-sophisticates. Fosca are stroppy and cute. Fosca are wanted dead by Bald Shouting Men. They kill Fosca's kind for their thick pelts.

A few of Fosca's favourite things are the A272, the M62, Pretty In Pink, Virginia Woolf, chocolate, sleep, eyeliner, suits, Queens Park Rangers, cats, early Aztec Camera and Primal Scream, cocktails, Crete, London, Brighton, Philip Larkin, short haircuts, British gangster films, the films of Powell and Pressburger, beauty, passivity, Abba, Midnight Cowboy, Oval tube station, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Jeffrey Bernard, Francis Bacon, Nancy Mitford, Liquid Sky, Brighton Rock, Jude Law, and 70s Lou Reed.

For recent developments and Dickon, Kate and Rachel's Diaries, visit the Fosca web-site