Keeping Some Dark Secrets

For those of you who don’t obsessively sit and wait for Johnny Foreigner to update one of its multitude of web presences, we direct you to the following remark: “imagine, right, if you were in a band, and you did some kind of ZANY preorder scheme for yr next 7″ single. and imagine it was waaaay more successful than you thought. would you feel obliged to upgrade to say, 10″?” This is curious, as a recent missive sent by Johnny Foreigner’s label Best Before Records — which we’ve all been told is only releasing the digital version of the band’s forthcoming single for “Every Cloakroom Ever” due in digital storefronts Monday (!!!!) — stated that the vinyl issue of the single was limited to 300 copies. Is it possible they’ve already sold out of the edition in pre-orders? Either way, the prospect of upgrading the release to a 10″ (Lewes has got to fit all those names on the art, yeh?) is exciting, although we imagine such an increase comes with a commensurate increase in cost to the band to produce the vinyl. Don’t forget to make a profit guys!

The other exciting bit: we’ve followed Johnny Foreigner closely for almost exactly three years, and in all that time we’ve never seen the most basic question answered: what was the inspiration for the band name? Well, Alexei offers the answer to that question and many more in a very information interview recently given to South African web publication Mahala.co.za; here is the link — highly recommended. Alexei offers other insight, such as: 1) the inspiration for Johnny Foreigner’s South African tour was a vacation drummer Junior spent there; 2) Junior has increased his song-writing input for the band; 3) and apparently none of the band members’ parents have seen the band play. Which from an insatiable fan’s perspective seems really sad. Anyway, Johnny Foreigner is wrapping a short U.K. tour Tuesday night in London at KCSLU, and then the band is off to fulfill its commitments to its burgeoning South African fanbase. Our standard request applies: please shoot video! Please post the video to YouTube or Vimeo or somewhere where we can see it! Those South African tour dates again (and updated since our item of 15 January):

02.13 — The Assembly — Cape Town
02.17 — Klein Libertas Theatre — Stellenbosch
02.19 — Hotbox Studios — Pretoria
02.20 — Roxy’s — Johannesburg
02.26 — RAMFEST — Worcester

Filed under: Johnny Foreigner by Jay