JOBY FOX is a Belfast-born songwriter, musician and humanitarian who began his career in his teens as bassist of the post-punk band The Bankrobbers. Releasing their debut single on renowned local label Good Vibrations in 1982, they appeared on the TV show The Tube and were snapped up by EMI, issuing two further singles before splitting. Fox then co-founded Energy Orchard and wrote their first single and biggest hit, ‘Belfast’, which reached no 1 in Ireland and also charted in the UK.
Leaving Energy Orchard in 1991, Fox embarked on a new phase of his career that saw him acquire production and sound design skills and record a number of electronic songs for Sony. He has over the years worked with artists as diverse as Steve Earle and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. He also began dividing his time between Ireland and Denmark for family reasons – albeit with his roots remaining firmly planted in his homeland – and eventually embarked on a solo career in 2011 that has afforded him the opportunity to interpret his culture in new ways via international collaborations.
His first solo album, ‘End Of The War’ [2013] was described by The Irish News as “beautifully wrapped up for mass consumption, like an iron fist in a velvet glove”. Its release was accompanied by a short film entitled ‘Lost Commandos’ that challenged perceptions of identity in Northern Ireland and was chosen to open the inaugural UN Peace Festival in Hong Kong.
Its follow-up, ‘I Once Was A Hawk Now I’m A Dove’, has taken a full decade to appear, but Fox has been more than busy in the meantime. Taking a break from gigging in 2015, he was in Lesbos and witnessed the increasingly hazardous plight of refugees when a vessel capsized that resulted in dozens of unnecessary deaths. Deciding that more had to be done to help, he co-founded the organisation Refugee Rescue, receiving a boat donated by artist Jake Chapman and operated by a voluntary professional crew that has saved almost 20,000 lives in the Mediterranean.
In 2016 he also became involved with the Orchestre des Réfugiés et Amis as its musical director. Providing opportunities for musicians with Refugee or Asylum status in Northern Ireland to collaborate, it created a true global fusion and facilitated workshops and awareness sessions in schools and youth clubs that have challenged pre-conceived perceptions of refugees and migrants.
Support from Mari Dangerfield
Doors open 7.30pm. Music starts 8pm. The venue is mixed seated and standing. Tables are limited and available on a first come first served basis so, if you’d like a seat, we recommend arriving early!
