The King's Head Gig

Seton and Joe with Abe sitting in on drums



Santa's Boyfriend, now known as Fiction Plane, played King's Head on June 7, 2002. This was the show that officially bridged their transistion from Santa's BF to Fiction Plane. They had just signed with MCA records, but had yet to find a producer. Olly Taylor, their long time drummer, had just been let go for undisclosed reasons, so they played the gig without a drummer.
The King's Head set was for the most part a guitar/keyboard set, with Joe taking a turn at the drums on a few songs. ( Joe had played drums in Ignition several years ago).
David Kahne, a well known producer who had just finished working with Paul McCartney, happened to be in town (for Paul's wedding), with Paul's current drummer, Abe Laboreil, and bass player Brian May. Fiction Plane's manager gave him a call and the three of them came down to hear the band. Abe, who has also played with Sting in the past, sat in on drums for one of the songs.
Kahne was impressed with what he saw. "I liked the songs, the performance, and the attitude, " said Khane, adding that the performance was "intensely musical".
The band did some preproduction work with Kahne in London before heading out to LA to record their debut CD "Everything Will Never be OK". They came to the session with about 35 songs, 13 of which made it onto the cd ( be sure to listen for the secret song after Wise). Kahne said they recorded some additional songs to be used for B-sides and movies.
Fiction Plane is now touring in the States, where they are currently based. Their debut CD was released on March 11,2003 in the USA only, but fans outside of the US can be order the CD from Amazon.com and other online cd retailers.
MB 3/15/03

Review of King's Head gig:
London
6/07/02
Their new name is Fiction Plane. Joe started off the set by saying "We're Santa's Boyfriend, probably for the last time." I asked the keyboard player about Factory X and he said they couldn't use it because it was some other band's name or something.
The show was in a small bar/pub. There were about 35-40 people. The band did not have a drummer. I guess he got fired from the band.
Abe Laboreil was there. I talked to him for quite a while. He told me about the drummer getting fired. One other guy recognized him too and bought him beers all night. Abe is a great guy.
Abe sat in on one song for the band. Joe played drums on a few others. He also played keyboards on the opening song.
They only played ONE song from Swings and Roundabouts (Everything will never be ok). All the other songs were new. There was one called "Lies" and one called something like "Fuck you and fuck your cigarette."
Abe was great on the drums (even though it was a tiny little drum set).. Joe trashed the drum set at the end of the last song. They played for about an hour.
~ Maggie White


Photos from King's Head
London - June 7,2002
photos by Maggie White