In A House With Unlocked Doors… Part twenty-eight

In a House With Unlocked Doors… Part twenty-eight

Foxboro

By Sharon Mitchell

After the December 2007 appearance of this new side project, first three, then another three songs were posted on MySpace. It took a little time and a lot of pressure, but in May of 2008, the album “Stop, Drop and Roll” was issued, both on cd and vinyl.

The artwork was by Frustrators’ vocalist Jason Chandler, and he put a lot of detail into the album and single. He designed the cd to look like an old vinyl record to fit in with the 1960s feel of the music, even adding ‘scuff marks’ to the cd cover to make it look as if it had been around for a long time.

On the back, he was not given a mention in the credits, and so he added his name in a very sneaky way – in Morse code, along the bottom of the sleeve.

The UK cd came with just a card wallet, but the American issue even has the paper sleeve to make it more vinyl-like. When the 12” record was released, it had a cd inside for those without a turntable.

The single chosen from the album was Mother Mary, and again Jason was asked to design the cover. He produced a choice of images for the band and they went with the dancing girls, very much in the same vein as the cover of Stop, Drop and Roll, but another design interpreted the lyrics more literally – “Let’s hang this love from the gallows.”.

I love this image, so much that I actually prefer it to the one Billie and co. chose – not least of all because the image was given to me as a 50th birthday present. I had it printed out at the correct size for a vinyl single, on canvas, and it has hung on the wall in Longview since May 2009 for any visitor here to see. At the same time, Jason gave me the original labels for the 12”, featuring Highway 1, which was later added as the B side to Mother Mary, and replaced on the album by Broadway.

A little while after its release, Mother Mary was reissued, this time in a limited edition numbered sleeve.

I have a few of those, because the release coincided with my birthday and lots of friends had the same idea! I also have a few of the original release, both American and European versions – the difference being that they sleeve opens either on top or on the side, and the single has the small central hole for us, and a large one for the USA – to make them usable in juke boxes.

As usually happens, the album was released in Japan, and the cd had some nice bonus items – a lyric sheet, which was not included at all in the English versions, and a full colour sticker of the album cover. I also own a promo of both single and album, which came with a press release admitting that this was indeed Green Day by another name.

Foxboro also performed a few live shows, including a ‘world tour’ which took them to three or four US states only! One of my favourite t-shirts is the tour tee from these shows. I also have a few of the posters, some very limited edition, and all of them very precious.

I loved the Foxboro era, but I feel we will never see The Reverend on stage again. A lot of the Trilogy has a strong Foxies feel to it, and so there is little need for this particular side project. For example, Fuck Time was only ever performed at Foxboro shows, and yet it has been included in ¡DOS!