Foals play secret show at venue 'where we started'

Hundreds of fans were left outside due to demand to see Foals' secret gig in Oxford last night (January 27).

Having pre-sold only 100 tickets, many fans queued for hours hoping to get into The Cellar for the show. However, much to the agitation of the band, the venue, which usually holds 200, only allowed 50 more fans in.

This left lots of disappointed fans, many of whom had travelled from Warwick for the show, outside in the cold.

Dissapointed with the situation, frontman Yannis Philippakis was prepared to go out into the crowd to apologise to fans for their wasted journeys, telling NME.COM: “I’m sure the gig will still be fun and stuff but I just feel bad that there’s so many people waiting.”

Fortunately though, by the time Foals took to the stage just after 11pm, those fans that did make it inside ensured there was a suitably triumphant atmosphere as the band played a set of 10 songs from 11pm to midnight, kicking off the show with ’The French Open’.

Following 'Cassius', Philippakis showed his appreciation for the crowd’s pains as they waited outside.

“Thank you to everyone for waiting in the cold - I know it’s our fault,” he declared before introducing the first new track from their forthcoming album ’Antidotes’: “Here’s a new one - it’s called ’Olympic Airways’ and is found on the coming LP - it’s about the state of Greek airlines!”

Philippakis later dedicated a cover of Nirvana track 'Tourette's' to actor Heath Ledger, who died last week.

Drawing the secret show to a close, Foals left the audience with 'Red Socks Pugie', the band’s “favourite new song” before they ended with 2007 single 'Mathletics'.

Foals played:

'The French Open'
'Cassius'
'Olympic Airways'
'Balloons'
'Heavy Water'
'Two Steps Twice'
'Hummer'
'Tourette's'
'Red Socks Pugie'
'Mathletics'

For more reports of from the Oxford scene check out of NME.COM’s music blog filed straight from the city.