Hi folks,


Here’s where we left last time:
The 3 last shows were a lot of fun. The first one took in place in suburban Paris, at Ivry. All Ihave to say is that it was a “cool” warm up. The most striking moment was when someone threw their knickers on stage. I was quite stunned, really. It was a first.
Sadly, I found out at the merch stand that it was a (dirty young )man who did it…Ok, he stole it from his girlfriend, who was with him at the show…Too bad, I ‘d already been thinking onstage about how I would tell the event on the blog, but it was a semi fraud… Now I know how Tom Jones feels…
The next day we were in Switzerland, with a brief stop at the customs, thanks again to the officers who had nothing better to do on a saturday evening than having us unload 1/3 of the van in the cold.
Let me break the news on the big secret behind this show: for personal reasons Pedro couldn’t make it, so we had to learn to play all his bass parts…the problem being that we didn’t find the time to rehearse. So, with a lot of courage and the help from a friend called Yann (who had practised the songs without a bass!), we took the stage of La case à chocs in Neuchatel, without Pedro. Glups. Only med & me were original members on stage for this gig. You could see it as a weird reformation for a band which didn’t actually split!
Julien was the first bass player of the show. 7/10. A few good moves, but he made a HUGE mistake on Soul Deep, forgetting the notes for the chorus.
Then it was my turn, 7,5/10. because I stopped playing on the bridge of Tune In (which is a shame, cos I had recorded it on the album), so no, let’s say 7/10. I did my best. I even tried “The Pedro Thing” which is to lift one finger in the air when you play a note at the bottom of the neck on All Around. Mederic told me it worked like crazy, anytime one of us performed that move.
Third bass player was Yann, 8/10, who took his job that seriously that he fucked up the intro of Big Day just like Pedro usually does (4 times out of 10). Thumbs up to the man, cos I asked to play the bass on Changes, 5 minutes before show time.
On the encores, we were joined by Raf on bass for Roundabout. 7/10. Crappy bass playing, but a few funny jumps, as if Pete Townsend was trying to take off of a wheelchair.
People enjoyed it, I think, anytime there was a bum note, we smiled and it worked.

(here’s Dream On here with Yann. courtesy of our Italian friend Fabio)


Then 2 days after that, Pedro was back for a free show in Paris. We gave him all the details, he seemed to be relieved that the show went well. The concert for the Chorus Festival was good, for a midday one. I was sweating after 2 songs, it really felt like a regular late show, except that it was alcohol free for us. My voice was tired, but I saved the furniture as we say here.

Time to sleep.

Love,

X

ps: see you next week for a DJ set at Le Motel (April 1st). more on this later.