12th
June 2006 - Zenith - Paris |
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It
seems we're not used to all these days off although you can't
argue with having one in the most beautiful city in the
world in my opinion even if some of us are shall we just say, moving
a little slowly. Richard, Danny, Stuart and myself dined out
last night
at an old
favourite
restaurant
'la
coupole'
on
the
boulevard
du
Montparnasse. Fresh
oysters, steaks with bernaise sauce Chablis Premier Cru and Chateauneuf
du
pape were amongst the delights and I confess to eating FAR too much.
Ah well, blown the diet today. Built in 1983, the Zenith is a venue we've played many times. Situated on the eastern side of Paris in the La Villette park, it's main entrance enjoys the same inspired red cube architecture by Bernard Tschumi as the other decorative "follies" in the park. Unfortunately when the weather is warm, a gig at the Zenith can be a sauna. Today's high temperature was 91 degrees F so we're expecting the worst. |
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..and
on to the show....yes it was hot, very hot. Infact there was a thermometer
on stage and it peaked around 115 degrees F. Fantastic crowd,
nothing less than you would expect in Paris. We did have
an issue
with security
AGAIN. Pete, Paul and Tim brief them before every show about the
fact we ALLOW the audience to stand and come to the front for the
encores. But no, the brainless wonders that is security at the
Zenith took it upon themselves to start pushin' and a shovin' forcing
folks to return to their seats. We had eased into our first encore,
'if this is goodbye' and of course it's not a song you can just
stop
playing
to sort things out and I saw Mark getting very agitated so I
called across to Dave to go get Pete to intervene. It took all
of 30 seconds before Pete was there chastising the idiot and restoring
enjoyment for all. Wankers. We finished the set and were Merceded
back to the hotel
(Faubourg-Sofitel)
where Richard invited us to the bar where we met an old pal of his
Philippe Cohen-Solal from the fabulous Gotin Project. Matt, Danny
and Stuart joined us and as usual after a show we were a tad peckish.
BUT ..do you think our delightful barman would allow us the pleasure
of ordering food in the hotel bar. NO!!!!!!!
fuck me, what does it take? (is not possible,
I hear again) So it's off to DJ Fletch's room once more for
PG tips, baguettes with glorious
butter (all that's available on 24hr room service), no dodgy
piano bar pianist and cool
sounds including this evening, courtesy of Stuart, a wonderful recording
of Jimmy Rivers and the Cherokees. |
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Mark Knopfler, Emmylou, Richard Bennett....HEAVY |
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 TC Calcaterra is Richard's magnificent guitar man pictured here at his tuning station |
 Danny and his pristine Sonor set |
 all show pics Samuel Lebon |
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| Bercy |
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© 2007
Guy Fletcher