Leon Russell @ New Morning, Paris march 19 2012

Leon Russell @ New Morning, Paris march 19 2012

I can't tell you if Leon Russell has already played in Paris before, maybe in the 60's or 70's so tonight's show at the tiny jazz club New morning is a "must see".

French female singer Jain is opening on acoustic guitar, sounds like Selah Sue to me, enjoyable.

Leon Russell arrived @ the New morning in a wheelchair but get on the stage with his cane to sit down behind his keyboard for the whole of his 90 min set.
White long hair and beard , sunglasses white cowboy hat and brown leather jacket: cool look.
Maybe his "hawaiian" shirt with the big flowers is not up to the standard ;-)
Anyway we heard some of his most well-known songs tonight and many covers from other bands
setlist included : Delta lady, Rollin in my sweet, stranger in a strange..., sweet little angel, lady blue, kansas city woman, takes a train, let the good times roll, hard rain, I've just seen a face, lucky ol' sun, song for you, a medley of jumping jack flash-papa was a rolling stone-kansas city (here on video) and a few others.
The voice is a bit frail but the piano playing is intact some of the songs were re-arranged like the up-tempo version of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses".

I would have prefer more of his songs and less covers but I guess that he's more well known for his contribution for other artists he worked with than for his repertoire even though he had huge hits with his own songs.
Very good show, better than expected.

signed by the Master

Medley:

America @ Bataclan, Paris March 17 2012

Contact: irockinparis((@))yahoo(((dot))fr

America @ Bataclan, Paris March 17 2012

America is back in Paris less than a year after their two sold out shows @ Casino de Paris in April 2011, tonight it's not sold out but quite full in an all seated Bataclan.

Basically we have the same show as last year but shorter as they're not playing the first album in its entirety, still a huge screen in the back that is playing movies.
The band is neat (with a new bass player) , the vocal harmonies are great and no need to tell you that the songs are classics of the americana.
They have an album out of songs that they wish they would have written (see setlist for details) but they already played the same covers last year "california dreaming" "sister golden hair"...
They ended their set with their biggest hit "A Horse with no name" with a few guests including french singer Laurent Voulzy who we met at Olympia for Roger Daltrey
Another great show !

90 min set

"A horse with no Name" feat. French singer Laurent Voulzy among other guests

SETLIST (above right)

Reminder:
America performed two of the best gigs of 2011
@ Casino de Paris on April 19 2011
& @ Casino de Paris on April 20 2011
Also a great show @ Théatre Marigny on April 05 2009

Roger Daltrey @ Olympia, Paris March 15 2012

Roger Daltrey @ Olympia, Paris March 15 2012

Roger Daltrey is back in Paris on his own to play the opera-rock Tommy, last time he played over here was @ Paris Bercy with The Who in June 2007. 5 years !!!
It's not sold-out but packed tonight and as the average age of the audience is closer to 50 than 20 , it's an all seated event.
Which is perfect for us as we have seats on the third row just in front of the promoter Gérard Drouot and his guest Rod McSween (famous ITB booker).
5 piece band with Simon Townshend on guitar and vocals.
Simple stage with a screen in the back that will be playing images & cartoons.

The first part of the show is Tommy in its entirety: well... this is far from being my favorite Who record, in fact apart from a few songs, I really find the record dull.
Quadrophenia is ten times better.
No need to tell you that I was very sceptical when the show started...and then I was pleasantly surprised, everything went smoothly event the little bits of music that are so dull on the album went well.
Roger's voice is perfect, Simon is doing a great job on guitar AND vocals , funny how he looks like his brother and sounds exactly like him when he's singing Pete's parts.

There are great songs in Tommy : "I'm free", "Acid Queen", "Pinball Wizard" & "We're not gonna take it" that were welcomed with open arms by the French audience.

Straight after Tommy the band carried on with a Who Best of (see setlist below for details)

Roger relaxed and talked to the audience that was now standing up , everyone rushing to the stage to get a closer look.
The first 4 songs were terrific, then things cool down with less well known songs like "The way it is", "going mobile" "days of light" even if die hard fans were in heaven as these songs are rarely played.
Roger played acoustic guitar on several songs.
We had a couple of covers including Taj Mahal's.
After 2 hours the band left the stage and Roger came back on his own for the last song on ukulele (!?!)

Very good set much more better than expected.

Merchandising & setlist ( "Tommy + "Best of" )

"Pinball Wizard":

Owlle @ Colette Music Box, Paris March 15 2012 5:00pm

Owlle + Exotica + Lescop @ Colette Music Box, Paris March 15 2012 5:00pm

Another show @ Colette for Music box #13, first band on stage is Exotica, electro pop, nice but not our style.
Than we have Owlle, she started as a folk artist with Marie-Flore but she's now into electro.
Last on stage is Lescop for some french New Ave à la Joy Division.

Not really the kind of music we like @ Rockerparis but we had a good time as many friends joined in and as always Colette and his sponsors are feeding us with some nice food & beer.

It's time for some proper rock music as we're heading to the nearby Olympia theater to see Roger Daltrey form The Who.

The Rolling Stones' 50th Anniversary pushed back to 2013

No Tour for 2012 but recording sessions

Carrefour Market might be celebrating the Rolling Stones' 50th anniversary in March 2012 over here in France but it looks like the "Tour" will be pushed back to 2013.
According to Rolling Stone Magazine: "Stones insiders say that one reason for the delay is Richards' health, which has raised questions about his ability to make it through a worldwide tour."
The American edition is adding that it won't be a proper World Tour but The Rolling Stones will be "camping out in major cities for multinight runs in arenas, similar to Prince's recent stands in New York and Los Angeles".

Nevertheless the band will be busy through the end of the year with projects including new studio sessions and a major documentary. According to Richards, the Stones will begin rehearsing for a studio session as early as next month. "We’ll just get the boys back together again then and maybe cut a side," he says. "I’ve got plenty in the locker here, but it’s not on tape."

Full story on ROLLING STONE MAG

VAN HALEN: Video footage of entire Indianapolis concert (Feb 22) posted online

VAN HALEN performed @ Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on February 22 2012.
The entire concert has been posted online, watch it now on ROCKERPARIS before it's deleted: