Travis @ Casino de Paris Feb 10th 2009 ( + The Alexandra Quartet )

Travis + The Alexandra Quartet @ Casino de Paris Feb 10th 2009

(Scroll down for video)

The Alexandra Quartet + Travis fan

The Casino de Paris is a beautiful parisian theatre that has been recently refurbished , there is a nice restaurant upstairs next to the balcony like at the opera.
I arrived there late , i went to the Bataclan ( stoopid me ), so i've missed most of the support band 's set .
Travis is very popular with girls here , it's a 70% female audience tonight most of 'em in their twenties. Don't know if it's sold-out but the place is packed. They took off all the seats so the pit is standing only which doesn't happen very often in this theatre.
Never understood why the bass player always wears his pea - coat on stage, Fran is wearing his trademark boiler hat.

Show started nicely with " chinese blues " , Travis has always been a good mix of Pop-Rock songs with some nice guitar licks but nothing that can afraid your little sister of.
Of course they've played many songs from their most welknown record " The Man who " ( Their best to me )
Fran went down in the pit to sing one song to screaming girls. Doughie sang one too ( on acoustic guitar while Fran was on bass - see pictures)
Gig ended with a great version of " Why does it always rain on me ? " with audience participation ( see video )
Nice gig !

Exchanging instruments

Whole band singing

setlist Travis

A/S The Alexandra Quartet

Pete Doherty 'Grace/Wastelands' artwork revealed

Here it is :

The cover was made by french artist Alize Meurisse on collaboration with Pete .

Read a short interview here.

See our videos of Pete Doherty @ Maroquinerie here and here.
Babyshambles @ Fete de L' Humanité in front of 50 000 people here , here , here and here. From the stage and backstage !!!

Black Lips @ L' Album de la Semaine Canal + Feb 9th 2009

setlist, invit + giveaway posters

Live recording for Canal+ TV show " L ' album de la semaine " in front of 150 people .
Lots of fans are here tonight so the atmosphere is really cool with many people screaming.
Funny guys , the guitar player is dressed with a poncho and a huge hat and the drummer wears the french football team tee-shirt of St Etienne. The guitar player ( the one with the poncho ) is spitting in the air and catch his saliva back into his mouth. Nice !
Musically they're a bit wild sounding like a 60's garage band. They do share the lead vocals duties between the drummer , the Poncho man and the bass player who's singing most of the songs.
Lots of energy but they should sometimes focus on the way they're playing as they're singing often out of key , same with the guitars.
Nevertheless is was Fun.
Some posters were given on our way out .

Next musicians to play @ " L' Album de la semaine " are :

Seasick Steve on Feb 16th
Popa Chubby on Feb 17th

To book for both these shows ( it's free ) call Bertrand 01 55 93 40 48
Studios are situated 5 min walk from Porte de la Chapelle , north of Paris

A Camp The side-band from The Cardigans' lead singer Nina Persson will play a " Black Session " for C'est Lenoir on Feb 16th.
UPDATED fEB 13TH : BLACK SESSION CANCELLED

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss @ Grammy Awards

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss ( here with producer and musician T Bone Burnett ) won 5 Grammy Awards yesterday.
It's not good for a Led Zeppelin reunion , that will never happen... anyway as Robert Plant confirmed in an interview a couple of weeks ago.

U2 @ Stade de France July 17th & 18th 2009 ( TBC )

The title says it all
U2 will be playing 2 shows in Paris @ Stade de France July 17 th & 18 th 2009 ( could be 16th & 17 th ) TBC

U2 will be in Paris promoting their new cd on Feb 23rd playing 2 songs live at " Le Grand Journal " tv show on Canal+

Iron Maiden in Paris ?

A couple of friends told me that the musicians from Iron Maiden are in France rehearsing in a studio near Paris .
I'll check and see if i can get more info about it .

Tower of Power @ bataclan Paris Feb 06 th 2009

Tower of Power @ Bataclan in Paris Feb 06th 2009

the Marquee

Mr James Brown is dead , The JB's ,Parliament & Funkadelic are long gone , Sly ( & his Family Stone ) is high up in the clouds God knows where .
But there 's still one band funkin' & Groovin' in 2009 and he's playing the Bataclan tonight.
41 years together, a real performance in itself. Tower of Power is in da house .
A bit sad that the parisian theatre is far from being full , the balcony is closed and there are lots of empty spaces down in the pit.
What are you doing froggies on friday night ?
Anyway ToP is here to groove and that's what they're gonna do for 90 min.
Storming set very Funky but they know also how to keep things calm too with a couple of slower songs including one reminding me of those vocals band from the sixties
The band will release a new cd next month ( they've play one new song from it ) featuring Tom Jones ,the legend from Sam & Dave : Sam Moore and the lovely Joss Stone.
Nice evening & some of the guys came to sign stuff to fans just after the show
I guess that everyone went home happy

The whole cast & signing session with singer and original bass player

Groovin' in Paris + Setlist

Aftershow meeting

Dewey Martin ( Buffalo Springfield ) dead at 68

Original drummer from the 60's band Buffalo Springfield , Dewey Martin died at his home in L.A. on Feb 1st of apparently , natural causes. He was 68 years old
Buffalo Springfield had a few hits in the late 60's and is famous for having both Stephen Stills & Neil Young as singers and guitar players.

The Stranglers @ Olympia Paris Feb 5th 2009

The Stranglers , live @ the Olympia theatre in Paris , Feb 5th 2009

Couldn't see support band Kim Novak as i've stayed late outside talking to friends , i made my way in as the Stranglers were playing their first song.
It may not be sold-out but it's really packed, hard to find an empty seat at the balcony , Nono guitar heroe for french rock band TRUST is among the guests.
i came to the gig out of curiosity as i don't really know what they've done apart from a few songs that were EVEN hits in France.

JJ Burnel plays his bass in a very relax way , he's also perfectly fluent in French but doesn't use it to communicate with the audience apart from the usual " Merci" . He took time to thank the guy in charge of the Olympia for welcoming the band here .

The band is really rocking, the keyboard is not too much forward in the mix, they' ve done a nice rocking cover of the Kinks' " all day and all of the night " .
Of course the gig wouldn't be perfect without " Golden Brown " and " always the sun " which are very welknown over here.
The audience mainly in their forties is reviving its youth down in the pit by pogoing in a friendly way ( yes sir they do have manners )
The set ended with a storming " No more Heroes "

The Stranglers playing The Kinks :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPgLyWeqK9g

" No more heroes " LIVE :

Lux Interior ( The Cramps ) dead at 62

Another sad news for 2009
Lux Interior from The Cramps died yesterday at a hospital in Los Angeles
Myspace the cramps

Dita Von Teese @ Crazy Horse Paris Feb 4th 2009

A relation of mine kindly invited me to see Dita Von Teese @ Crazy Horse Paris
Just a GREAT show , if you can go there don't hesitate
Then we ended up for a drink at the nearby George V hotel
Nice evening.

Here's a video from her performance ( not my video ) :

Cazals @ Virgin Champs Elysées Paris Feb 4th 2009

Cazals @ virgin Megastore Champs Elysées Paris Feb 4th

Review & video tomorrow as i'm going to see Dita Von Teese @ Crazy Horse in Paris tonight

Fires of Rome @ Virgin Champs Elysées Paris Feb 4th 2009

Fires of Rome @ Virgin Megastore Champs Elysées Paris

Franz Ferdinand @ Studio SFR Paris Feb 3rd 2009

Franz ferdinand @ Studio SFR in Paris

The Title says it all

Live

Second show for me today , this one was broadcasted live on french rock radio OUIFM co-sponsor of the event.
They've changed the setlist a bit , the atmosphere was much more rock and so was the band.
This afternoon at Canal+ was like they had played in slow motion compare to tonight's gig.
They fucked it up on a couple of songs but no one cared, the band was much more relax as well.
The place was packed but not crammed , capacity 250 people so they were right in your face.
Once again very good 50 min gig in a lively atmosphere, too bad those bastards from the security prevented people from taking pictures. Fuck'em
Like they did this afternoon the band took the time to meet all the fans that were waiting after the show , signed stuff and posed for pictures.

Oui fm has send a beauty to interview fans outside / setlist

Charming girls & Bob queueing for the loo

Alex dating

Nick surrounded by underage girls !

Paul doesn't seem happy that his drumstick ended in my home