Travelogue
Writing this exhausted…
FRI
to PARIS.
Hot sunny day.
Sebastien arrived first.sat outside a classic french cafe in sun with bier and french cheese and bread. Ended up chatting to an old New Yorker about this and that, ‘why the fuck does the the london tube require passengers to check out’ and music, otherwise the ambience was very French.
Venue cancelled once, twice.Show put on at a 3rd venue. Communications unclear. Police issues apparently?
improv soundcheck.
Max arrived late(from belgium) for soundcheck therefore no soundcheck with bass guitar.
backstage looked like a cluttered cave.
Queue for toilets, why was there no loo backstage?
Other bands – tribalistic drummer, minimal sax. Very No Wave. Not bad.
–
Pretty good gig, first show in a while.venue nicely packed
Detachments set-list
HAL
A.V.
I don’t want to Play
Promenade
Hol Rom
You Never Knew Me
Human Shield
Nothing You Can Do
Flowers
Fear No Fear
Circles
first ever live play of The Promenade worked nicely, good to play fresh material.
Guitar a bit ropey on Nothing You Can Do (played out for the first time).
During Fear No Fear (just before the epic outro) the sound got cut as we’d exceeded noise curfew. WTF
Max was fuming(had every right to want to attack the soundman), world-weary Sebastien waved, blew the crowd a kiss. Detachments insulted but ce la vie.
Grabbed a few gin and tonics as opposed to pints (bastien has had reoccurring indigestion for weeks). Handshakes and hugs from fans.
Got taxi to room where we were crashing somwhere within the complex of an elite Paris studio, Bowie had recorded there in the past apparently.
Sebastien hit the hay.
Max stayed up took some of his homegrown mushies with the host. Our French promoter used up Max’s coke (which was meant to be for Lyon).
at about 4am bastien was awoken by the sounds of Kkoee and was converted (hypnotic bassline)…
apparently Kkoee is also a big Detachments fan according to our host/DJ, she continued to play fascinating tunes – all Berlin new EBM new coldwave type stuff. Quite inspiring.
SAT
Sunny day. Summery.
Gare Du Nord.
Train.
eating pastry things – Sebastien nausea, stomach ache after
Lyon:
Got picked up by the amiable Joli Fantome.
Trudged to flat in cheerful blazing sun. Lots of rubbish not taken away in the streets (strike).
Punk music on the decks.
Doze/recovery time for Bastien
Max and entourage went down to cafe for drinks.
Belgian Coldwave comp put on by the DJ for later Koude Golven: Onder Stroom Records. Fascinating stuff.
Sonic – it was a boat moored in the river. Cool venue.
Bastien took medicine seemed to work. Back on it.
Excellent lasagne and quiche, wine and Belgian beer going down well. Lovely.
French Breton Whiskey perhaps a faux pas; tasted like Teachers/High Commisioner/Bells type stuff (reminding of tipsy times at max’s golders gn studio from 2008/9)
Tight soundcheck. clinical, straightfaced soundguy.
Support band Rank sounded a lot like Interpol.
GIG
Solid.
There was a bunch of drunk dudes propping up the stage which seemed a bit strange, Sebastien ignored them. Vexed Max said ca va! to them at one point. They were poor wasted fucks, bless (max later discoverd them struggling to get up stairs)
Set went down well.
Encore request (encore denied).
Continued streadily on with the boat party, good people, bit of mingling.
Dark 80s disco til 4am or something.
Back at the flat.
Louis CK on youtube.
Apologies to Joli for max sleepwalk/pissing in her en suite bath.
SUNDAY
Another summery, sunny day.
got a box of Kronenbourg. Train to Paris.
Gare de Lyon…realised it was NOT Gare Du Nord i.e. NO Eurostar. Panic. Taxi to Gare Du Nord. Bastien missed train. Was put on next train. Getting ready to sit down a french gent said he’d like to swap seats so he can sit next to his little daughter. Bastien ended up in empty elite Premier class carriage with 3-course meal and endless supply of drinks. More like it.
London
Realised had remained in same clobber 24/7 from fri am to sun eve.
Felt a bit like getting back from a festival. Bath.
Bastien received news: sister delivered twin girls! Now uncle of 4.
Maybe there’d been a psychic connection with the stomach aches.
Detachments 