I remember Paris. Yes indeed, well most of it. Palais des Sports with Crazy Horse, 29 May 1987; Le Zénith, 7 July 1993 with Booker T. & The MGs. And now it’s 1996 and I am contemplating going to Paris for the 4th of July show on Neil’s tour to promote his new album Broken Arrow. But to go or not to go, that is the question.
4 July 1996 – Lord have Bercy!!
Back in the days of covered wagons and the Freddie Flintstone era, well before the internet, it was a real chew on to get travel information. BUT I am persevering, and I eventually cobble together sufficient information to get a working schedule for a visit to see Neil at the Palais Omnisports in Paris-Bercy. The thing is that Neil is more Californian than Canadian now, so might he produce some specific American themed song for the night? Only one way to find out. Go.
Come the hour come the day. “Sunshine came softly through my window today”. So I get up, shower, breakfast. Early morning bus to Middlesbrough station for the 7am train, arrive in London, get the tube across town for the connection to Dover. Go to the Western Docks to board the hovercraft to Calais (yes, back in those days there was a fast hovercraft service). 30 minutes later we are gliding up the shingle beach at Calais and I have just about had time to buy a bottle of dark rum (more of that later). Then comes a three-hour train ride to the Gare du Nord and another half an hour by metro across Paris. It is now early evening and I am standing outside the big Palais des Omnisports at Bercy. Ummmm, something is wrong here.
It’s eerily quiet, no fans, no food stalls, no nowt. In garbled Franglish I find out that Neil has been to moved to a smaller venue further down the road. So I race to get to the new venue just as I hear Powderfinger starting up. Desperately I try to bluff my way in, claiming to be road crew, name-dropping frantically. All to no avail. Obviously I’m not FRENCH, but I know names. So me and the guys at the door happily come to a gentlemen’s agreement. They get my RUM plus some cash and – phew – I’m in. Standing room only at the back. I settle down and start to enjoy the rest of the show. After Down By The River comes a great Pocahontas. Then some new songs from the new album Broken Arrow: Big Time, Slip Away, and later Music Arcade. Then it’s Hurricane time and a thumping Sedan Delivery to end the set.
Another night of Parisienne trottoirs and I wake up early the next morning at the Calais Hovercraft terminal inexplicably holding a HUGE WATERMELON, a bottle of wine and a plastic beaker of something. How did I get all this stuff? No idea. More pertinently, how did I actually end up here? Another mystery to mull over ‘on the way home’. But what a great day out. Thanks Neil.
14/15 February 2008 – A band with no name
Fast forward to 2008 and two nights of Neil and ‘the band that has no name’ at Le Grand Rex, the biggest cinema in Europe with a great art deco façade. A fabulous venue inside too with very comfortable seats, great acoustics and cracking good company. Big Andy Byrom with his wife Pam are here, as are Mark Golley and Paul Docker. What could go wrong? Poor Pam. She thought she was in for a romantic weekend. Instead she gets Docker and me. Arrggggghhhh. Well, put it down to experience Pam. Won’t get fooled again.
The lights dim, and out strolls Neil for his solo set. He starts with Hank To Hendrix followed by a great Ambulance Blues. Sad Movies is next up. But before Neil can start to play the next song, somebody whistles a tune out loud, an unusual callout request mayhaps? Neil looks up and says sarcastically, “Why don’t you whistle God Save The Queen?” So of course this unknown person does just that and then calls out to Neil, “I’ve just whistled your request, can you play mine now please?” I’ve never seen Neil look quite so flabbergasted as he duly obliges by playing A Man Needs A Maid on piano and synthesizer. It sets the tone for a memorable evening.
Some great acoustic songs follow. Neil plays a superb Mellow My Mind on banjo and concludes the acoustic set with Out On The Weekend. The electric set has some great new songs from Chrome Dreams II but also Bad Fog Of Loneliness, Winterlong, and a very rare occurrence, his cover of Oh, Lonesome Me by Don Gibson from the album After The Gold Rush. A memorable night for the UK fans on the Parisienne piste follows.
For the second night of the two show Paris run on 15th February, we are joined by Scott Sandie of Broken Arrow Magazine fame, together with his wife Jo and daughter Holly. It’s another great night. At show’s end we gather front of stage. Ralph Molina hands me a drumstick and, as he’s about to give the other one to Holly, an unknown hand reaches out and snatches it. An angry confrontation occurs but eventually we get the drumstick back. It turns out to be an omen as far as confrontations are concerned.
Leaving the venue, we hear an ALMIGHTY CRASH as some drugged-up individual smashes the glass cabinet containing the promo poster of the show. He’s apprehended quickly by security and gets an earful from a VERY irate theatre manager. Excitement over, Scott, Paul and I enjoy a convivial evening at ever escalating Parisian prices. We end up drinking mojitos in Le Mojito bar, while I’m trying to listen in to a policeman chatting to a lady of the night, presumably at the end of her shift.
It’s about 4 am now and we – the 3 stooges – eventually get thrown out of the bar. So I take the metro to get to the airport for my early morning flight home. Unfortunately, I fall asleep and end up at some end of the line station, where I’m woken by someone who I take to be a ticket inspector. Instead it’s two men, one of whom in a rather unfriendly manner pulls a knife on me. I hit him with my shoulder bag and dive out of the open carriage door, legging it up the platform like Ben Johnson on steroids. Fortunately I’m not pursued. The metro train moves on with me in it, headed once again to the airport to catch my flight home. Certainly, another eventful weekend.
Three nights later in Amsterdam, I cajole Neil into playing Stringman for our Dutch pals, much to their collective delight. It is the first time he has played it in 15 years. Sheer affrontery on my part as the banter goes back and forth between me and Neil before he finally gives in, saying, “I recognize that voice – he comes to all the shows.”
