As this was our second trip to Paris we knew what to expect, overnight crossing, arrived at the hotel early morning, straight to sleep 'til soundcheck, with the usual chevy chase driving on Paris’ crazy one way system, despite having played La Maroquinerie last time we were there. Warm welcome from Vincent the venue manager and then a nice long soundcheck where we tried out some new songs and also resurrected some old ones – Caught a Ride & A Southern Man, which we haven’t played for ages. To the show itself, the venue was half full when we started, and absolutely rammed by the third song. The crowd reaction was immense straight away, everyone was dancing, you could feel their energy as soon as we hit the first crowd. Our visuals looked the best they ever have, and there was some serious strobes going on, somehow we avoided getting blinded but I think we’ll need to get our shades on next time we play there! Stu did his dancing queen routine at exactly the same point in the gig as last time we were in Paris, it’s his special treat for the French fans. It was nice to play a bit of a longer set than usual, and the crowd reaction at the end was amazing, it blew our heads off! It was even better than Hyde Park. Then we had a great night out, some locals and Germans tagged along and showed us where the cool bars are, nice. Captain Rick got chatting to a Turkish guy, and starting asking if he knew about Liverpool’s Champions League win in 2005, he said he did so Captain talked animatedly about this for ten minutes, and then asked who his favourite player was, he replied “Richard Ashcroft”, Captain was a little confused, and the guy then explained that he didn’t like football. Lost in translation or what!! Stu also befriended an English tramp and wanted to smuggle him back in the back of the van, but in the end we decided maybe this was not advisable. Classic FDIO beaviour to find the only English tramp in Paris.
The second gig was at L’international, a smaller venue, and we were headlining. We were bracing ourselves for a bad turn out as we haven’t released anything in France yet, and it was also a public holiday so half of Paris was away. We didn’t need to worry though, again the venue was packed, with a lot of people who saw us the first night coming again. Brilliant crowd reaction, especially as we had a few technical problems. Jakob was on top form with plenty of banter between songs, I think he is planning to go into stand-up comedy when our music career is over. Another top night out, job’s a good ‘un.
A massive thank you all of you who came to see us, especially those who came to both shows, you were amazing!
We will be back later this year.
Doug