sound of the suburbs

I guess you have realised that it's that time of the year, and so tomorrow I will be on my way to the wonderful island of Corsica to join my two sons and their mother who are lucky enough to have spent the last 10 days there, I won't be back until August 13. Seeing as the part of the island that I go to is rather isolated, meaning no electricity and no land phone lines even the mobile is not reliable there, so the blog is on hold for a few weeks. One of the great things about going there, apart from the weather and the sea and the scenery is that I get to catch up with my reading, 'Rip It Up And Start Again' for example, and also with listening to music, I've just loaded my hard drive mp3 player with loads of goodies.

Now It wouldn't be fair of me to disappear and leave nothing for ears , would it? And I have a nice little treat for you, a previously unheard of live recording of Cat Power from her 1998 French tour when she stopped off at the Rockstore in Montpelllier. There are eleven songs and a little chat, the gig was taken direct from the soundboard and edited by my in house sound man Fabrice Leblanc, unfortunately the recording is incomplete. I must confess that despite having had my copy of this for eight years I have never been bothered to get the track listing together, so if anyone would care to leave it on the comments section that would be fine by me. Song 1, Song 2, Song 3, Song 4, Song 5, , Song 7, Song 8, Song 9, Track 10, Song 11, Song 12. These files will be taken down August 15, you have been warned there will be no second chances!

As is often the case there is a tale that accompanies this concert and above all explains Track 10. Regular readers will know by now that I spent a large part of the 90's as a local promoter in Montpelllier and as such have had the chance to meet many artists, don't worry I'm Not Going to bore you with a long list of names. The Cat Power concert in question was one of mine. As chance would have it the date was December 5 and so it was the day that followed my annual alcohol binge to celebrate me living through yet another year, I can't remember but I don't suppose that I was on top form that day. Pre-sales were good and so we were expecting a good turn out. I had been warned by Chan Marshal's French agent that she was unpredictable and so I didn't know what to expect. Things went as usual on the afternoon: get-in, setting up the backline, taking the band to the hotel, local press, soundcheck, visibly with no problems. It was after the soundcheck that I started talking to Chan and she came over as an intelligent and witty person who was not at all reserved as was her reputation. By the end of the afternoon we found ourselves at the venues bar with me standing her a couple of glasses of red wine before she disappeared. The start of her set went ok though I will admit that she did ramble on a bit which spoilt the pace of things, Fabrice has done a great editing job on this. Now as promoter my place was not front stage, though I did always try to catch at least the beginning and end of the shows. So it was that I was at an outside bar when someone came running from the hall to get me, Chan was thirsty! This can be heard on Track 10. This was why I found myself wading through the crowd to leave a glass of best French red wine at the feet on Chan Marshal on the stage of the Rockstore. I think that the touring was starting to get to her though I would not agree with her that she messed up. After her set she disappeared and I was never to see her again, much to the relief of my girlfriend who showed signs of jealously.

I hope you liked the story and the recording, and I hope you'll be back soon!