End of chapter 1

After a few days off, here I am again..

The tour is over and I am still amazed by the audience we had. I really would like to thank some of the people who have made all this possible.

First of all Francis, Claude and Dominique, the 3 talented musicians sharing the stage with me . Through this tour we became even closer friends than before. We are all complementary, Francis is my memory, he knows all the parts of all songs I did, a great musician, he is also very creative and can save any situation. Dominique is a poet, he is outside of any system, as easily as he can forget his shoes, he can bring tears to your eyes with an impro... Claude is a rock with imagination. I trust him entirely. I know that we could play on the moon and he will get everything under control. Crazy and precise.

Thanks to my dear manager Fiona "my little sister", always in control on all fronts. We have been through so many adventures all around the planet together. She always has been there to solve everything. Thanks also to her new assistant Louis who did a real good job and welcome to the family.

Thanks to Thomas Alsina, such a multi-talented person.Through the years, I feel priviledged to have become his friend. We have done so many things together. He can do almost everything from inventing any new software for 3D film, video fx or electronic music, to deciding 2 hours before a concert to film it in timelapse, to pilot a jet, being a specialist of mangas, computers, Kabuki, bicycles, Opera and silly jokes.
Thanks to Patrick Pelamourgues, like his wife Marie Laure, always in good mood, able to fix anything, anywhere, anytime.

Thank you also to Alain, Mary-Jo and Romain Bilowus, CPM and all the crew for their dedication.

Thank you also to Paul Charles, my agent who put this tour together so quickly.

But more than anything, I would like to thank all of you who have been part of these fantastic audiences, especially you who are following my work for a long time.
Thank you to all of you who have travelled, sometimes with difficulty, to attend 3, 4, 5 or even 10 of the concerts. I feel truly honoured by your dedication and your support and be sure that it means a lot to me...
I am going to continue this blog as much as I can for you.

I have done a lot of things since I came back.

These past few days I have been chasing some analog instruments which I need for some new tracks and for the future on stage. I found a second Moog Liberation and a very rare portable keyboard, the Syntar.

I also went to 2 different exhibitions:
One important retrospective on Louise Bourgeois which I found much less exciting that the one at the Modern Tate in London.

The other one, "Traces du Sacre", also at the Centre Pompidou Museum, is about the relationship between Art and the Sacred, mapping the Sacred in Modern Art.
This is a great idea and to confront in the same room in this perspective, Goya and Damien Hirst, Kandinsky and Bruce Nauman is exciting and ambitious, but the presentation is not clear enough and we can regret the absence of some artists like Pollock ( the dripping period) or Salvador Dali.
Having said that, it is interesting to go and have a look anyway...

I am reading at the moment "My True Story" a very special autobiography on and by David Lynch and I really like it. I also went to see " Iron Man" which I quite enjoyed, my favourite adaptation of the Marvel's Super Heroes Stories so far.

I am now thinking about future projects, the next tour, worldwide this time, and lots of other projects which I'll explain in more detail soon.

Reminds me of someone...

Bruce Nauman, "Traces du Sacré"

Louise Bourgeois

Salamanca

World Heritage of UNESCO, the city of Salamanca is one of the most beautiful cities of the tour. Full of magnificent cathedrals, churches and monuments entirely restored, the spanish city where you have the most students. So the audience was quite young for the concert.
The concert started really well. I think Oxygene 1 has been the best so far, with a lot of emotions, the flute chorus in Oxy 2
and Variation 1 as well. But some problems started in Oxygene 4, we had no minipops in our ears for almost 1 minute. and it was very dificult to keep the tempo. At the beginning of Oxygene 5 , no sound came out from Domino's Eminent. Luc, the backliner crawled until Dominique's position to try to fix it, but still nothing happened. In the meantime I was trying to buy us some time improvising with Arlette on the AKS and various FX. When I saw that it was becoming too long, I decided to start the RMI sequence on the DigiSequencer, but it started at the wrong tempo far too fast. It was too late to change it and then Francis had to play the Bass part at a crazy speed, 140 instead of 96 bpm. I had also to deliver the fastest chorus on the moog liberation of the tour; I shortened it because I thought that Francis was about to explode..
Then It went like that until the end of the gig with a lot of continual crazy things happening. It actually did not come from the band or myself but from the mixing desks. I hope everything will be OK for Zurich!
We will have a lot of work during the sound check on saturday afternoon. It should be OK.
Having said that I tried to deliver the best possible performance and not changing my attitude on stage. The result is that the audience appreciated it and we had a really good response from the audience.
Thank you Salamanca. We'll come back soon.

At 2:00 am we left by bus, the driver was really sick and he dropped us at 4:45 at Madrid airport where we waited almost 3 hours to catch a plane to Paris. At Charles de Gaulle airport, I forgot one of my suitcase and I am still waiting for it.
Good night everyone...

Cathedral of Salamanca built in 1238, amazing..

Eggman with sunglasses.

Load out after the concert, en route to Zurich. Thank you to the crew, you've been great!

Patrick playing a solo on my jamón ibérico bought in town. My favourite..

2:00AM, waiting in front of the wrong hotel in Salamanca..

UEVES 1 MAYO DE 2008

Salamanca en espanol

Patrimonio mundial de la UNESCO, la ciudad de Salamanca es una de las más bonitas de la gira. Llena de magníficas catedrales, iglesias y monumentos completamente restaurados. Es la ciudad española con más estudiantes así que el público del concierto era bastante joven.

El espectáculo comenzó muy bien. Creo que la interpretación de Oxygene 1 ha sido la mejor hasta la fecha, llena de emociones. El coro de la flauta en Oxy 2
y en la Variation 1 también fueron magníficos. Empezamos a tener algunos problemas en Oxygene 4, no nos llegaban los minipops a nuestros oidos durante casi 1 minuto y fue muy difícil mantener el tempo. Al comienzo de Oxygene 5, el Eminent de Domino no emitía ningún sonido. Luc, el ayudante, tuvo que arrastrarse hasta la posición de Dominique para intentar arreglarlo, pero no hubo manera. Entre tanto yo intentaba ganar tiempo improvisando con Arlette en el AKS y varios FX. Cuando vi que la reparación se alargaba demasiado, decidí empezar con la secuencia del RMI en el DigiSequencer, pero comenzó con el tempo equivocado, demasiado rápido. Era muy tarde para cambiarla y entonces Francis tuvo que tocar la parte del bajo a una velocidad de locura, a 140 en vez de a 96 bpm. Por mi parte, tuve que interpretar los coros en el moog liberation más rápidos de la gira; Hube de abreviar porque pensé que Francis iba a explotar...

A partir de ahí y hasta el final del espectáculo, siguieron sucediendo muchas cosas extrañas. Desde luego la responsabilidad no fue de los músicos o mía sino de las mesas de mezcla. ¡Espero que todo mejore en Zurich!.

Vamos a tener mucho trabajo en la prueba de sonido el sábado por la tarde. Debería ir bien.

Dicho esto, intenté ofrecer la mejor de las actuaciones posibles y no cambiar mi actitud en el escenario. El resultado fue que el público lo agradeció y tuvimos una muy buena respuesta de los presentes.

Gracias Salamanca. Volveremos pronto.

A las dos de la madrugada salimos en autobús, el conductor estaba muy enfermo y nos dejó en el aeropuerto de Madrid a las 4:45 am donde esperamos casi 3 horas para coger el avión a París. En el aeropuerto Charles de Gaulle, olvidé una de mis maletas y aún estoy esperándola.
Buenas noches a todos...

Catedral de Salamanca construida en 1238, increíble..

Hombre-huevo con gafas.

Cargando después del concierto, camino a Zurich. Gracias al personal, ¡sois magníficos!

Patrick tocando un solo con mi jamón ibérico comprado en la ciudad. Mi favorito..

A las 2:00 de la madrugada, esperando en frente del hotel equivocado en Salamanca..

(posted on a mobile phone)