Fête de la musique in Paris

Last Saturday was the Fête de la musique which sees every amateur band in Europe take to the streets with their guitars and amplifiers to knock out a couple of tunes. It's a great idea, and packed streets of Paris are testament to how much people enjoyed the day.

It was hard to find a quiet place to play where we would be heard (because we didn't have amps or mics or anything) but eventually we managed to play a couple of songs to a small crowd of passers-by next to St Paul metro station in the Marais. It was fun as always. I wish I had more photos of the day in general but unfortunately my camera battery was exhausted and needed to hibernate.

Fête de la musique from james on Vimeo.

We could all use a bit of huffy puffy in our lives

Another installment from the vault of Clarke and Dawe

Cick here or on the above image to watch.

Favourite line:

Nelson: "I forget the issue Bryan but I went into Parliament, got all red in the face, lot of huffy puffy, waved my arms about, lost a couple of kilos, Bryan, I mean, I'm getting quite fit."

Bryan: "Yes, what is the issue?"

Nelson: "Just forget the issue Bryan, but the point is I got quite het up about it and it's working!"

Also not bad:

Bryan: "Brendan Nelson, let's be honest, you're not going to be in office for a long while?"

Nelson: "I'm not going out of the office Bryan, I'm not going out of the office until all this finishes."

Bryan:"This what finishes?"

Nelson: "This quite impressive display of dedicated support behind me."

Nelson: (Whispering) "I'm not here. I'm not here... I wasn't here."

An impromptu reel

Sorry to harp on, but here's another video from our final night at the Boul Noir. There was a violinist in the house and she suggested a bit of Irish flare. The guitarist is slightly lethargic on the chords but the people can't resist the call of the dance.

Thanks to Catherine "the great" for this video of Lisa Demay playing so beautifully!

Big shout out to those who played at Fie's wedding. That was FUN!

Anna Banana: The Cheeky Monkey

Voila the latest installment in the photos of my niece. I may have hypothetically already promised her in an arranged marriage to Max's nephew in an attempt to further improve Franco-Australian relations. Don't tell Fie.

Rock and Roll that won't wake the kids.

That's the description of our last and final gig at Le Boul Noir in Montréal. Here are some photos. Thanks to those who came down. We had lots of fun.
He may have been looking for friends, who knows, but a guy came up to me after we had played and presented me with a business card and said, "I'm a producer, call me, I love your sound, I'll get you gigs in Toronto". I thought about telling him I was about to leave Montréal for Paris the following week, and the band would subsequently unceremoniously disband, but thought better of it and instead just nodded politely and said, "Thanks so much." What a career. It was over before it even began.