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| Les Kitschenettes - Photo by Steve Worrall |
So, here we are at the legendary Parisian venue
Le Bus Palladium, which oozes music history from it's walls. Located in Pigalle, an area of the city that immediately conjures up a certain decadence, it was originally opened in 1965 at the height of the swinging Yé-yé scene. Once frequented by the Beatles, Stones, Johnny Hallyday, Salvador Dali and Serge Gainsbourg (who even mentioned it in song), it was relaunched in the 1980's and is now a multi-functional venue, night club and restaurant that reminded me a bit of the excellent White Trash in Berlin. Tonight's show was promoted by
Olivier Bétard at Black Boots Management under the banner "Back To The 60's" and featured a great line-up of bands, each one influenced by the music of the Sixties but with their own individual style. We had the Modernist Pop of the Paris based French Boutik along with the Northern Soul tinges of The Travellers and their St. Malo compatriots Les Kitschenettes, who take more of the Garage Psych Rock approach. Each band was different enough to make it a well balanced and varied bill, and with the DJ's spinning some suitably cool sounds, it was a really excellent night's entertainment.
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| The Travellers - Photo by Steve Worrall |
The Travellers opened the show at our recent Retro Man Blog night at the Half Moon in Putney, playing as an acoustic duo with vocalist Gemma accompanied by guitarist Robert. The performance highlighted the fact that The Travellers are master songwriters, each track stood up perfectly well in these stripped back arrangements. Tonight they open the show too but this time with their full band line-up of Gemma on vocals and keyboards, Robert on guitar, Fred on the bass and Moses on drums. They are back to a four piece following the departure of rhythm guitarist Gildas, which in a way was a bit of a shame as I thought he added a nice bit of extra depth and muscle to their sound when I saw them at The Lexington earlier this year. Starting off strongly with the brilliant "74 Times" which is followed closely by it's Double A-Side partner "Summer With No Sun", certainly one of the best 7" singles of recent years, with Robert's catchy fuzzed up guitar riff adding a welcome bit of edge. "Miss You Babe" with it's thumping Northern Soul beat leads into the new single B-Side "Don't Look For Me", in which Gemma puts in a great vocal performance.
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| The Travellers - Photo by Steve Worrall |
I was impressed with the powerful "I'll Be There" but then comes a slight blip in proceedings with "One Day", where the band are seemingly playing two different songs at the same time, it reminded me of the old Morecambe and Wise joke, "I'm playing the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order", it's a bit of a mess at first but the band pick it up and put it back on track half way through. They then redeem matters with the superb sultry sounds of "I Can't Stop Loving You", which is one of my highlights of their set tonight. Next up is a cover of Martha & The Vandellas "Heat Wave" which gets more people dancing and then it is the brand new single "Stay". This is another classic song and it's been getting a lot of air-play on various radio shows and podcasts recently, plus to make things even better it's available on lovely 7" green vinyl too. That was the last song and The Travellers are called back for a deserved encore, and in a brave move they play a new song live for the very first time called "Your Love Is Like a Flame".
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| Gemma from The Travellers - Photo by Steve Worrall |
Next up are Les Kitschenettes, I'd never seen them before and only had a few songs from a "Ballroom Bash" compilation so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Well, I was in for an unexpected treat and tonight they blew me away with their colourful, energetic live show. I have seen some great gigs this year and this set will be surely up there with the best of them. Les Kitschenettes are like a French version of Retro Man Blog's favourite covers band, The Transients, except they trawl the Sixties French music archive to pick some often obscure delights.
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| Les Kitschenettes - Photo by Steve Worrall |
With the exception of a great version of The Castaways' "Liar Liar", it's Francais all the way and even when they cover the Kinks "A Well Respected Man" they attack it via Petula Clark's French version "Un Jeune Homme Bien", it's bloody marvellous! There are only a few tracks that I recognize such as superb covers of Delphine's "La Fermeture Éclair" and the Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall duet "Dents de Lait, Dents de Loup", but I am non-plussed by most of the selection, and like The Transients you are often wondering if they are the band's own songs as they sound so fresh and modern. I've had a lot of fun since their gig tracking down as many of the originals as possible, quite a task as the set varied from weird soundtrack music such as "Rosbif Attack" from the movie "Ne Nous Fachons Pas", to songs by artists I've never heard of such as Guy Skornik and bands like Les Missiles.
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| Les Kitschenettes - Photo by Steve Worrall |
The band are a visual delight, singer Ludo resplendent in black glove and flowing cape struts around the stage while Lucille who shares vocals and adds sax and flute, dances away energetically throughout. The duets work superbly well, particularly on "Shu Ba Du Ba Loo Ba" from Gainsbourg's "Initials B.B." album with Ludo as Serge and Lucille as Brigitte Bardot, and I particularly enjoyed their take on Monique Thubert's "Avec les Oreilles". The band around the live-wire front two are also excellent, a familiar looking bassist, yes it's Fred from The Travellers putting in an impressive double shift, drummer Claude, guitarist Francis and then Mathieu on guitars and keyboards. The already psyched up crowd are sent into a frenzy of dancing as Les Kitschenettes close their set with a wild and crazy version of Rita Pavone's "Il Geghegè". Everyone around me is grinning from ear to ear and calling for more songs, it was one of those very special feel-good shows that will live on long in the memory. A truly great band indeed.
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| Les Kitschenettes - Photo by Steve Worrall |
French Boutik took the stage as headliners and the crowd calmed down a bit to enjoy their slick Modernist Pop. Singer Gabriela is a cool presence up front and she bashes her tambourine and shows off some nifty dance moves, while the band, comprising Serge on guitars, Iky on keyboards, Terry on bass and rather bright suit and drummer Gontrand look like they are enjoying playing their perfectly constructed pop-soul songs. My highlights of their set are the excellent "Chats de Gouttiere" from their first E.P. and the wonderful "Facile", which lifts the atmosphere and gets the audience moving.
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| French Boutik - Photo by Steve Worrall |
They end with a cover of Georgie Fame's "In The Meantime" and a song called "Kazimir" which although is naggingly familiar, I can't quite place, Gabriela explained later that it was a Ska re-working of Madness "Bed & Breakfast Man", they kept the
melody but changed the bridge totally and the words too and rewrote the lyrics about a bar near their rehearsal studio called the Kazimir.
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| French Boutik - Photo by Steve Worrall |
So overall it was an excellent night, the venue was great with superb lighting and sound and all three bands complimented each other perfectly.
For more photos of the gig, go to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and hit "Like" for access to the exclusive Photo Album. Here's a video of each of the bands, to see more videos from the night along with many other bands featured on Retro Man Blog please head on over to the Retro Man Blog YouTube Channel.
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