Anyone who considered the Paris gig before deciding against it should be kicking themselves; this was the best BF solo gig I can recall...
With Monday being a public holiday in France, Eurostar was charging around £150 for a single ticket.
So I snagged a £60 return flight from Luton; unfortunately its 06.00 departure meant leaving home before 02.00.
Still I managed to sweet talk (in French!
) the girl in the Olympia ticket office to find my prepaid ticket at around 14.00, rather than have to return at the appointed 19.00; this at least allowed for a brief siesta.
Nice venue, rather like an old fashioned 2,000 seater cinema with plush red seats; good to catch BF somewhere with a bit of history too, with the likes of Piaf & Chevalier having played some memorable shows there in days gone by.
The staff were very hot on relieving patrons of cameras etc. (all receipted and cloakroomed), but less so on showing them to the correct seats; I think everyone ended up in the correct row, but more than that I can't be sure! Still, at just off centre in the third row, I wasn't complaining. The show was a 2,000 sell-out.
The intriguingly named Boy (it's a two piece girl band;
www.listentoboy.com) played half an hour from 20.10 and went down quite well, as much for trying to introduce songs in French as for the slightly Suzanne Vega-ish content.
The band took the stage almost by stealth at around 21.10; I'd seen a slightly portly guy with white hair and a baggy black t-shirt lurking near the drums and had assumed he was a roadie, only to discover that it was Andy Newmark!
Beside him, with more or less a full drum kit this time, was Tara, looking more than ever like a chip off the old block and looking more confident than he did at the Roxy gigs; indeed he and AN more or less took turns to "lead" (i.e. one playing percussion in support of the other's drums) during the first few numbers.
The dancers were on a raised platforms at the back of the stage; between them and the drummers were Colin Good (dressed, as ever, as the head waiter) to the left and Jorja (in some fairly short shorts!) to the right.
Jerry Meehan (looking more than ever like BF's close protection officer!) stayed in front of the drum kits, leaving Ollie (as ever, looking like a rag doll who'd just climbed out of the toybox, but playing with increased assurance with every tour) & Chris Spedding (can't decide if he looks more like a really hip undertaker or a wild west poker player!) staking claims to more forward areas to left & right respectively.
At the very front, but towards the wings, were Aleysha (left) & Sewuese (right), the latter wearing a dress short enough to steal the limelight from Jorja's "ensemble"! Nice to see both the singers back and hopefully becoming fixtures in the extended "Roxy family".
And finally the great man appeared, looking happy, relaxed and (possibly as a result of his health scare) trim and dressed as he was for the Roxy gigs: black dress suit and narrow tie with white shirt.
I Put A Spell was a good opening choice and the audience seemed to like Slave & Don't Stop The Dance; I've always considered those two singles a bit lightweight, but things picked up with Tom Thumb, BF digging into a longish harmonica solo and trading licks with Ollie's guitar.
If There Is Something took me by surprise (had forgotten that it had already received an airing in Norway); maybe BF wants to give Europe a taste of what it missed in the winter, but I'd prefer to hear Andy & Phil on the Roxy numbers and TGPT provides more clout than any two other drummers...
You Can Dance, a wonderful Make You Feel My Love & Alphaville led us to a very well received Boys & Girls; everything going seamlessly well!
Sign Of The Times was one I'd been waiting for and it didn't disappoint; Hurricane seemed a little anti-climactic afterwards. And so we came to Tara and, boy, did it seem wierd and just plain wrong that Andy wasn't the one playing it...
That said, Jorja nailed it absolutely beautifully, supported not only by the head waiter, but also by some tasteful acoustic (Spanish?) guitarwork from Chris, while Sewuese took over Jorja's keyboard to add some further "textures".
The great man returned, looking ever more dapper in dark grey shirt & black tie, to charge through Bitter Sweet, before taking to the piano for My Only Love (he otherwise retired to his keyboards only for If There Is and Boys & Girls, as far as I recall; certainly far less than at the winter gigs), which featured extended solos by both guitars.
As a rapturously received Avalon, then Watchtower, followed I started to worry that What Goes On might have dropped off the set list, but it was up next and well worth the wait!
Love Is The Drug had most of the audience on their feet, while the stragglers were all out of their seats for Let's Stick Together, which saw BF flanked by the dancers (and, boy, do they look good from row three!).
A brief sit down for Jealous Guy (it was hardly an encore, as only BF, but none of the band, momentarily left the stage), followed by a prolonged and deserved standing ovation. I thought we might get an encore, but we had to make do with a tape of Reason Or Rhyme as we filed out.
During the band introductions Jorja (who played soprano, alto & tenor saxes, as well as keyboards) and (despite receiving less solos than Ollie) Chris were particularly loudly cheered and rightly so. In sport they say that form is passing, but class is permanent; well, by that yardstick, I can't imagine that Chris has had too many bad games in his career.
Merchandise wasn't bad: nice programme (15 euros) was similar in size & style to the one for the FYP tour; tasteful Olympia coffee mugs (7 euros); a selection of t-shirts (25 euros) featuring either Kate Moss (on white, black, grey or pale blue) or BF (e.g. In Your Mind LP picture minus writing on white shirt, foreign 45 rpm picture sleeves: Tokyo Joe on red; Price Of Love on black).
Looking forward to Kew now and giving some serious thought to Warsaw too! Hope the remaining gigs are as good for you as this one was for me!
