Description
“It’s amazing when you come to think of it how the human spirit seems to blossom in the shadow of the abattoir!”
― Malcolm Lowry, Under The Volcano
Well, to be honest back we weren’t quite in the shadow of the abattoir (aka slaughter house) but after many decades of touring around the world, April 2010 was the first time in memory that all European flights were cancelled due to a Volcano erupting in Iceland, almost two thousand miles away from the charming village of Berga, Spain. That was where The Normandy All Stars (Olivier Durand, Alan Fatras & Laurent Pardo) and yours truly found ourselves stranded with no news as to when flights from Barcelona would crowd the skies of Catalonia again. And to make matters even more unpredictable, not only were all flights cancelled because of the danger of volcanic ash high in the skies fouling up jet engines, but many of the train workers in the southeastern part of France were on a wildcat strike which meant that even if we made it across the border we still might be stuck and a long way from home in Paris.
So what could we do? Well, the decision was not too difficult because Berga was a fine town, our hotel was warm and welcoming and Albert Dorna, a legendary gourmet patisserie chef (he actually made an all-chocolate model of Jack Sparrow’s pirate ship for Johnny Depp), who had organized our show in Berga the previous Saturday night had a wonderful idea. Why not organize a Sunday Afternoon show in the same local club where we had played a few nights before and … make it different in some way. And that idea of a different kind of show appealed to me big time so me and the Normandy All-Stars got on stage with the unwavering intent to play the same songs, which we had played so many times before, in a new way with a unique feeling for that afternoon show with never to be repeated impromptu arrangements that just came out of my head that lazy Sunday. Needless to say, I was duly inspired and, after all, we were under the volcano (1) (or at least it’s dangerous ash cloud) anyway so everything was certainly surreal to begin with. And I think to combat that feeling of impending gloom the songs took on a very optimistic shape. You be the judge …
Thanks to Pierre LeComte, whose high quality recordings of that show have existed for years and the fans who have continually urged me to release the show as an official Vintage Series, I finally took the time to look back. But are artist’s supposed to look back. Didn’t Bob Dylan say something about not doing that exact thing? Well, in my case it seems it’s all I ever do! But why have I held off all these years from listening to the Volcano tapes? Well, first of all I really have little patience for listening back to my already played shows. I don’t know if all musicians share this dread with me but I always hear mistakes and ways I think I could have done better.
But after listening I came to the conclusion that maybe we couldn’t have done better and maybe I should just trust the passage of time to sprinkle some magic on these (almost) vintage recordings. Honestly, I can tell you that upon listening to these tracks again, sixteen years later, I was pleasantly surprised how cool they were, how well we played (especially Olivier Durand) and how encouraging the audience was. For they were with us every step of the way and the sang along and applauded and laughed when I picked up the wrong harmonica. Personally, their applause is the best part of the album. So I picked the finest tracks of the bunch, did a bit of mastering and editing and here they are in Vintage Series #13 which speaking of Bob Dylan, contains maybe my best version of “Like a Rolling Stone” a song I’ve been singing since 1967! That’s where I pick up the wrong harmonica!
Finally, we did make it back to Paris after Albert drove us to Perpignan, right across the border from Spain, and after hanging out in the SNCF train station for hours we boarded a normally fast TGV train that made its way on a very slow journey to Paris.
Track Listing:
1. Niagra Falls
2. Summer House
3. Lady Stilletto
4. Sicily
5. White Middle Class Blues
6. Caught Short In The Long Run
7. Something Like Steve McQueen
8. Anastasia
9. Temple Bar
10. Like A Rolling Stone
11. Hollywood
12. Destiny
- Under The Volcano is a tragic/comic novel (at least in my opinion) about an alcoholic British consul in a small town in Mexico. Actually there’s nothing funny about it …
