Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart: goodbye Mr Schlesinger...& thank you. ENGLISH

This morning, a vigorous jump out of bed... another day of confinement and teleworking for the reason which has kinda been a bit the worldwide reason for a few weeks: Coronavirus.

Preparing morning tea (nope, still haven't fallen for "morning coffee" like millions of normal people), opening the laptop, Outlooks and the Internet world where we lay our eyes are on a multitude of information. This morning thoug, one of them catches my eye and makes me shudder... At first, I don't believe it. I'm checking the information... which unfortunately turns out to be true: Adam Schlesinger, co-founder of the Fountains of Wayne, died on April 1st of complications due to this f**ing Coronavirus. 

I can't remember the exact year I heard the Fountains for the first time. Most likely in the late 90s since I remember I was still at college. However, one thing is certain: on every laptop, on every device I use to listen to music "on the road" that I have had since, there is systematically all Fountain of Wayne albums. Why? Because they are one of those artists whose melodies are made of both "good vibes" and whose melodies remain in your head for a good time... A hint of pop, a few notes of rock for songs which, despite the passing years remain timeless. When you have a strong Beatles influence in your blood, difficult to do otherwise, you will say…

Summarizing Adam Schlesinger's career is extremely complicated because the musician is a multifaceted artist and a workaholic. Songwriter, musician, producer, sound engineer, etc. are all the caps he wore - sometimes simultaneously - in his career.

Here, in Belgium, only a few connoisseurs or fans know his name and the huge CV behind the New York man… but I can guarantee you that you have more than certainly already heard if not one of his songs, at least one artist with or for which he has worked.

If we withdraw his bands from the equation his bands Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, Tinted Windows and Fever High, we can - for example – write a few things about his career as a songwriter for... cinema.

Do you remember That Thing You Do!, Tom Hanks’ first directorial movie - for which he also wrote the screenplay - about the tribulations of a young band from the 60ies whose first song - the title of the film - was a dazzling success? Schlesinger is the father of this pop song, for which he got an Oscar nomination.

He’s also the man behind several songs from Music and Lyrics, with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant, released in 2007, including The Way Back Into Love. Certainly a sweet one but once again a melody that stays in your mind… 

In 2012, he also wrote The Master of the Seas song for the animated movie Ice Age: Continental Drift, sung by some of the usual characters of the series but also by Jennifer Lopez and Peter Dinklage, our favourite dwarf from Game of Thrones.

Through his work with Ivy, a friendship was formed with the Farrelly brothers. Proof of this are the band songs that appeared in no less than 4 films of the brothers: There's Something About Mary (1998), Me Myself and Irene (2000), Shallow Hal (2001) and Fever Pitch (2005). 

In 2007, he works on a musical based on John Waters' great classic Cry-Baby, which starred a young Johnny Depp. The musical will get several Tony Awards nomination.

In 2015, he also wrote I Have Faith in You for An Act of God, a play whose hero was played by Jim Parsons. Yes… THE Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory.

Speaking of television, he has worked on a few things too and his experience in musicals has often paid off: in addition to compositions for ceremonies such as the Tony Awards (It's Not Just For Gays Anymore - 2011, sung by Neil Patrick Harris), Billboard Music Awards, The Howard Stern Show, Sesame Street (which won him an Emmy in 2011), Saturday Night Live, his compositions were also sung by Elvis Costello in the special program A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!, in 2008.

Another visually impressive moment was the opening scene for the 2001 Emmy Awards, sung by Jane Lynch, for which he wrote the song TV Is A Vast Wonderland. This opening provides a few good and well-known faces of TV, starting with Leonard Nimoy, the late Mister Spock from the Star Trek series.

If he was known for his qualities as a bass player, the first instrument he learned to play as a kid was actually… the piano. He later learned the bass because he had "a hard time being that kid behind the keyboard that you put in the back of the stage." Yet it was the piano that Schlesinger played on The Bells, B-side song of the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1996 single Thirty-Three. That was also the beginning of Schlesinger and James Iha’s friendship and the latter invited him later to play on each from his solo albums (Let It Come Down, 1998 and Look to the Sky, 2012).

Being under contract under the same record company, Schlesinger ran into Taylor Hanson in the 90’s but the general public would still have to wait another decade before this trio finally added a drummer and form Tinted Windows to release in 2009 this awesome album that is... Tinted Windows.

Adam Schlesinger also wrote or produced songs for other artists such as Crash Test Dummies (Laid Back, 2008), Dashboard Confessional (Alter the Ending, 2009), Chesney Hawkes (Stay Away Baby Jane, 2008)… He also entirely wrote and composed Emmanuelle Seigner’s third album, Distant Lover. A little gem that I recommend to you... If I weren't a fan of Mr Adam, I surely would never have found out that Seigner was a singer.

The Fountains of Wayne have come to Belgium four times over the course of their career. They are therefore part of these groups which, if you are a fan, you must secure yourself a ticket, just to make sure you’ll be at this concert. This is exactly where I was on November 7th, 2011 : at the Botanique in Brussels. An experience I wrote about (in French) in one of the very first articles of this blog.

2011-11-07th Adam Schlesinger at Le Botanique, Brussels (Belgium)

Little did I knew, when I bought my ticket and spent time with the Bota audience, was that fate was going to play a nice trick on me after the last music note was played. By hanging out a bit after the concert, our little group had the chance to see Jodi Porter, the guitarist of FoW and... Adam approaching. An opportunity coming up like this, one has to take it. So I approached Adam to ask him for a photo with him and Jodi, whom he accepted with good grace, and we started to chat…

I have since have been extremely lucky to meet some artists, some actors and actresses but this meeting is a one of a kind because Adam and Jodi are in fact the first two “celebrities” I took a photo with. 

Beyond this "first", I especially have a fond memory of this discussion with Adam. Despite an already impressive career, Adam was extremely kind to us and, with a very good sense of humour, told us – to explain the long gaps between two Fountains of Wayne albums - that he was a "lazy" musician. Great irony when you know... that he never stops working.

That he never stopped working.

It still seems surreal to me, here and now, to use the past tense but with Adam’s death, it is clear that now, it is the only conjugation which turns out to be correct to speak of the Fountains of Wayne, of Ivy, Tinted Windows or Fever High, his side-projects.

As far as I can remember, I can’t recall hearing him singing anything other than choirs. Adam Schlesinger has always been a discreet artist who expressed himself through his musical notes and the lyrics he let others sing. With one exception... Between 2015 and 2019, Adam brought his music touch into the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend TV series, a slightly offbeat comic-musical series. In 2018, he joined the TV cast during a mini-tour where fans could finally listen to composer's voice and... the crazy lyrics of the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend songs. Last September, Schlesinger received an Emmy for Antidepressants Are So Not a Big Deal, written for the show.

Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart is another FoW song that I really love… It’s true, there’s always someone to break your heart. Today, it is you, Adam, who broke mine by joining other people, anonymous and other artists, following complications from this bastard virus… Here, I am still writing in the present tense. Because I still don’t want to write in the past tense.

But nevertheless, life will definitely go on, in a world... without you, man. But thank you for these great and amazing songs that I’ll always keep around my household. Definitely.

Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart: goodbye Mr Schlesinger...& thank you.

Ce matin, saut du lit… une autre journée confinement et télétravail pour la raison qui est un peu la raison mondiale depuis quelques semaines : Coronavirus.

Préparation du thé du matin (non, je ne me suis toujours pas mise au « café du matin », comme des millions de gens normaux), ouverture du PC, des messageries, du monde de l’Internet où nos yeux se posent sur une multitude d’informations. Sauf que ce matin, l’une d’entre elles accroche mon regard et me fait frémir… Dans un premier temps, je n’y crois pas. Je vérifie l’information… qui s’avère malheureusement exacte : Adam Schlesinger, co-fondateur des Fountains of Wayne, est décédé ce 1^er avril des suites de complications dues à ce putain de Coronavirus.

Impossible de me souvenir de l’année où j’ai entendu les Fountains pour la première fois. Très probablement fin des années 90 puisque je me souviens que j’étais encore aux études. Par contre, une chose est certaine : sur chaque PC portable, sur chaque appareil me servant à écouter de la musique « on the road » que j’ai eu depuis se retrouvait systématiquement l’ensemble des albums des Fountains of Wayne. Pourquoi ? Parce qu’ils font partie de ces artistes dont les mélodies sont faites à la fois de « good vibes » et qui te restent dans la tête pour un bon moment… Un soupçon de pop, quelques notes de rock pour des morceaux qui, malgré les années qui passent, restent intemporels. Quand on a une forte influence Beatles dans le sang, difficile de faire autrement, me direz-vous…

Résumer la carrière d’Adam Schlesinger est extrêmement compliquée parce que le musicien est un vrai touche-à-tout et un bourreau de travail. Auteur-compositeur, musicien, producteur, ingénieur du son, etc. sont autant de casquettes qu’il a portées – parfois simultanément - dans sa carrière.

Seuls quelques connaisseurs ou fans connaissent son nom et l’énorme CV qui se cache derrière le New-Yorkais… mais je peux cependant vous garantir que vous avez plus que certainement déjà entendu si pas l’une de ses chansons, au moins un artiste avec ou pour lequel il a travaillé.

Si on retire ses propres groupes (Fountains of Wayne, Ivy et Fever High), on peut par exemple évoquer sa carrière d’auteur-compositeur pour… le  cinéma.

Vous souvenez-vous du film That Thing You Do!, la première réalisation de Tom Hanks, également auteur du scénario, et suivant les tribulations d’un jeune groupe des 60ies dont la première chanson – le titre du film - connait un succès fulgurant ? C’est Schlesinger qui est le papa de ce morceau pop à souhait, qui lui vaudra une nomination à l’Oscar.

On le retrouve aussi derrière plusieurs chansons du film Music and Lyrics, avec Drew Barrymore et Hugh Grant, sorti en 2007, dont la Way Back Into Love. Certes mielleuse à souhait mais encore une fois une mélodie qui reste en tête…

C’est lui aussi qui écrit en 2012 le morceau Master of the Seas pour le film d’animation Ice Age : Continental Drift, interprétée par quelques-uns des personnages habituels de la série mais aussi par Jennifer Lopez et Peter Dinklage, notre nain préféré de Game of Thrones.

Au travers de son travail avec Ivy est aussi née une amitié avec les frères Farrelly puisque des morceaux du groupe sont apparus dans pas moins de 4 films des frangins : There's Something About Mary (1998), Me Myself and Irene (2000), Shallow Hal (2001) et Fever Pitch (2005).

En 2007, il adapte en comédie musicale le grand classique de John Waters, Cry-Baby, qui avait assuré les débuts de Johnny Depp. La comédie musicale sera nominée plusieurs fois aux Tony Awards, le pendant des Oscars pour les comédies musicales.

En 2015, il a également écrit le morceau I Have Faith in You pour An Act of God, une pièce de théâtre dont le héros était interprété par Jim Parsons. Oui… LE Sheldon Cooper de Big Bang Theory.

En parlant de télé, il n’est pas en reste non plus et son expérience en comédies musicales s’est souvent avérée payante : outre des compositions pour des cérémonies telles que les Tony Awards (It’s Not Just For Gays Anymore – 2011, chantée par Neil Patrick Harris), Billboard Music Awards, The Howard Stern Show, Sesame Street (qui lui vaudra un Emmy en 2011), Saturday Night Live, il fait aussi chanter ses composition à Elvis Costello dans l’émission spéciale A Colbert Christmas : The Greatest Gift of All !, en 2008.

Autre moment visuellement impressionnant, la scène d’ouverture des Emmy Awards de 2001, chantée par Jane Lynch, pour laquelle il a écrit le morceau TV Is A Vast Wonderland. On y voit se succéder un sacré paquet de stars de la télé, à commencer par Leonard Nimoy, le regretté Mister Spock de la série Star Trek.

S’il était connu pour ses qualités de bassiste, c’est pourtant le piano qui l’a plongé dans le monde de la musique alors qu’il était encore enfant. Il a ensuite appris la basse parce qu’il avait « du mal à être ce gamin derrière le clavier qu’on plaçait à l’arrière de la scène ». C’est pourtant de ce piano que Schlesinger a joué sur The Bells, face B du single Thirty-Three des Smashing Pumpkins en 1996. Une belle amitié s’est instaurée entre lui et James Iha et ce dernier l’invitera à jouer sur chacun de ses albums solos (Let It Come Down, 1998 et Look to the Sky, 2012).

Ayant à cette même époque la même maison de disques, Schlesinger rencontre  Taylor Hanson mais il faudra cependant encore attendre une dizaine d’années avant que ce trio rajoute un batteur pour former Tinted Windows et sortir en 2009 ce génialissime album qu’est... Tinted Windows.

Adam Schlesinger a également écrit ou produit des morceaux pour d’autres artistes tels que les Crash Test Dummies (Laid Back, 2008), Dashboard Confessional (Alter the Ending, 2009), Chesney Hawkes (Stay Away Baby Jane, 2008)… Il a aussi entièrement écrit et composé le 3^e album d’Emmanuelle Seigner, Distant Lover. Un petit bijou que je vous recommande… Si je n’étais pas fan de Mr Adam, je n’aurais en tout cas jamais su que Seigner était chanteuse.

Les Fountains of Wayne sont venus quatre fois en Belgique sur leur carrière. Ils font donc partie de ces groupes dont, si vous en êtes fan, il vous faut y courir, à ce concert. C’est ce que j’ai fait le 7 novembre 2011, au Botanique à Bruxelles. Expérience que j’ai racontée dans un des tout premiers articles de ce blog, à vrai dire.

2011-11-07 Adam Schlesinger at Le Botanique, Brussels

Ce que je ne savais pas, en achetant mon billet, en passant ce moment avec le public du Bota, c’est que le destin allait me jouer un joli tour une fois la dernière note jouée. En trainant un peu après le concert, notre petit groupe a eu la chance de voir approcher Jodi Porter, le guitariste des FoW et… Adam. Une occasion pareille, elle se saisit. J’ai donc approché Adam pour lui demander une photo avec Jodi et lui, qu’il a acceptée de bonne grâce, et pour discuter un peu… J’ai depuis eu la chance de rencontrer quelques artistes, quelques acteurs et artistes mais cette rencontre est marquante parce qu’Adam et Jodi sont en fait les deux premières « célébrités » avec lesquelles j’ai fait une photo.

Au-delà de cette « première », je garde surtout un beau souvenir de cette discussion. Malgré une carrière déjà bien remplie, Adam a été d’une extrême gentillesse avec nous et, avec beaucoup d’humour, nous a dit être un musicien « paresseux », expliquant ainsi les écarts si longs entre deux albums des Fountains of Wayne. Grande ironie quand on sait… qu’il n’arrête jamais.

Qu’il n’arrêtait jamais.

Il me semble encore surréaliste, là, maintenant, d’employer le passé mais avec le décès d’Adam, force est de constater que maintenant, c’est la seule conjugaison qui s’avère correcte pour parler des Fountains of Wayne, d’Ivy, des Tinted Windows ou de Fever High, ses side-projects.

De mémoire, je n’ai jamais entendu le son de sa voix pour autre chose que des chœurs. Adam Schlesinger, partout où il est passé, a toujours été un artiste discret qui s’exprimait au travers de ses notes de musique et des paroles qu’il laissait à d’autres le soin de chanter. A une exception près… Entre 2015 et 2019, Adam a apporté sa touch à la série Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, série comico-musicale un brin décalée. En 2018, il a ainsi rejoint l’équipe de la série lors d’une mini-tournée où les fans ont ainsi pu expérimenter en live la voix du compositeur et… le décalage savoureux des chansons de la série. Grâce à cette série, Schlesinger a obtenu en septembre dernier un Emmy pour la chanson – ça ne s’invente pas - Antidepressants Are So Not a Big Deal.

Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart, une autre des chansons que j’aime beaucoup des FoW… C’est vrai, il y a toujours quelqu’un pour te briser le coeur. Aujourd’hui, c’est vous, Mr Adam, qui a brisé le mien en allant rejoindre d’autres personnes, des anonymes autant que d’autres artistes, suite à des complications de cette saloperie de virus… Voilà, je parle encore au présent. Parce que je n’ai toujours pas envie de parler au passé.

Mais pourtant, il faudra penser à continuer le fil de sa vie, dans un monde... sans toi, mec. Mais merci pour ces chouettes chansons qui, elles, resteront toujours pas très loin.

Stereophonics – Studio SFR (05/03/2013) ENGLISH

 

I wrote, on my “Graffiti On The Train” review how incredible things can sometimes happen to you… Two weeks ago, I was spending time on my FB when one of my friends showed up and announced me that Stereophonics would perform at the SFR Studio for a private audience. She also asked me if I’d be interested to go and it took me exactly 4 seconds to answer: one second for each letter of “YES” plus the exclamation mark. It crossed my mind that my presence could be required at the office (one of the downside of NOT working in the music domain) but at that very moment, I couldn’t care less… Hopefully, the schedule was so perfect that I was able to go. So here I am Paris!

After dropping our bags at the hotel, we go to the radio to pick the tickets that will allow us to enter the venue later that day. Before the show, we wander around Paris to admire the sight of the fantastic monuments and bridges of the town while speaking of our favorite artists… Walking so much whet the appetite so we decide to eat something before heading to SFR Studios where some fans were already waiting…

So… here we are inside the SFR Studio and my first impression is that we’ll definitely a nice moment there considering the size of the venue. It’s not every day that you can attend to a live show in a place that small. It turns out that we will be 120 lucky people at most to witness Stereophonics’ big return.
 



The stage : before show, soundcheck by guitar tech



 

 8:30PM, after a short introduction, the band arrives on stage. As usual, Adam Zindani and Richard Jones stand respectively on the left and right side of the stage, with Kelly Jones standing in the middle. On the left corner and behind Kelly stand their keyboardist (Tony Kirkham, I suspect) and Jamie Morrison, Stereophonics’ new drummer.

The band starts their performance with their latest single, “Indian Summer”. This version is something between the video version and the one available on YouTube as “Secret Sessions” where Kelly plays the song alone with his guitar. The song is obviously stripped from the string orchestra and looks tonight more like a ballad than the full of energy tune of the album but remains just as beautiful. It also allows us to appreciate even more the guitar lines (both acoustic and electric) out of it, probably my favorite sides of this song… Awesome one and a good way to start the evening.

The band then plays one of its hit songs, “Maybe Tomorrow”. This one has always had a calming vibe that could put any trouble mind at rest. Its guitar solo is always appreciated and fans let it know to the band by yelling a bit, bringing a smile to Kelly’s face as Adam’s fingers move on his guitar strings.

Time now for their new album’s title song: “Graffiti on the Train”. I wrote in my review on how this song overwhelmed me but I was far from imagining how things would go once I witnessed the band doing it live. I confirm this one is a pure jewel… Under white lighting, Kelly sings almost the entire song with his eyes closed, completely focused on the story of the two lovers. The electric guitar and piano part at the end are just perfect and I must admit that I was emotional for a split second when Mister Jones sang the line ‘The train sped down the line, it was the last train he would ride’. Right at that time and even more so now, I do realize how much picking this song as the album title was the best thing to do. 

Time for some “oldies” with “Just Looking” from their 1999 album “Performance & Cocktails” before coming back to their new album with “Been Caught Cheating”. Most of my friends who have listened to the album consider this one as their favorite: let’s face it, the blues suits Stereophonics. As Richard’s moving his body to the rhythm of the song, we can all enjoy the moment and I realize that, even though Kelly Jones had written this song with Amy Winehouse in mind, his voice is just so fine on this track. Adam’s solo is once again just perfect and brings additional depth to the song. I liked “Been Caught Cheating” when I listened to Graffiti for the first time and it wasn’t though my #1 song of the album but… after tonight, I can actually now picture this one as a possible future single.

 

© Sound of Violence (Photographer : Mauro Melis)



 Kelly now explains to the audience that the song they’re about to play is the first single they ever released, back in 1997: “Local Boy in the Photograph”. I then notice the unique look of Adam’s guitar: one white six-string that could probably be able to tell us a lot of stories as it seems to have a few years age of time. The color is missing on its left top side and you can see the wood. Aaah boys and their guitar.

I also notice at that point that Kelly has played every song with an acoustic guitar since the beginning of the show, leaving electric parts to Adam. It appears that it will be the case for the whole set.
Remember how I wrote that Kelly Jones never fails when it comes to sing a song? I’ll never write a line like that again… it’s too much bad luck ‘cos… he did it that night! I’m not sure many people noticed it though and I wasn’t sure myself until seeing Adam and Richard’s large smiles. It lasted for a split second but when I saw these two smiling, I knew something went a bit wrong. To me, that’s one of the charming aspects of live shows: at least, you know that what you see (and hear) is all “real”. Anyway, this anecdote also showed up how much these guys get along quite well: it sometimes takes just a look between them to understand each other or sending a silent message that can only be decrypted by an inner-member of the Stereophonic team. I loved that moment so much full of complete complicity!

 

© Sound of Violence (Photographer : Mauro Melis)

 

As Kelly mentions it, they’re about to perform “No-one’s Perfect”, tonight’s last song taken from “Graffiti on the Train”. A moment of quietness for that beautiful song…

Well actually, now that I think of it and looking back on it a few days after the show, that’s how I’d described the audience that night : a bit too quiet. All right, there weren’t songs like “The Bartender and the Thief”, “Madame Helga”, “Trouble” or “Catacomb” in the set list and maybe it influenced the audience in some ways but… come on, people! I was on the back and sang like crazy when they performed “Just Looking” and “Local Boy…”. All right, I was at the back but it’s either I’m deaf and didn’t hear the crowd singing or the boys are able to literally hypnotize a full audience… and I’m quite sure it was none of these two things that happened that night. Or maybe I imagined it. Or maybe I should have changed my habit and try the front stage. I’ll never know, I guess…

 

© Sound of Violence (Photographer : Mauro Melis)

 

Kelly introduces the next song by telling us that he was sleeping and having a dream. In his dream, Ringo Starr showed up near his home and… it inspired him the song. I’m still wondering in which ways though: maybe the Beatles’ drummer wanted to trade Kelly’s flying giraffe for the octopus that was once in his garden? Some songs’ inside secrets are hard to get… Anyway “I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio” is still one of those uplifting songs that can easily bring a smile on any face. 

To start “Pick A Part That’s New”, Kelly starts counting from one to four, with the help of the audience, before realizing he’s in France: therefore, he starts counting again… in French this time. At the end of the song, a girl shouted that it was her birthday to which Kelly answered that they also had a birthday boy amongst them. I first thought he was talking about one of the roadies that were standing on the left side of the room (or maybe he was…) but realized – two days too late – that he was mentioning… Adam. The guitarist and background vocalist of Stereophonics was actually celebrating his 41^st birthday that day. No cake on stage but a great laugh when Kelly mentioned that he was… 26 year-old now.

Birthday Boy...
© Sound of Violence (Photographer : Mauro Melis)

  

The band then plays “Have A Nice Day”, with both Adam and Richard on the background vocals. Another fine moment provided by that thrilling song that makes me sway from left to right and vice versa. Stereophonics end their private show with another one of their hits, “Dakota”, before leaving the stage…

Then that was it.

Well… not quite actually. REALLY not quite.

Just like I did with the Imagine Dragons guys, I left home with a copy of the band’s album review I wrote just in case they’d stay a while after the show. They didn’t but I approached one of their roadies, a lovely guy, and explained to him what was in the envelope I had in my hand. He kindly offered to give it to them and here’s my chance to thank him for his kindness. 

Stereophonics played for around an hour and once outside the SFR studio, my friend and I wondered what we could do at such an early hour. The evening was quite warm for a winter night so we decided to enjoy that nice weather and stick around a bit in the open air and make the most of such a beautiful evening. Being both music addicts, we started talking about various artists coming from many different musical horizons: Joseph Arthur, Fistful of Mercy, Fountains of Wayne, Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, Nikki Sixx, The Beatles, Tom Petty… Before we realized it, more than one hour had passed and it was 11P.M. That’s when the Stereophonics men decided to show up…

They were nice enough to take a picture with me and also signed my “Keep Calm and Carry On” Deluxe Edition. Of all my CDs, I picked this one for a reason: it was the first album released after Adam Zindani was officially made a member of Stereophonics… and I had not received my pre-ordered Limited Edition of “Graffiti on the Train” yet.
Life’s full of surprises: I guess Adam probably never imagined for a split second he’d be a part of the Stereophonics history when he and his band Casino toured with them as the Welsh band’s opening act back in 2005. I’m glad he did: through the whole set, Kelly played acoustic guitar and let Adam play electric guitar. Although I was a bit sad that Kelly’s famous Gibson SG Cherry guitar didn’t show up, I think Adam’s guitar skills are awesome and the more I was watching him play, the more it felt like he was right where he was supposed to be.

Speaking of his band Casino, I highly recommend the band to you: the Birmingham-based band is a musical blast! I listened to their “The Spider Simpson Incident” album Wednesday and… have literally not been able to stop listening to it since then! I am also going completely crazy ‘cos I can’t find any physical copy of the CD and have to keep playing the album through YouTube. How am I supposed financially supporting a band I like when I can’t buy their album? I know… this is crazy. No. I’m crazy I think. Anyway… let me introduce you to “Runaway”, their latest single, available on iTunes.

  

Here’s another video of Casino and… watch closely Adam’s guitar: it’s the one he had in his hands tonight.

  

I also had funny moments with Richard, who apparently thought I had a “cool jacket” (thank you Sir!) and who’s one of the coolest and funniest musician I’ve ever met. One of those moments is immortalized in a 7 seconds movie shot by my camera: here’s what happens when you forget to change your camera settings… I reaaaaally must thank the Welsh guy for his kindness and… patience. ;)
 

"Cool jacket" in front in REALLY less cool kitchen wallpaper :D

  

Remember what I wrote on Jamie Morrison on my review… before updating it when I found out he wasn’t the drummer involved in “Graffiti on the Train”? Well… from where I was standing, I didn’t have a good view on the drummer and had only my ears as witness of his drumming. But… I wasn’t wrong when I wrote “from what I’ve heard while listening to ‘Graffiti On The Train’, I’m not worried, the drummer perfectly fits into Stereophonics’ world”. Just replace the ‘listening to Graffiti on the Train’ part by ‘attending tonight’s show’ and you’ll have my opinion on Stereophonics’ new drummer.

There are more stories to tell about our crazy Stereophonics adventure, including having a famous French actor right beside us, jumping in the subway or missing the train and wondering if I may finally go back to Belgium and be back at work the next morning or even a story including chickenpox but… let’s keep it simple. Let me just tell you this: the underbelly of Paris is now all different to me… Thanks you guys for that show, “the” moment and your time. I had a blast!

And I am – with some of my friends – waiting for you. In Belgium this time.

PS – I’d like to thank again Sabrina, who made all this possible, as well as the Morning Rock team of Oüi FM.

I’d also like to thank the Sound of Violence website and photographer Mauro Melis for kindly allowing me to use some of their pictures. 
 

Setlist :

-         Indian Summer

-         Maybe Tomorrow

-         Graffiti Train

-         Just Looking

-         Been Caught Cheating

-         Local boy In The Photograph

-         No One’s Perfect

-         I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio

-         Pick a Part That's New

-         Have A Nice Day

-         Dakota