Bob and Muddy decide to fly home to London and Helsinki respectively while Joe and I drove to the French Alps, Samoëns to be precise, where we were joined by my sons, Lawrence and Aynsley, for a week’s skiing. French ‘fanager’ Christian Guyonnet plus friends from Normandy, Michel and Serge, joined us midway. The redoubtable Swiss actress, Lilo, completed our band of merry piste artists. This multinational crew was wined and dined in a fabulous ski lodge owned by fellow muso, Mathias (Les Négresses Vertes) and his partner Philippe.
Needless to say the last few gigs ended on a high and the skiing took it several steps higher. We had two major snow dumpages during the week so there was plenty of the white stuff and some days it was even hot enough for sun bathing. The highlight was saved for the last day where we skied for 15 continous kilometers (on fresh ‘powder’ for some of the time.) Joe, Lawrence and Aynsley did snowboarding in addition and planned to do some para – gliding on the last day but the wind changed - thankfully. Watching these bird men leap off the side of a mountain and disappear into a cloud is not my idea of fun. Apparently one of them told me that sometimes you only have a GPS and altimeter to tell you where you are if you go into a cloud!
Now we are back on the road and the two French shows went very well. Le Plan, just outside Paris is a great rock gig which we have played before and the show in Compienge was also very good with Mellino opening on both dates, with their special brand of cool Gypsy tinged rock.
Now we are in Holland where the shows have also been going very well. One thing that is killing me though is the smoke filled venues. I’m no smoking Nazi but now that touring has become a smoke free environment (bliss for singers), to encounter venues where people are merrily puffing away in front of you while you are taking huge lung fulls of air leaves one kind of hung over the next day and your clothing reeks of smoke. The instruments also get infused with this and you get to experience the whole thing again, the next night. Oh well , c'est la vie.
~ A.P.
