Rock Knights

Musings from a wet and humid Paris: I'm here with director, Christian Guyonnet and engineer François Loubyere. We are doing some more work on our rockumentary, recorded last spring Normandy. It is our hope that this can be released soon. We are talking with various labels. In addition, tomorrow night, I'll be visiting Jean-Pierre Danel in the studio nearby, where he is working on the Aids benefit CD I played on recently, which also features other guests like Scott Henderson and Hank B. Marvin.

On the weekend, we played this quite bizarre open air show near the medieval town of La Couvertoirade in the beautiful Larzac region of southern France. The bill featured those intergalactic travelers, Hawkwind plus Furious George - an amazing AC/ DC tribute band from Corsica, of all places. When we arrived there, I was immediately accosted by two 'hags' resplendent in beggar duds and full make- up, warts and all, like something from the 12th century. We soon realized we were in the middle of a full blown medieval fair / re-enactment, with Crusader knights, Templars and Saracens. There were blacksmiths, lots of horses and a whole medieval village complete with a jousting area where grown men in chain mail were fighting each other, despite the temperatures being close to 30deg. C .

Wishbone Ash played a great show, I thought. The crowd was totally up for it and wanted us back for an encore. On the way, to Montpelier airport the next morning, we stopped in Gignac, joining friends, Mathias and Joce of Khôl and Samoëns fame, for coffee. I then had a bizarre flight to London before finally arriving back in Paris. I know there was some very real reason for this diversion but my main focus was on stopping at the sea food bar at Heathrow, for dinner and a glass of Sancerre, so I didn't really care - notwithstanding that I missed my first flight connection Paris. It all worked out in the end. With airports being like big shopping malls these days, I just go with the flow and aside from the many tedious security checks, just do my normal thing, answering emails and phoning friends as I go.

I also have the Millenium trilogy of thrillers with me, so I'm currently immersed in the world of the Swedish writer, Stieg Larsson  with his fictional heroine, Lisbeth Salander. If you don't wish to read all three books, I can thoroughly recommend the 1st one, The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo. The original Swedish movie, I've heard, is really supposed to capture the mood.

Later - A.P.           

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