....but you can't take Ireland out of the Irish. Here's Pat McManus making a perfect leprechaun of himself. We were backstage on St. Paddy's night in Paris of all places when I snapped this. Billed as the "English Interloper", I've been joining Pat and his guys plus Taste's John Wilson and original Van the Man and Lizzy original, Eric Bell on Irish Legends Nights here in France. Tonight it's at La Luçiole in Alençon. The place is nice venue Wishbone Ash itself has played in the past. It's sold out. There seems to be some mystical connection between the French and the Irish. Is it religion or rugby? Either way they are all impossible to understand. It's a barrel of laughs, I can tell you.

On only a somewhat more serious note, I spent a nice hour or so at a screening room for the final review of the upcoming Wishbone Ash movie "Mad in France" courtesy of super 'fanager' and videographer, Christian Guyonnet assisted by Mikael. The 63 minute movie catalogues our rehearsals and writing sessions last summer in Normandy. I think people will get a kick out this fly on the wall glimpse of our creative process which includes picnics, go cart racing, generally goofing off, plus - oh yes, a healthy amount of music captured over a 4 day period. We hope to offer this in conjunction with the next studio CD. Gotta get the single on release in the UK first though.

Yesterday Christian took me to the Pompidou Centre in Paris where we dined al fresco overlooking a superb view of Paris. Highly recommended if you get a chance to visit the city of Napoléon.

Later ~ A.P.

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