Breakfast In Spain - Roger Hodgson and Supertramp website

CHRONICLES - EXCALIBUR - BERCY (PARIS)

Hi everybody !
Life was so easy for use those days, with Rennes meeting and Roger back to success.
We forgot that the show business industry was a hard one, and that it was difficult to make things go well everytime...

Excalibur show yesterday was... well how to say that... The show was completely "killed" by a really bad sound.
At a time where it is so easy to do a good song everywhere using computers, yesterday's show was unbelievable !

I hardly heard Roger singing. In fact all the voices where covered by musicians.
And the whole sound was so high that sometimes we were forced to protect our ears...

In addition to the sound problem, I found that the lights were quite "poor" and always lightening the crowd.
There was not an "concert" mood, we were most of the time looking at other people in the area, instead of looking at the stage.
And when an area is only 2/3 full, I think it's better to darken the audience.

My report would not be complete without saying that a part of the 7,000/8,000 audience left the show before the end.
Of course it is unfair for Alan's work, but the noise was too much for a lot of people.

There is absolutely no comparison with Rennes' magical show.

Well, I hope next shows in Britanny will be more prepared. The Paris Bercy arena is so full of events that you do not have a lot of time to do the sound check before the show.

I didn't try to meet the artists after the show because I had a friend to drive back to his home late in the night.
I am sure Alan is really disappointed (it was obvious on stage...). Honestly, his songs are so beautiful and all the artists are so good,
that the main thing to do today for Alan is firing immediately the sound engineer.
Things would probably have been so different with a good sound.

Well, that's life. This is a step in Alan's career, I'm sure he will manage it well.

Love to all of you ! Have a good summer, and enjoy good music !

Christophe