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August 2007 |
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New Caledonia!Some quick thoughts from Derek
In case you missed the details, Nigel and I went over for a week or so at the beginning of August to New Caledonia with Rotorua bluesman Mike Garner and his percussioniste Warren Houston, since Mike had been invited to perform at the Live En Août Festival. We both played on Mike's latest album, Cad's Alley (Nigel rather more than me!) and he asked us to join him at the festival. The band held four public rehearsals at Chambers Bar & Café in Rotorua the previous month so when we hit New Caledonia we were a pretty tight unit. So, we played two nights in Noumea, at the bottom of the island, and then headed out on a tour of the North, playing beach hotels in what is Kanaky territory.For this adventure we travelled in a fleet of small Citröens (and a local sound crew in a van with the gear) led by Mike's wonderful wife and manager Sally, who kept everything impressively under control despite suffering from an eye virus, and the delightful Simon Appleton, an Englishman with distinct French overtones who has been living on the island for decades and who originally recommended Mike for the Festival. He acted as tour guide and general translater when our primitive French failed. He also sat in and played some tasty electric guitar at the northern gigs - we owe him many thanks and look forward to catching up later in the year. So each night we played a 2-hour show and ate great French food (this was something of a regular theme - those folk certainly know their way around chacuterie, with wonderful pâtés, rillettes and terrines, and a lot of good cheese, all accompanied by the omnipresent baguettes - which taste even better made by the French!). These earthly delights were capped off by wind gently rustling in the palm trees and the sound of waves on the beach, which was never more than 50 yards from our rooms. Add to that constant temperatures of 25 (day) and 15 (night), and the barrel of duty-free gin we took over, and you have a recipe for paradise and some serious partying!.jpg) .jpg) The music too was a pleasure. Mike's new album is great and it was very enjoyable to be playing songs from it. If you like smart modern blues playing with a trad vibe then you should immediately get youself a copy. This tour was also my live debut on madolin, playing about a third of the songs each night on the little beast - expect to hear more mandolin on upcoming Kokomo albums! All in all I can't say enough about the place and the people. Our greatest thanks go to Mike for inviting us to share his (and our) first tropical tour. Sally has posted a web album of pictures from the tour - if you want to have a fuller look at new Caledonia, check it out here. And, for your viewing pleasure, here's a clip of us all from the show at Poum in the north of the Island, playing Mike's terrific song "Louisiana Hurricane" from Cad's Alley. Enjoy!
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New Caledonia was a Blast! What a fantastic time, and what a pleasure to play some great music (that wasn't our own!) for an exotic, mainly French, audience.
