For my podcast N°100 I chose to call my very first guest on Meltingod Chris Bailey from The Saints !!
He played for me his favorite song on the phone and shared with us his ideas and projects for 2010, alone or with different people, with The Saints and who knows : maybe with his first music partner Ed Kuepper ?

 
Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper with The Saints at ATP in Australia in January 2009 (pics : Richard Sharman and Carbie Warbie)

I illustrated the interview with some nice songs from The Saints at different periods : two fabulous Live versions of Nights in Venice and The Chameleon recorded with the original line up (Ed, Ivor with Caspar and a horn section) at Pig City in 2007 (a live album is released !!), Simple Love (in 81 with Barrington Francis at the guitar, Janine Hall at the bass, Mark Birmingham on the drums) Demolition girl (Live at Paddingtown Hall in 77) I’m misunderstood (The International Robot sessions in 77).
Stay in touch for more in the part 2 on line soon !

Each November 9th since 1989 I remember the fall of the Berlin wall because this town is a kind of second hometown for me and I watch  at the TV with some tears in the eyes the old movies which show all these people and families who at last reunited each other.

The poster of a painting from the Wall hung on my wall for years…

This year a lot of politicians from Europe celebrated the 20th anniversary with a huge party in front of the Brandeburger Tor. I was not very convinced with their performance thinking to the financial crisis, to all other walls which still exist around the world and to all the people who still live oppressed by dictators in the complete indifference.

Meeting with an angel in Berlin…

my friends from East Berlin who found their ex-national flag thrown in the rubbish after the fall of the wall…

So I chose through that podcast to do a kind of punk personal celebration in two parts : first with mixing some old live ambience recordings I did in “my” Berlin these last years (during the Walpurgis Night in Friedrichshain streets with the band ACK, with Markus in his car, at Wild at Heart a punk club in Kreuzberg) , a few German songs I love (from the band Noah : “Help your police, Hit yourself” and from John F. un die Gropiuslerchen : “Berlin Berlin”) and a recent interview I recorded with Ralf who shares with us his night in Berlin November 9 th when he heard the Wall was opened !!

The Wall’s opening from East Berlin side : still some hesitations…

“Berlin Berlin !! dein Herz hat kein Mauer” (Berlin your heart has no wall)
from John F. und die Gropiuslerchen ( a lot of archives’ pics in that clip)

In a second part I propose to leave Berlin for a country which is waking up from a very hard nightmare too : Cambodia where the dictactors Kmher Rouge completly destroyed the culture and erected a kind of mental wall which isolated the people until they lost the memory of their own names.
I recorded a few days ago an interview with a long time friend of mine Bob Passion who lives and works there now with streets kids in the context of a project called Bhor Cambodia.

The kids who learn and do art performances with Bob in Cambodia

Bob brought me the last album “Peur de Rien” (Fear of Nothing) he recorded there with his new local band “Kanlat Rik Rié” : I played excerpts from “Chez Mike, Maconiero, Pas Là, Là”. Punk is not dead in Cambodia with Bob !!

Bob’s band Kanlat Rik Rié Live on stage

You can DOWNLOAD HIS WHOLE ALBUM FOR FREE here :
WWW.BOBPASSION.NET
and all your welcomed donations will go to his project for kids “Bhor Cambodia”.

Mick Jones the famous Clash’s guitarist and the French-Algerian musician Rachid Taha rocked together the Casbah in Marseille for Marsatac 2009 !!

Rodolphe Burger and 8 French and Libanese musicians opened that unforgettable night with finalizing very properly and creatively (in despite very few days of rehearsals together) their musical project Mix Up Beyrouth (part 1 with interview in July at the festival de Marseille). The incredible good spirits between this relatively big young band made the alchemy around Rodolphe who was a very discrete but efficient artistic director.

Left to right (at the soundcheck) : Frederic (guitar, slam), Fady (multi-instrumentalist), Abed (buzuk), Youmna (guitar, voclas) Arnaud (drums), Rodolphe (guitar, vocals), Julien (bass), Rayess (rap; testing the sound in the venue) and Ziad (keyboards).
 
Live : Fady Abed Arnaud Youmna; Youmna Rodolphe Rayess Ziad.

Then it was the time for Rachid Taha to increase progressively the excitation in the crowd with a lot of guests and friends sharing the stage with his band, playing his repertoire but giving a deserved big place to Mick Jones, The Clash’s guitarist who looked like to have had a great great fun with us in Marseille, smiling and laughing the whole night ! As Rachid said : “It’s Christmas tonight…it’s madness !!”

 
 

Mick Jones started “Should I stay or Should I go” directly in front of me and it would be a crime not to try to film and capture that song despite my small compact camera’s weak abilities for this kind of act. So here you go :

Then, the wet atmosphere coming from the dancing crowd invaded the stage with a kind of fog which made heroic to take same good pics in front of the lightshow; it was a shame because Rodolphe Burger joined the team on the stage to add some electric guitar’s riffs between Mick Jones and his friend Hakim Hammouche (at the mandoluth in Rachid Taha), but here some family’s pics just for the fun and to see all these smiles on their faces : shared happiness ! Thanks to Marsatac !!

 

 

At last to conclude this report and give you as close as possible an idea of the Live ambience, a mix with a few short videos clips : Enjoy !!

I met Texas Terri in Berlin last February and we recorded the interview we missed in Marseille last year in November when she played at la machine à coudre during her European tour 2008 with her band Texas Terri Bomb : Texas Terri (vocals), Beano Skint (bass), Olivier “the Inspector” (guitar), Marina Maniac (drums).

Texas with her band in Marseille; Texas and Coco at Tiki Heart Berlin

This time we had the great pleasure to talk quietly at Tiki Heart a nice bar beside Wild at Heart (my favorite berliner punk rock club) about her long musical carrier who started in Austin (Texas) then in Los Angeles during many years before she decided to live in Berlin. Her talk is like she is : honest, direct, sincere, funny, touching, volcanic without compromise !!

Texas and Marina; Texas “the female Mick Jagger” in action !

I played some songs’ excerpts from her album “Your lips…my ass” : Never Shut Up, Strike, Dirty Action, The Rocker, One Hit Wonder, Oh Yeah! where a lot of famous American musicians participated to the recording : Wayne Kramer (MC5) Sonny Vincent, Marc Diamond (Motochrist), Ryan Roxie (Alice Cooper) Cherrie Currie (Runaways) just to mention some of them + an Iggy Popp’s cover I recorded Live in Marseille : I wanna be your dog !

Texas and Beano; Texas and Marina : chicks who rock !!

Meltingpod Connection :
Not better news from Mick Cocks than to see him Live on stage with Angry Anderson and Rose Tattoo in Sydney July 24th 2009 !!!

review about the show HERE. My best thoughts to you Mick !

Rodolphe Burger was invited by Marsatac in the Festival de Marseille to work with 6 young musicians from Beyrouth in Libanon and one musician from Marseille in the context of a project called “Mix Up Beyrouth” : what a great idea which at last gave me the opportunity to do a Live interview with one of my favorite French musicians !

Rodolphe Burger (guitar and vocals) during the show Mix Up Beyrouth; Rodolphe with Julien Perraudeau (bass).

I immediatly loved Rodolphe Burger’s music, special sound and style when I saw him Live many years ago with his ex-band Kat Onoma so I will play a lot of songs’ excerpts from this band to illustrate that interview (The Radio, Artificial Life, Idiotic, La Chambre, Le déluge “d’après moi”, John and Mary, Play with Fire with James Blood Ulmer, Billy The Kid) as well as some excerpts from the Mix Up Beyrouth’s first Live performance at la Friche Belle de Mai July 11th 2009 (including an excerpt from the soundcheck !!). You can also check Rodolphe’s solo albums : HERE.

Mix Up Beyrouth Live in Marseille !! a short clip but a great moment !

Rodolphe with Ziad Saad (keyboards, vocals, guitar); Rodolphe with Rayess Bek (vocals and computer) in the background Julien and Ziad.

Rodolphe met these 7 musicians from Beyrouth and Marseille for the first time just 10 days before the show and it really was a challenge to be creative and in harmony in a so short period of time : but they got it !! Second step in September for the Marsatac festival’s overture : don’t miss them if you’re in the area !

Youmma Saba (vocals guitar) Rodolphe, Julien and Ziad.

the whole band (from right to left) : Frederic Nevchehirlian (vocals guitar), Fady Tabbal (multi-instumentist), Youmma, Abed Kobeissy (busuk), Rodolphe, Julien, Ziad and Rayess.

Ziad taking the vocals, Youmma and Rayess during the encore !

Everybody focused during the soundcheck.

Obviously after the Mix Up Beyrouth’s project, I couldn’t resist to ask Rodolphe questions about Kat Onoma’s eventual future, how he built his own recording studio “The Farm”, launched his own label ‘Derniere Bande” and created his own festival “C’est dans la Vallée” + he announced me the next tour with his new trio…so many things that I forgot to speak about his last tour in China and Ouzbekistan !! Hoping it just was the part 1 !!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with Ed Kuepper at the guitar : I couldn’t miss that event for nothing even if I had to travel to Dresden in Germany (close to the Czech Republic !) June 21th (the Music Day in France !) to see them for the unique show which was not played in a festival during their current European tour 2009.

A nice intimate atmosphere in Junge Garde, an amphitheater with 3500 people (ref.the press) among the beautiful trees in the town’s central park, which allowed me to be in front of the stage without any big troubles : I can’t appreciate a show at another place, so close to the energy !

 
Nick Cave the charismatic poet and Ed Kuepper the guitar’s devil !!

Nick Cave taking the guitar to add still more electricity in the air…the threatened dark clouds disappeared subitely from the sky for our luck (it was raining almost all the time I was in Dresden !!).

 

Nick happy to have put the rose he got from a fan in Warren Ellis ‘ shirt : the poor had the both hands busy on his violin and couldn’t protest; Nick outside the stage, fascinating the audience with his voice and hands…

“Midnight Man”’s excerpt just to give you an idea of the ambiance Live on stage and surely one of my favorite songs !

 

Ed Kuepper very focused in the music, Thomas Wyller who did a fantastic job using every tools which make sounds to beat his drums; Nick always involved 100% in his lyrics. The words I can remember which chronologically came through my head during the show : Magnifique, Excellent, Intensity, a dramatic intensity which gives you thrills on the skin.

“Papa Won’t Leave You Henry”’s excerpt : a magic moment with Ed Kuepper at the acoustic guitar accompagning Nick Cave who told us a new story always as close as possible to the audience…

All the 7 Bad Seeds on the same pic (from right to left) : Ed Kuepper (guitar), Thomas Wyller (drums), Conway Savage (keyboards), Martyn Casey (bass), Jim Sclavunos (drums), Nick Cave (vocals, guitar and keyboards), Warren Ellis (very small guitar and violin).

 

Ed Kuepper and Nick Cave constantly moving from a place to another one; another word coming to my head later was : Elegance in their attitudes, subtleties in the light shows (which unfortunately were not really captured by my slow camera) and sometime the feeling to penetrate in their musical laboratory where they are re-creating Live a new performance every night. By the way, even if front of the stage the sound quality was simply perfect ! Congratulations to Matt Crosby the sound engineer !

 

Ed, Nick and Thomas; Nick often pointing the sky; everybody singing the backing vocals. The show started precisely at 8:30 pm with the twilight and fortunately finished at 10:30 in the night allowing us to appreciate at least the colorfull light show with the music climbing in crescendo until the last song “Get Ready For Love” and the red and white lights effects at their maximum : Nice sentence for a goodbye !

PS : I was allowed by the security to enter in the audience with my small compact camera (no extra lens; the clips are just filmed with the basic video option) thanks to the management teams who are admitting right now that everybody who has a mobile phone in his pocket has in the same time a camera and a video recorder too. Nice they accepted now my little camera without phone. In fact at the AC/DC’s show in Marseille it was allowed too but I didn’t know it ! I dedicated all these pics and clips to Nick Cave’s and Ed Kuepper’s fans in Australia hoping you could see them Live too one day ! Thanks to Martyn and Gudrun who were my fantastic hosts in Dresden ! Thanks to Ed for everything : terrific to see him again in person and on the stage ! Long Life to the Bad Seeds !! For the European fans, check their tour’s next dates on their myspace pages and don’t miss them !

Meltingpod Connections : Update June 29th
I found Dresden gig’s set list in Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Forum : Tupelo, Dig Lazarus Dig !!!, Red Right Hand, Deanna, Midnight Man, The Ship Song, Henry Lee, Moonland, The Mercy Seat, Love Letter, There She Goes My Beautiful World, The Weeping Song, Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, Stagger Lee, (encore) Breathless, Straight To You, We Call Upon The Author, Jesus Of The Moon, Get Ready For Love and Lucy !! btw : I’m sure “Get Ready For Love” was the last song though…:)
PS : Thanks to the Queensland Music Festival, Ed’s next act after this tour, who chose my very first video at l’Olympia 2008 to present Ed’s work !!

A little video I filmed during a funny party in Marseille and I chose to publish today to wish my blog Meltingpod a nice 4th anniversary : All their secret rituals will be revealed to you by the Irishmen themselves…at least !!

There even is a special mention to Chris Bailey from the Saints (the first Irishman I met in my life !!), if you’re attentive…:)
This “intercultural” party closed in fact an European one week long exchange between young people coming from Ireland, Spain, Italy and France organized by Eurocircle Marseille in September 2008.

In this podcast and interview ED KUEPPER explains how he is joining NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS for their next European tour this Summer !! He is playing guitar in the band for a lot of festivals after Mick Harvey one of the founding member and guitarist left at the end of the ATP 2009 in Australia.

The Saints and the Bad Seeds at ATP in Sydney January 2009 (thanks Judi !)

Invited by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (ATP’s curators) Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey reformed with their drummer Ivor Hay The Saints‘ original line-up for 6 shows during that festival last January and they added Archie Larizza at the bass and a three pieces horn section. We spoke with Ed about the rehearsals and specially about two songs I heard through the internet and recorded Live by fans : One Way Street in Melbourne (a new/old version!!) and Nights in Venice in Mt Buller.

 
Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper together on stage with the Saints at ATP (Mt Buller) January 9th 2009 (pics Black Shadow Photography)

But Nick Cave invited Ed to reform the Laughing Clowns for three shows at ATP too, two shows being scheduled in the same night than the Saints !! I played for the first time on Meltingpod some Laughing Clowns’ songs : “New Bully in the Town”,”As your bridges burn behind you” (studio versions) and a excerpt from “Come One Come All” (recorded Live at Mt Buller by a fan). In the second part of the podcast we will speak with Ed about the Laughing Clowns’ reunion after 25 years and their projects in the next future with more songs’ excerpts from that incredible band !!! (post punk ???..:)

Louise Elliott, Biff Millar and Ed Kuepper with the Laughing Clowns at ATP (Mt Buller) January 10th 2009 (pics James Edge)

Dimi Dero Inc : A French band who loves Australia as much as me, you could hear it in the live interview I recorded with Dimi Dero (vocals and guitar) and Vinz (bass) after the show-case they did at Lollipop Store in Marseille just before their show at “la machine à coudre” in October 2008. We spoke about their connections with Australia, their friendly and musical complicities with a lot of Australian musicians : Penny Ikinger, Loene Carmen, Delphine and Warren Ellis, Mick Harvey, Rob Younger from Radio Birman and the New Christs, Steve Lucas and Cathy Green from X, the Drones…

 
Jean-Luc (guitar), Dimi (vocals and guitar), Pascal (drums)

 
Experimentation with an electric drill used as a mediator; Vinz at the bass.

Beside their musical project with Dimi Dero Inc or with Penny Ikinger when she is touring Europe, Dimi plays in many bands as a drummer (Tex Napalm, Mark Steiner, Youpi Youpi Yeah…) and Vinz with Holy Curse.
Their next album will be produced by Rob Younger but Dimi has his own label too Stagger Records created at the origin to release a tribute album to Rowland S. Howard (Birthday Party) and for other bands in a next future.

To illustrate the interview I played some excerpts from Dimi Dero’s solo album “Good Morning Monsieur Edvard” and from Dimi Dero Inc’s both first albums “Greetings from Trauma” and “Sisyphus, window cleaning” + some live recordings at la machine à coudre for the ambience !! Enjoy !!

the show-case at Lollipop Store; at the end of the show, Dimi wanted to play drums !!

Penny Ikinger from Melbourne Australia played in Marseille during her European tour 2008 with a special line-up called Penelope Inc including Dimi Dero on the drums and Vinz at the bass guitar, both played together in the band “Dimi Dero Inc“. It was a great musical and human pleasure to meet them three together : a true Australian-French Meltingpod as I love !!

 
Penny Ikinger playing at Marselle at la machine a coudre !!

Penny gave me a very spontaneous Live interview after the show and I illustrated our talk with some rough excerpts of the Live show at la machine a coudre : the best underground punk rock place in Marseille !! Thanks to the Relax and co’s team who organized that show !

 
Penny and Dimi Dero on the drums; Dimi very focused…

I started and closed the podcast with two songs from her first album “Electra” : “Poison Berries” and “Kathleen” to give you a better and proper idea of her music.

 
Dimi; Penelope Inc : Penny, Dimi and Vinz (Dimi Dero Inc and Holy Curse from Paris)

Penny explained how she chose Dimi and Vinz to make that European tour; I will introduce you later in details these both French musicians from Paris in a next podcast when they gave a show in Marseille with their band “Dimi Dero Inc” : they played in too much different line-up in the same time to write it here.

Norbert Krief aka Nono, guitarist and founding member of the French band TRUST in 77, accepted to give me an interview when they played in Marseille on October 10th during their European tour 2008.

 
 
Trust in Marseille : Nono (guitar), Bernie (vocals), Farid (drums) and a wonderful lightshow but pretty hard to take good pics in three songs !

Nono was enough kind to answered to my questions in English for being understable by my listeners and all their fans around the world even if it was not easy for us both to really express ourselves in a foreign language. I hope you will appreciate the performance !! We spoke about their new album “13 à table”, the critique about our society and politics’ drifts or failures in their lyrics (even if Bernie is the master, he was not free for the interview), the evolution of their music (Nono writes the melodies),

 
 
Nono, Bernie, Deck (DJ), Vivi (guitar) and Iso (bass) in action !

…their world reputation in the hard rock scene (cf. the American band Anthrax covering “Antisocial” in English), even if they just considered themselves as a rock band, their friendship with the Australian bands Rose Tattoo and AC/DC and I illustrate the interview with some excerpts of their new album as well as some good old songs which crossed and touched all the generations during 30 years.

 
 
no break and the audience is crazy, sang all a long the show (at the fire front Nono 55 a big fan came from the East of France)

This time I got a true live audience with Gary from Dublin (Ireland), David from Galicie (Spain) and David from Torino (Italy) and I interviewed them during the time I played the songs chosen for that podcast : 16’s Legal from 3 Foot Ninja (UK), “Ode à Sarko” from Miseres et Cordes (France), “Blood for Oil” from Mutant Press (USA), “Where did I go wrong” (+ “I love Rock and Roll” in intro) from the band “X” founded by Ian Rilen, “Skinny Jean” from Ed Kuepper and “Wild about you and Erotic Neurotic” from the Original Saints (all those bands from Australia if you didn’t know it before)…Gary (18 years old) and the both David (24 years old) were very serious to give their point of view, they played themselves in bands : punk, lo-fi garage, new metal…a true shared pleasure with them, i hope for you too !

 
Jordan (16 years old) from 3 Foot Ninja (UK) Gary (18) from Dublin (Ireland)

 
Mutant Press (USA), the band “X” (Australia) in 2003 with Steve Lucas, Cath Synnerdahl, Ian Rilen and Geof Holmes (a meeting of the original line-up who recorded the “I love Rock’n Roll” album)

BTW : Gary and the both David owned a group of 20 young people between 16 and 24 who were during a week at Marseille in September for a transnational training session where I taught them how to record an interview and put it on a blog (on Meltingtalks soon with the best moments!!).

 
 
David from Italy (his band : your personal Santa Claus), Gary from Ireland and his percing-tunnel (his band : “As it bleeds”!!) David from Spain (his band : SNC “Sistema Nervioso Centra”), Gary and me at the final party !

Big and unexpected news at the end : Ed Kuepper announced to me Yesterday they re-formed the Original Saints with Chris Bailey and Ivor Hay for three shows at All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in January 2009…in Australia !!! For the same event he will re-form as well Laughing Clowns with Jeffrey Weggener, Louise Elliott and Leslie Millar…more ? Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds will be there too !!!!!!!!