MONDAY 21st DECEMBER 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 31
Not Recording: 'Wild west'
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'On your radio'
Not Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Not Recording: 'Fit'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
Not Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:30 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

This time we focused on Joe Jackson's numbers.
But we also did a bit of 'Just', at the end. We still remembered it.

MONDAY 14th DECEMBER 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 30
Not Recording:
'
Suck my kiss'
Not Recording: 'Aeroplane'
Not Recording: 'My friends'
Not Recording: 'Under the bridge'
Not Recording: 'Hump de bump'
Not Recording: 'Dani California'
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

Another Red Hot rehearsal. Way cool.

MONDAY 7th DECEMBER 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 29
Not Recording:
'
Suck my kiss'
Not Recording: 'Aeroplane'
Not Recording: 'My friends'
Not Recording: 'Under the bridge'
Not Recording: 'Hump de bump'
Not Recording: 'Dani California'
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:30 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

A rehearsal full of Red Hot numbers. It was really enjoyable. We managed to do "Suck my kiss" from start to finish, and although it still needs some improvement, it's strating to grow. That's cool. The best tracks that came out that night were "Under the bridge" and "Dani California", albeit the one we played the most. That's promising.

MONDAY 30th NOVEMBER

Rehearsal with the New Trio 28
Not Recording:
'
Creep'
Not Recording: 'Just'
Not Recording: 'Exit music (for a film)'
Not Recording: 'Solsbury hill'
Not Recording: 'Grace Kelly'
Not Recording: 'Alright (jam)'
Not Recording: 'Time is running out'
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:30 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

It was then time to focus on some Radiohead material. We did "Creep" first because it's a kind of easy-warm-up thing, and then we hit "Just", which we never played before, and it was really fantastic ! Kuddos to Nono for learning this song in the first place. We also tried "Exit music" and it seems it's gonna be smoking too.... After a cool version of "Grace Kelly" we then tried "Solsbury hill", because Nono kind of suggested it at the last reahearsal, and we be burst into a loose rendition of Jamiroquai's "Alright", wich transformed into a jam because I couldn't sing it properly.
We finished the rehearsal by playing "Time is running out" with Titi drumming on another kit (Mathieu's).

MONDAY 23rd NOVEMBER

Rehearsal with the New Trio 27
Not Recording:
'
Time is running out'
Not Recording: 'Hysteria'
Not Recording: 'Grace Kelly'
Not Recording: 'Video killed the radio star'
Not Recording: 'Digging in the dirt'
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

Another thematic rehearsal: this time we did Muse + all the isolated songs.

MONDAY 16th NOVEMBER 2009


WebcamCover #03: '39
Recording and filming:
''39'
The Waterhouse's upper room - 14h00 - P: Dude.

Hey ! Today is my birthday. I'm turning 39. So what better cover could I chose for the third installement of this series than Queen's song of the same name ?

MONDAY 09th NOVEMBER 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 26
Not Recording:
'
Aeroplane'
Not Recording: 'Hump de bump'
Not Recording: 'Suck my kiss'
Not Recording: 'Dani California'
Not Recording: 'Under the bridge'
Not Recording: 'My friends''
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:15 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

Part 2 of our special thematic rehearsals: this time the Red Hot Chili Peppers !
We started with "Aeroplane" which we never played before (or even planned to play), but it came out quite good. The hardest song of the lot is "Suck my kiss", but we spent a focused time trying to nail out the first two sections. Everything went very well, despite my broken voice (because of the Beatles Week-end in Ouistreham the day before !). The rehearsal was really enjoyable and we could hear ouselves without playing too loud. The changes in the PA system done by Nono is really a major improvement. I can't wait for my voice to get back ! :)

SATURDAY 7th NOVEMBER 2009

Live performance at the first Beatles Weekend in Ouistreham; Normandie (France)
Recording and filming: 'Pigs on the wing - part 1 (soundcheck)'
Recording and filming: 'Don't bother me'
Recording and filming: 'You've got to hide your love away'
Recording and filming: 'How?'
Recording and filming: 'Things we said today'
Recording and filming: 'Piggies'
Recording and filming: 'Rising sun'
Recording and filming: 'She said she said'
Recording and filming: 'I'll get you'
Recording and filming: 'Soggy noodle/Bungalow Bill/Think for yourself'
Recording and filming:
Recording and filming: 'Venus and Mars'
Recording and filming: 'I want to tell you'
Recording and filming: 'I'm a loser'
Recording and filming: 'I need you'
Recording and filming: 'Love you to'
Recording and filming: 'I want to hold your hand'
Recording and filming: 'Every little thing'
Recording and filming: 'Baby, you're a rich man'
Recording and filming: 'I'm only sleeping'
Recording and filming: 'I'm so tired'
Recording and filming: 'Well well well / long haired lady'
Ouistreham, Normandie - 14:30-15:10 + 17:30-18:25 - P: Dominique Grandfils and Fifi.

Two acoustic sets at Ouistreham.

MONDAY 26th OCTOBER 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 25
Not Recording:
'
Wild west'
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'On your radio'
Not Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Not Recording: 'Fit'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
Not Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

This rehearsal was special because it was the first time we did a thematic rehearsal. So we concentrated only on Joe Jackson tunes. Another premiere for that day was the new and improved PA system that Arnaud set up for us. Really really great !

SUNDAY 25th OCTOBER 2009


WebcamCover #02: Fantastic voyage
Recording and filming:
'Fantastic voyage'
The Waterhouse's upper room - 16h00 - P: Dude.

I was right in the middle of a very intense rehearsal for the Ouistreham Beatles Week-end, when I did this little thing. Number two in this engoing series of webcam covers with bad sound and picture quality is this brilliant David Bowie song, from his "Lodger" album. Enjoy.

MONDAY 12th OCTOBER 2009


WebcamCover #01: Baby, you're a rich man
Recording and filming:
'Baby, you're a rich man'
The Waterhouse- afternoon - P: Dude.

I had this terrific idea of recording and filming several cover versions of songs I like with nothing but my laptop webcam. The picture and sound quality would be as it is, and absolutely no editing would occure. I have to play good, or else... :)
On this day I did my first one in the series: Baby, you're a rich man. I immediatly published it on Facebook via Youtube, and it got nice comments.

SATURDAY 3rd OCTOBER 2009



















4th Live performance at the Beatles Day in Mons (Belgium)

Recording and filming: 'I'd have you anytime'
Recording and filming: '#9 dream'
Recording and filming: 'Only love remains'

Waux Hall, Mons, Belgium - afternoon - P: Dominique Grandfils. - Present: Dude, Calico, Jean, Coco, Dominique Grandfils, Didier, Lucie Marchal, Madeline, Esmeralda, the Choking Smokers !, Olivier, Phil co-web, and a whole lot of people....

This year was the year of the release of the Beatles' Remasters. So everyone, everywhere, was talking Beatles. I wanted to do something different, and so I chose to do only solo stuff. I did one song by George, one by John and one by Paul. I wanted to do a fourth song ("Dance till we're high' by The Fireman), but I wasn't confident enough about my voice. I had trouble driving at the venue and so I arrived very late. And I sang early in the afternoon, just a few minutes after arriving so I could'nt warm up properly.
Dominique Grandfils kindly filmed all three songs :)









Thanks to Lucie Marchal, Jacky Comet, and Marcel Vandenbemden for the photographs.

MONDAY 28th SEPTEMBER 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 24
Not Recording:
'
Wild west'
Not Recording: 'Creep'
Not Recording: 'Grace Kelly'
Not Recording: 'Eteins la lumière'
Not Recording: 'Time is running out'
Not Recording: 'Hysteria''
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 03:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

We worked hard on those songs. It was a better rehearsal than the previous one, but it still wasn't satisfying. On that day though, I used the Peavey amp for the first time with this band. My Blue Devil amp seems to be quiet tired. Everyone immediatly noted this was a vast improvement in terms of guitar sounds !

MONDAY 21st SEPTEMBER 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 23
Not Recording:
'
Grace Kelly'
Not Recording: 'Creep'
Not Recording: 'Time is running out'
Not Recording: 'Eteins la lumière'
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

For the first we played not to many songs, but we spent a lot of time on them. This was due to the fact that we had a lot of technical problems with my Blue Devil amp.
So we worked hard on "Grace Kelly" and "Creep" and we played 'Time is running out', 'Eteint la lumière' and I guess that was it.

MONDAY 14th SEPTEMBER

Rehearsal with the New Trio 22
Not Recording:
'
Creep'
Not Recording: 'Time is running out'
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Dani California'
Not Recording: 'Eteins la lumière'
Not Recording: 'Grace Kelly'
Not Recording: 'My friends'
Not Recording: 'Hysteria'
Not Recording: 'Under the bridge'
Not Recording: 'Video killed the radio star'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'Fit'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
Not Recording: 'Digging in the dirt'
France 3 basement - 21:00 - 00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud, Kamel.

Hey, the great return after two mounts of vacation. It was a hard rehearsal: hard to perform, hard to hear ourselves.... But we managed to sneak in some new songs into the boiling pot: 'Creep', which was cool as expected, 'Grace Kelly', which the boys accepted much to my surprise, 'Eteins la lumière' which was smoking, and we also tried again 'Digging in the dirt'.
At the moment we were playing 'My friends', Kamel came in and he sat down with us for six songs. Apparently he enjoyed it.

THURSDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER 2009


Recording: 'Karma police (take 1)'
Recording:
'Karma police (take 2)'
The WaterHouse - afternoon - P: Dude.

Take 1 is a live take recorded with only one microphone, and take 2 is the combination of a live acoustic take and a live voice track done in overdub. I published the final mix on Facebook the same day.
Click here to listen.

TUEDSDAY 11th AUGUST 2009



Recording:
'Space oddity' (SI on take 1)
The Waterhouse - 18:30-19:15 - P: Dude. Present: Val (very high, upstairs :) ).

This is the very first recording I ever made in my, I think, definitive home-studio location, The Waterhouse. Nice view here.
Take 1 of this cover has been done by Patrick Lepleux from Ysn, which kindly asked me to do the vocals for it.
I much obliged.

SUNDAY JUNE 21st 2009

Live performance at Music Day 2009 in Nancy (France)
Not Recording and filming:
'Pigs on the wing (part 1)'
Not Recording and filming: 'Mother'
Not Recording and filming: 'Wild west'
Not Recording and filming: 'Look sharp !'
Not Recording and filming: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording and filming: 'On your radio'
Not Recording and filming: 'It's different for girls'
Not Recording and filming: 'Dani California'
Not Recording and filming: 'Time is running out'
Not Recording and filming: 'Hysteria'
Not Recording and filming: 'Under the bridge'
Not Recording and filming: 'Video killed the radio star'
Not Recording and filming: 'My friends'
Not Recording and filming: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording and filming: 'Fit'
Not Recording and filming: 'One more time'
Not Recording and filming: 'I'm the man'
Not Recording and filming: 'Dani California (reprise)'
Not Recording and filming: 'Time is running out (reprise)'


Rue St Michel, Nancy, France - 22h30 - 00h00 P: Luck. - Present: Dude, Titi, Nono, Sarah & Sarah, Cyril, Patrick, Marie-hélène, Alice, Pauline, Matteo, and a whole lot of nice and brave people....

Description coming soon, but in three words ... it was great.



SATURDAY 20th JUNE 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 21
Not Recording:
'
Wild west'
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'On your radio'
Not Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Not Recording: 'Dani California'
Not Recording: 'Time is running out'
Not Recording: 'Hysteria'
Not Recording: 'Under the bridge'
Not Recording: 'Video killed the radio star'
Not Recording: 'My friends'
Not Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording: 'Fit'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
Not Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - afternoon - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

The very last rehearsal before the 21st show. We changed all our settings because we wanted to rehearse in the exact same conditions, with the exact same equipement we would use the day after. So the conditions were totally great. I could hear me singing. Really.
If only every rehearsal in the future could be with this equipement....

MONDAY 8th JUNE 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 20
Recording: 'Wild west'
Recording: 'Look sharp'
Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Recording: 'On your radio'
Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Recording: 'Dani California'
Recording: 'Time is running out'
Recording: 'Hysteria'
Recording: 'Under the bridge'
Recording: 'Video killed the radio star'
Recording: 'My friends'
Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Recording: 'Fit'
Recording: 'One more time'
Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - 21:00-00:30 - P: Arnaud. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

We did all the numbers, in the correct order, for the 21st show. The whole thing was recorded in mono on my laptop computer.

MONDAY 25th MAY 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 19
Not Recording:
'
Wild west'
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'On your radio'
Not Recording: 'Fit'
Not Recording: 'Dani California'
Not Recording: 'Time is running out'
Not Recording: 'My friends'
Not Recording: 'Under the bridge'
Not Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Not Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
Not Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - 21:00-00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

This is hands-up the very best rehearsal we ever did. Because I took some time with Mariette Hélou in the afternoon and she coached me into vocal training lessons, which I think helped a lot: I managed to fully sing all those intense songs for 3 hours in a row, without any throat suffering and without any voice loss ! The only thing I have to do is practice a lot, because I'm not comfortable with my new way of singing and sometimes my voice fucks up.
We did all the planned songs for the concert except "Hysteria" and "Exit music (for a film)". It was good.