Nothing much happened before noon on
Sunday 16th. If other plans had been followed, I might
have gone to see Elisapie Isaac on Saturday evening and then
travelled on the 06.00 bus from Montréal to Québec City, arriving
in time for a concert by Les Surveillantes, from Manitoba, at
The Grand Theatre de Québec. The thought of six hours on a
bus did not fill me with delight. I was very pleased, therefore when
my mind was made up for me. I would not have time to get to Québec
City and back in time for 14.00. That was the time that Colombe
and Michel had suggested that they might collect me from the
hotel to go for a meal at their home in Rivière des Prairie,
a suburb of Montréal. Michel and Colombe are two more of the Steve
Hill maniaques, whom I had met at Lavaltrie last November, and we
have kept in touch since. I was delighted to receive the invitation,
and was looking forward to meeting them. The plan was that after the
meal we would all go together to Bistro à Jojo, meeting
Johanne and other maniaques to see Steve play as part of a
live radio broadcast.
What a wonderful afternoon. On the way
to their home, we stopped off at Roberto's, a superb
delicatessen (is that the word for 'traiteur' Michel?) which has two
sections, one for food and one for ice-cream. We went into the
ice-cream parlour, and met the proprietress and her daughter. As
guest, I was invited to select the flavours of ice cream to accompany
the dessert. And I was allowed to sample the flavours there and then,
before making a final choice. It was a joint decision really, but we
ended up with Lemon sorbet, Pistachio, Coffee and Mint
Strat..Strach.. the one with little bits of chocolate in it. Mmmmm,
Yum Yum, or Miam Miam. : universal language.
Then we went on to the appartment,
where Michel showed me his guitars. Beautiful objects! Colombe had
prepared a wonderful meal, finishing of with “Grand-pères au
sirop des érables” - I hope that's correct. Another
friend, Lucille, joined us for the dessert, which was a
delicious kind of cross between a sponge and a dumpling, served with
maple syrup and all of that delicious ice cream. So now I have
sampled two traditional québecoix desserts: Pudding Chomeur and
Grand-pères au sirop des érables. Miamm Miamm!
I have also sampled wonderful
hospitality. Thank you Colombe and Michel!
Afterwards Michel drove us all into the
city, where we parked not far from rue St.Denis, and walked to the
Bistro à Jojo, where Johanne and Palmyre had reserved a table right
in front of the stage. This was too good to be true, and was becoming
a bit of a habit!
When we arrived I was delighted to see on stage
André Duprée and Jean Millaire. I had seen them once before at
Bistro à Jojo, when Steve Hill had come in and jammed with them.
What an evening this promised to be!
Each Sunday evening the local radio
station CHOM 97.7FM broadcasts a programme which I believe is
called Black Cat Alley. I've just checked, it's actually Black
Cat Alley Show
Don’t fight it… just let the
blues take hold. Sunday nights CHOM’s Randy
Renaud keeps you plugged in to blues scene and
makes sure you get your fix.
Did you just say that?
No you just wrote it, or should I
say pasted it from the CHOM website. Wow! I wish we had a name like
Randy Renaud, there's nothing like a bit of alliteration to make your
name stand out. You know like...Brigitte Bardot, Robert Redford,
Paul Pichet.... er … er.. Willi Wonka.
Willi Wonka!
You want us to have a name like Willi Wonka!... Brigitte Bardot, now
that does have a certain allure to it, but people might talk if we
changed our name to Brigitte Bardot.
I didn't say I wanted to change our
name to Willi Wonka, and stop drooling over Brigitte. I just said it
would be cool to have a name like Randy Renaud. You know, two
alliterative words with two syllables each, giving a balance and
rhythm as it is spoken. A really good radio name: “Over now to
Randy Renaud at Bistro à Jojo”. Sheer poetry!
So tonight's
broadcast was scheduled to come live from the Bistro, with solo spots
from Shane Murphy and Steve Hill augmented by two young musicians
selected by the radio station to take part in the show.
With most of the
maniaques seated as close to the stage as I am sitting to the other
side of this desk, we were ready for action. A late arrival was Martine. I say most of the
maniaques, because there were two notable exceptions, Barbara and
Eric. It was a fantastic show. Randy Renaud set the scene and counted
down to the beginning of the live broadcast. First up was a young guy
whose name escapes me, one of the competition winners.
Next came
Shane Murphy, a big guy, with a big voice and a little guitar.
Actually it was a normal sized Fender, I think, but it just looked
small in his hands. He was excellent.
He was followed the young
woman who was the second of the candidates chosen to take part in the
show. I'm afraid I can't remember her name either.
You will have to
start taking a notebook with you. This is just not good enough.
OK. Then it was time for the place to really start jumping as Steve Hill came to the stage. He is a brilliant guitarist, what more can I say. There was a massive reception for him, especially from us at the front! His set flew by.
I thought I had recorded two of his songs, but the first
turned out to be an interesting shot of the candle on the table in
front of us. I did manage to capture a piece of video showing Steve,
Shane and others playing the final two songs. Hopefully you will find
them here.
Most of the
'maniaques' were working early the following morning, so I found
myself sitting at the front with Palmyre, yet another new friend in
music. After a period of stage rebuilding, or at least setting up
drum-kit, guitars etc the next part of the evening began, with Carlos
Vega and his band.
I was so close to the stage that when the keyboard
(actually it's a real old Hammond organ, I think) player moved it to
take his seat, he almost knocked me off mine. An apologetic smile,
and then off he went. It wasn't long before a jug of beer on a
neighbouring table also went off, off the table that is, as his
lively playing style led him to leap backwards and forwards on and
off his seat. It was good stuff, but after Palmyre had left I stayed
for just a bit longer and then walked back. Just before I left I had
a swift word with Steve Hill, and asked him if he might be coming to
England soon. He said he had no plans, but that he would really like
to come over. He does hope to be appearing at the Beauvais Blues
Festival next March. There's a date for the diary!!
What a day! What a
night! Quel bonne soirée!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment