Retournons à Chauffer dans la Noirceur

They say you can never go back but I’m not so sure. In July we returned to Chauffer dans la Noirceur Festival in Monmartin sur Mer, Normandy. This year marked the 20^th anniversary of the festival. And as I played at 3 of the first 5 they asked us back for this special celebratory year(Andy and Dez from The Trailer Trash Orchestra were also veterans having been there with me in The Young Trash Lovers and The Sindys). The organising committee has moved on to the next generation (which is as it should be) but some of our old compadres from the time are still in the area and help out there – including Pierre and Francois who were involved from the start and Alain Briant who took some of the iconic poster images as well as performing himself.

Our memories of that time in the early 90’s is so magical, it was something of a worry that our return would live up to them, but it couldn’t be resisted and so by a variety of routes we all made our way over. I drove with the family and Steve (Trailer Trash Orchestra drummer) via Calais to a rainy Friday night. We stopped off at an Ibis on route where we propped up the bar for a while chatting to the receptionist who plays in a rockabilly band called Les Apaches! The sun shone in the morning as we proceeded on to the festival and it continued to shine for the rest of the weekend.

Our welcome was so warm and we were soon spotting or being spotted by old friends to much ensuing hugging! The atmosphere was – I’m happy to report – still entirely special and magical, really quite hard to describe, but in essence it’s a small site 100yrds from a beautiful beach and whilst there’s a choice of eateries and some cool little stalls around, it’s completely untainted by corporate commercial enterprise – organic naturellement!

The music covers world flavours and cross-over from gypsy vibes to jazzy takes through to cool rockin’ and post punk noise and…our good selves providing the bar-room country rock n roll! Saturday we hung drinking the excellent local cider and watching a number of said acts on the two main stages and in the little alt/experimental tent. Unfortunately only Dez had arrived in time to see Alain Briant’s set on the Friday (monsoon madness and glorious warped chanson). 

Sunday we went over to the stage late morning for a sound-check before doing a little interview with the onsite “TV” studio (including an improvised Louie Louie)!

I think we all felt (unusually) a bit nervous before show time because it somehow felt so important that we put on a great show – fortunately the crowd were with us from the start, bouncing, cheering and at times even singing along with a couple of old Young Trash Lovers numbers we do with The TTO. In the end without doubt one of the best hours we’ve spent in many a moon, topped off by Pierre and Francois joining us on backing vocals for the final rendition of “wanna be your dog”.

So I’d have to say it was worth a few moments of trepidation to reconnect with old compadres, link up with a whole bunch of new ones and just spend time in one of the coolest little festivals in the world in one of the most chilled little corners of France – parfait!

One of the things I’ve been blessed with in my troubadour travels is meeting up sometimes with like minded brothers (and sisters) that I’ve not only had a great time with on meeting but have ended up being friends with for life, and there certainly a good few from this region, so I shall raise a  glass of Francois’ parents homemade calvados – vive la similitude!
               pHOTOS: tRAVEL PICS BY gRAE j (Holga 135), Gig pics by Al Foreman (Digital SLR)