S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

Such a long time since my last confession. Oops.

I managed to break two of my touring records yesterday and today:

1. The shortest stay in a hotel room, namely 7 minutes
2. The longest continuous drive - 18 hours on the tour bus, from Clermont-Ferrand in France to Bratislava in Slovakia.

By the end it seemed I had been born on that damn bus, as I was watching “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for the second time and dreaming of a hot shower. And here we are, after a 5-star feed courtesy of the promoter, and a stranger-than-strange club that was once a nuclear bunker. I suppose it was a sign of how much I didn’t fit in there that I couldn’t even tell you what genre the music was, never mind the names of any of the bands playing it. In situations like that you are faced with the choice - drink, or leave.

This has been a great tour. Really, just great fun, very relaxed and full of musicality and laughs. The support band, Au Revoir Simone, are amazing fun to have around… three New York girls making electronic keyboard music that gets under your skin. Its really the first time that we’ve all had any kind of vibe with the support act, and its a tribute to them that Air are going to have them on stage on the last show to do something together.

Each gig really is a chance to go into a kind of trance and get lost in the dreams that are Air’s songs, and the time away from the stage has also been peppered with our usual array of fine food and wine, good chat and sharing music. The only downer is the now permanent issue of missing my family - who are in Hong Kong enjoying the tail end of a month-long holiday. Luka is speaking Chinese almost all the time now - its been great for him. I just hope he remembers some English! Children have the most phenomenal capabilities for language - its just spellbinding to watch and listen as they memorise words and, in the case of Chinese, the exact tone of every word, without even trying.

We spent a few days in a very chaotic Paris. I had been planning a visit to “Le Savour Club”, my favourite wine shop - not for the faint hearted as its more of a warehouse where you do need to know what you want. I was on the hunt for a 2005 Chateau Palmer for Luka, the first wine that I’m buying him for his “life collection” - one exquisite bottle of Bordeaux or Burgundy for every year of his life. The 2005 Palmer is, by all reports, absolutely stunning, and I wanted to get a Margaux from that year. I would have like to buy him a Chateau Margaux, but just Google that and weep at the price. Anyway, I decided to go there, 14km from the hotel, on foot, as the metro was just at a standstill with the strikes. I enjoyed the walk immensely, depsite the Parisian rain drenching me to the point where I was more water than man, but wandered into the thick of a huge demonstration against the strikes. Unbelievable… only in France. So after a most enjoyable session in Le Savour Club, I came out with twelve bottles of wine in a box, only to find that the demonstration had now occupied the entire of Boulevard de Montparnasse, rendering my hopes of jumping in a taxi utterly futile. I had no choice but to get on the metro… all I can say is that I felt so sorry for myself by the time I arrived back at the hotel, that I took myself off to “Au Boeuf Coronné” for one of the finest meals I’ve had for years prior to the overnight bus to Grenoble. Purely for the benefit of Foy Vance, I had French onion soup gratinée, followed by an amazing fresh seared tuna steak served on a crisp bed of Chinese leaf, leeks and green pesto… yum… helped immensely by a most enjoyable Sancerre, and followed by the crème brulée to end all crème brulées - sheer perfection. I love Paris for food.

So now we have a sold out show here, and another overnight drive to Zurich. I heard that in a recent gig by a big artist in Zurich, someone in the front row actually started reading the paper. Guess it won’t be too rock and roll that night then. Beware audiences - we’ve been rehearsing some new tracks…