Joe Cady | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Amazing Night at the Open Mic and Film Showing at TAC Teatro

March 26, 2023
bradspurgeon

Sheldon Forrest on screen in Out of a Jam at TAC Teatro

AUBERVILLIERS – One of the beauties of live music is that every time you play the experience is something different maybe than you expected. That is, live theater, live music, live anything is unpredictable to a certain degree – some new nuance or moment will stand out and that’s what makes the experience “real.” I had been planning the projection of the Paris moments of my open mic film, “Out of a Jam,” at TAC Teatro for some time. I had been visualizing it in a certain way, anticipating it for what I thought and hoped it would be. In the event, two nights ago, it turned out to be nothing like what I expected, but so much more in so many ways. What a night!

It was a very intimate evening with some great musicians and other unexpected, and exceptional guests (my globe-trotting writer friend Adam Hay-Nicholls, who lives in London, blew me away with his presence), in a warm, thought-provoking moment of what was also a hugely nerve-wracking – but proud – evening of showing in public some excerpts from my film for the first time. A great core group of musicians from Paris showed up, as well as a surprise visit from the great science fiction novelist, Norman Spinrad, and his other half, Dona Sadock, who among many other things, once produced the Firesign Theater comedy troupe. I first wrote about Norman Spinrad in an article in the International Herald Tribune when he was selling the rights to one of his novels via the internet for $1. The book went on to find a publisher some time later, and he has continued to publish non-stop since. I last wrote about Norman Spinrad on this blog when I attended his 70th birthday party, in 2010 – which, when I re-read it, was a hell of a night!

Norman Spinrad and Dona Sadock and me in the middle presenting Out of a Jam at TAC Teatro

The film, “Out of a Jam,” was filmed the following year, but took me until now to complete the editing, and put it in what I consider its final shape: a 21-part series for streaming. Among the guests who attended on Friday night was one of the main “talking heads” of the documentary, Sheldon Forrest, who graced us with his presence despite it being a strike struck period in France and his living a couple of hours away from the Aubervilliers venue! I was thrilled.

The first truly nerve-wracking thing of the evening, though, was that my computer refused to boot! So there was no film. Fortunately I had brought my iPad, and while I could not show the Paris moments to start with, as we waited for more spectators to arrive and for my computer to boot, we watched the Istanbul episode of the series. After that, magically, my computer decided to boot. (Actually, it is not magic. Although I had just a few weeks ago replaced the battery for a similar experience, I think I have solved the problem: It is a Macbook Pro, and after losing my adapter, I replaced it with a non-Apple charger, which I think does not have the same performance capacity as the Apple charger, and so if the computer runs out of charge, it takes FOREVER to re-charge enough to boot!)

Earle Holmes on screen in Out of a Jam at TAC Teatro

I was therefore able to show the compilation of Paris moments from the open mic, which was a 37-minute film without form. But I got all sorts of great responses from the people present.

After that, Joe Cady, my violin-playing friend with whom I have play with several times over the years including at the F1 FanZone in London in 2014 – and whom I first met at Spinrad’s 60th birthday party! – suggested we do a song together, and the very-much-shortened open mic took place! I did “Mad World” with Joe, and it was amazing to play again together, and then Angus Sinclair played another cover with Joe, singing “Wicked Game,” in a wonderful rendition that made it his own.

The evening ended up being more about the film than the open mic and a couple of other musicians who came had to leave early so we did not go beyond that. So it turned out to be completely different than I either planned or imagined. And so much better, in the way it decided to be!

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Backing Poetry Beauty, Open Mic Playing and Gig, Part II of the Whirlwind Adventures

April 8, 2016
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Brian Scott Bagley

PARIS – The adventures continue now in Paris, after the weekend in Bahrain and that last night of craziness mentioned in the previous post. Well, no sooner did I return home than I received a message from an old friend whom I had met at open mics a few years ago, and who recites poetry. She wondered if I could accompany her on my guitar while she recited her poetry, in French and in English. If you ever saw and heard this woman recite her poetry, then you know that I would never refuse such an offer….

So off I went on Tuesday late afternoon to practice with her and see if we could come up with some chords and rhythm for her poems in English and in French. We got it down in an hour, then trundled off to the Café Oz open mic, where Lisa Marie – the poet – wowed the crowd and I felt for the first time in my life comfortable accompanying someone on my guitar. Unfortunately, I could not make a video of her incredible performance, her outrageous poetry, which sometimes has themes that shock, surprise or titillate – like comparing a certain part of the male anatomy to the leaning tower of Pisa in the final lines of the suggestive poem….
Brad Spurgeon doing Except Her Heart at Soirée Buzz

From there it was off to the Pigalle Country Club, the scene of the crime of a couple weeks earlier, where a woman used my Seagull as a dance floor. I was not going to allow anyone to discourage me from attending my favorite Paris haunts, especially when I knew there was nothing personal to that attack on the poor Seagull. And my feelings were confirmed when within half an hour of attending this raucous open mic I barely missed being struck by someone else’s nice new acoustic guitar being hurtled across the room by a frustrated guitarist. Somehow the guitar resisted snapping to pieces upon landing at the foot of the microphone. (I swear I am not making this up!!!)
Brad Spurgeon doing Mad World at the Tres Honoré

This was no environment for poetry of ANY kind, so I simply took to the mic and jammed away with some old friends and other musicians at the Pigalle Country Club, playing for maybe half an hour and feeling triumphant to be doing so with my Seagull – which accompanied me wherever I happened to move in the bar throughout the evening.
Brian Scott Bagley performing at his Soirée Buzz

Late Wednesday afternoon – we’re in the next day already – I suddenly recalled that I had received a telephone message from a musician friend. I called him back to find that he was offering me a gig that very night at the crazy mad Soirée Buzz open mic at the very chic Très Honoré cocktail lounge on the Place du Marché St. Honoré. It was to start at 9 PM, and I would play until 10 PM, and be paid with a free meal and drinks! This I liked, and despite still recovering from the excitement of the previous days, I accepted.
Another bit of jamming at Soiree Buzz green room

No sooner did I accept than I invited the poetess to the evening as well, since after my feature act performance the evening turns into that crazy mad open mic, hosted and organized by the inimitable Brian Scott Bagley, American male cabaret and burlesque artist. And I KNEW that my poetess’s poetry would go down well at the Très Honoré.
Another act at the Soirée Buzz

So I arrived, showed the house band a few chords of the songs I thought I’d play – my own songs as well as some covers – and off we went to playing on this chic stage in this basement room, darkly lit and feeling like some purposeful high class contrast to the Pigalle Country Club. It would turn out to be what is the longest period of time I’ve spent playing with a band that has never played my songs before, as we did about four of my originals and four cover songs, and somehow it all felt just great. It got me to thinking about what it really means to play with really great musicians who can follow anything! Having now seen it on video, well, I could have done a lot better! But I include a couple of videos taken by my friend, Mr. Lafleur, who invited me to the soirée, and whose new album I will write about later….
Fun in the green room of the Soirée Buzz

Of course, it was all helped by the fact that I had my faithful lead-playing fiddle player, Joe Cady, who agreed to come and provide the necessary color between the drums and bass and my rhythm guitar playing. But somehow, it all felt like it held together, and it was a personal moment of satisfaction of doing something I never thought possible: IE, playing a series of my own songs respectfully with a band who had never even heard them before, let alone play them.
Second at Café Oz Open Mic

I also spent some fun moments in the artist’s “Green Room,” which actually has a green theme of wallpaper, and listened to and jammed with some of them. And there discussed the idea of doing our act again with Lisa Marie. She was all ready, we went on stage, and if the night before it had been my first challenge to accompany the poetess, well, it then grew into another challenge for both of us, as we were also joined by the drummer, bass player and Joe on the fiddle! And as predicted, her poetry was more than well received in this crazy mad, chic environment – to say nothing of her appropriate personal beauty.
Syd and Co at Pigalle Country Club

And so it went, from unpredictable to unpredictable, a series of musical adventures that I had never imagined Sunday morning as I awoke in the heat of Bahrain…. Tonight, another one awaits….

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Short Report on Gig at Le Baroc

July 10, 2015
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Brad Gig Photo

PARIS – After performing my gig at the Baroc last night in Paris with Joe Cady on the fiddle and lead guitar and David Hummel on percussion, I have realized that I do far too few gigs. Why? Because it was simply so much fun! I played two sets of nearly an hour each, and still had some songs in the pocket that I either forgot to play, or decided for various reasons not to do. David’s drumming was perfect, and Joe’s fiddle and lede guitar were gutsy and emotional – I realized what it is I like about Joe Cady’s playing. It has that quality that Neil Young has of raw, ripping feel and a personal sound.

Between the two sets a Japanese woman sang some songs in French – and part of a Gainsbourg translated in Japanese. And then after the second set the stage was taken over by jammers, and Joe and David stayed up and jammed with them while I cooled off with a cold beer at the bar….

Brad Spurgeon and band at Le Baroc

A fabulous evening, and I rarely have so much fun singing my songs and the covers.

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Oxford Roundup, Paris End-Up, and a Gig at the Baroc Tomorrow

July 8, 2015
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Brad Gig Photo

PARIS – I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I was in Oxford over the end of last week and the weekend, and I posted only one item on this blog about my musical moments there. In fact, I actually played three nights out of the four that I was there, and just got lazy about posting…. So here’s the round up of the rest of it, and a little talk about things to come.

After the great night at Catweazle on Thursday, I got back to Oxford from Silverstone a little late, and I was pretty sure that I had missed the chance to take part in the Oxford Folk Club open night on the Friday. But I was staying in a pub-hotel – in the Cowley Road area – and decided that I’d have a small dinner and then walk over to the Oxford Folk Club anyway, just because you never say something is finished until it is.

It was about a 25 minute or so walk from the restaurant to the pub on the Abingdon Road, a when I arrived it turned out that they had already announced the last performance of the evening, and it was happening. I whipped out my camera and caught a bit of it. But this folk club being one of great spirit and openness, when the organizer saw me entering, she came right over and asked if I wanted to play. People in Oxford open mics know what time of year it is, by the way, by when I show up: “Ah, Brad’s here, we must be back in the summer for the British Grand Prix….”

So I went up and played a couple of my traditional folk songs and…thanks to my walk, my meal, my long day, and my lateness at the open mic, I immediately forgot the lyrics to not just one of the songs, but both songs, in the middle of the songs!!! I cannot remember the last time I was hit was such a memory lapse even once, let alone twice. No worry, I did manage to get enough out in each song – “Only Our Rivers Run Free” and “Raggle Taggle Gypsies” that I think it was still a pretty ok set….

The next open mic was not until Sunday, and that was the longstanding one run by Nigel, who also ran it at the Bookbinder’s pub down the street a few years ago, but moved to the Harcourt Arms – in the Jericho neighbourhood – since around 2011. This is a classic, warm, open mic, in a neat and friendly pub. It turns out that whomsoever decided not to run the thing in the Bookbinders must have regretted it, and now there is another open mic at the Bookbinders – although I think the pub has different name now – and so there are two open mics in the same neighbourhood on Sunday night – plus at least one more at the Half Moon -, which for a city the size of Oxford is amazing. Until you realize that this IS a student town….

There were some nice acts, including a group that calls itself the Oxford Beatles, and covers Beatles songs…but the musicians also do solo stuff and all sorts of different styles…. I played two songs, and my only complaint about this open mic – and it is the same for just about all open mics in Oxford – is that the damn things end by 11 PM or earlier! Please!!!! But how can you change the English mentality? At least pubs themselves no longer necessarily close at 11 PM as they did traditionally!!

Having mentioned the Half Moon pub, I forgot to mention in my post about Catweazle the other day that after the Catweazle open mic, and as my hotel was around the corner from it, I decided to drop in to the open mic at the Half Moon pub. I came in to find the organizer jamming lead guitar with a participant jamming rhythm guitar. It was pretty hodgepodge, and it went on for at least 20 minutes before I realized there was a list of names to participate in the open mic. So I got up from my table where I was sitting with my guitar right beside the jammers, and I asked the organizer if I could play, saying I just noticed the list. He said the open mic was now over, so I couldn’t, and he continued to jam with the guy for another 10 minutes.

So once it was finished, and having met someone else who wanted to play, I whipped out my guitar and played a couple of songs at the table, and so did the other guy who had arrived, also using my guitar. The MC of the open mic just nodded and left.

OK!

So that takes us to last night in Paris, as I did not play anywhere on Monday after my long travel. Last night I just dropped in to the Café Oz open mic at the Blanche metro and with no intention of playing, having also arrived quite late after a meal. But before I knew it, Brislee Adams, the MC, had my name on the list already, and I would play after maybe three other people. So I happily accepted.

There had been quite a raucous crowd, by the way, and so I decided to try using Brislee’s electric guitar – a Strat – and I did “I won’t back down,” “Mad World,” and my song, “Except Her Heart.” It was pure delight using the electric, and it’s getting me thinking about doing that more often!

In any case, I suppose I have had plenty of warm up time now for my gig at the Baroc, which takes place tomorrow night, in Paris, near the Colonel Fabien metro, or the Belleville Metro. Come along and give it a listen: I’ll be playing in a trio, with me on guitar and vocals, and Joe Cady on fiddle and lead guitar, and David Hummell on cajon and snare….

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Two Open Mics Carry Me Away

January 29, 2013
bradspurgeon

It was an unexpected situation last night at the Coolin and the Galway as two of my favorite three open mics on Mondays in Paris kind of swept me away with music and mirth. I mean, I had to show up early at the Coolin to sign up on the list, and I ended up there late and found myself 13 on the list of performers, and it was already 9:50 PM. So that gave me time to head off to the Galway to perform first. Just as I was trying to figure out should I stay or should I go now, my friend Joe Cady arrived at the Coolin with his violin, and so we decided to head off together to the Galway to perform together there, before returning to the Coolin to perform in my No. 13 slot.

But arriving at the Galway, I found that the evening although not jam packed with performers had a healthy number of performers, and an even healthier sudden offering of a Polish woman classical guitarist to go up on stage after my set and play the guitar while I sing and Joe plays fiddle – fiddling around, as it were. The MC, Romain, after a two-week absence, was completely open to the idea of the sudden, impromptu performance by the Pole, and we set about massacring the Eric Clapton song I least like to hear, because it is just so sad. I had to sing it… that thing about if you see me in heaven….

Then the Pole played the Girl from Ipanema and Joe tried to play along and I tried to sing along, and made an even worse massacre of that. But I did get some of it on video on the stage while “performing.”

All of this unexpected happening on stage meant that by the time we left and returned to the Coolin, I had missed my unlucky No. 13 slot by about 30 seconds. No matter, the nice MC there, Timothée Gobé, who was replacing Etienne Belin, allowed me to go up on stage right after the performer behind the mic as we entered. So it was that Joe and I went through a couple of the songs we had already warmed up on at the Galway, “Mad World,” and my pretty new song “If I Only Had You.” Joe then played a song and so did some other unexpected performers who suddenly decided they wanted to play, and the evening went on later, and its high point was the stupendous singing a cappella of Frederic, who sings lyric in a conservatory. You have to check out THAT video!

All in all, then, the evening was full of unexpected singers and events and I barely held onto it all as it zipped along….

September on the Horizon as Paris August Winds Down

August 28, 2012
bradspurgeon

I have no huge story I have to get off my chest or mind today about last night’s open mic crawl. Let’s just say that there was a feeling of Paris coming back to life towards the end of the miserable month of August when the city goes to sleep. I found both the Tennessee bar and the Coolin pub open mics to be quite well attended and lively. And I was delighted to meet up with my friend Joe Cady, who accompanied me on my two songs at Coolin on his violin.

I also met some older friends and made some new ones, and found myself so busy singing along to music or talking to people or doing my own number, that I completely failed to make any videos of Joe playing either with me or anyone else – as he later accompanied some other musicians at Coolin. I did get a video of Joe being accompanied, though, as he played guitar and sang….

So what more to say? I think I will save on screen space – the virtual equivalent of saving paper – and cut off today’s blog item right here, rather than stretch it out any longer and risk losing readers as well…. I can simply sum things up with a feeling of optimism about the departure into the past of the month of August in Paris. (Of course, there are worse places to be!)

A Dispassionate Approach to Life and Open Mics

August 7, 2012
bradspurgeon

The difficult part of taking a month off work and spending my entire vacation at home trying to take care of personal projects, is that I must take care of my personal projects. In other words, at the beginning, the month look massive…then the time fritters away, and I watch as not nearly as many projects get done as I had hoped. So yesterday, after four days at home without going out anywhere, I was thinking about the best mindset to have to tackle projects and accomplish things – anything.

I had this sudden revelation about how if no emotion was to be involved, if like a robot I could go from task to task without thinking of the enormity of the task, the other things I have to do, or whether I like the task or have enough time for that task at that moment, then surely I would be the most productive person in the world. I came up with this aphorism, or something that seemed brilliant at that moment and I have forgotten already: Life is a continuum. There is no difficult or simple, agreeable or unpleasant thing to do. Our jobs that earn the pay, and our passions that may or may not lie elsewhere; our vacation time and time off as opposed to time “on”… these are all the same. If we could approach all of these things the same way, with the same equal non-emotional approach, we would be super producers.

You see, that is nothing like a pithy aphorism. It is a sprawling whatever.

But the point of all this is that when I did finally go out to play music and attend the open mics for the first time since last Wednesday – I had been playing lots in my living room – I found myself arriving at the Tennessee bar open mic at just the moment when a great band from Germany was on the stage, along with my friend the violin player, Joe Cady. The house was ripping apart with delight at the music of the gruff voiced singer, who also played a resonator guitar, at the violin, at the upright bass, the tambourine and the harmonica.

Again and again they were invited to play more songs as the regular musicians waited their turn and paid homage to the fun band. Then, right after them, another guy went up with some country songs of a very American sound – and who was a dead ringer for Arlo Guthrie – and he called on the violin and bass player too, and again there was coolness in the vibe.

In fact, it looked like an amazing night at the Tennessee. On the other hand, I was impatient to go to Coolin, I knew that I might have to wait for a long, long time at the Tennessee before performing, and so I coolly, dispassionately, left. In other words, I was sitting there in the middle of what looked like a fabulously promising open mic, but I knew there was another fabulously promising one up the street, and having already tasted one, I decided to move on to the other without emotion.

Hit here the transitional walk from the Tennessee to the Coolin during which are encountered some street dancers:

I was rewarded by an equally as interesting open mic at the Coolin, although there were no groups anything like the German one at the Tennessee. But I was rewarded by playing my set of two songs, and then like many others in the evening, I got to go up and do another song at the end of the night.

Later in the evening some of the people who played at the Tennessee showed up at the Coolin, but not the German band or whoever that hillbilly was who played after them.

So I was able to move without emotion on an objective from one place to the next, take in both of them, and then play. Here, though, is where part of the lack-of-emotion-dispassionate-theory-to-life breaks down. If we were to actually perform our tasks with no passion and emotion, then we would have no art, talent, love, interest or anything else that makes it all worthwhile in the first place.

Shit life can be complicated sometimes!

(On the other hand, I sure had a lot more to spew out here after one night out and four nights in; so I might try it again.)

Oh yes, and I almost forgot the way I really wanted to end this post on the same theme: Through all that great music and carousing last night I ended up making 27 little videos of the performers! Now there too again I must somehow select and drop and cut a massive number of them, as I will not throw 27 choices at you. Do I do that with passion, emotion, or cold editorial selectivity? I’ll just do it….

MCing the Galway Open Mic in Paris

July 3, 2012
bradspurgeon

Last night I got a bit of a taste of what it is like to MC an open mic at one of the long-lasting, mainstay open mic venues in Paris, and all I can say to those who do it all the time is: Respect! I had some experience doing this myself at my Mecano Sunday brunches for around six months a year or so ago. But taking over a regular venue for one night gives a whole new look at things.

I have to thank all my musician friends who showed up to play and help me, as without them I’d have had to play all night myself. Okay, what I really meant to say, was, without them, it would have been a somewhat barren affair, given that it was the beginning of the July holidays in France, and the day after a major soccer match. So lots of people stayed home.

But I had lots of performers, and I would have been able to do even more videos had I not been working out the sound feedback, musician monitor and other technical glitches that I came slightly unprepared for. I had actually been prepared by a photo taken of the soundboard on my iPhone the previous week – but after the iPhone was stolen over the weekend, I lost my crutch.

Thanks to Thomas Arlo and Brislee Adams for helping me out of that. And especial thanks to Joe Cady for turning up with his violin, to play along with me and several other musicians – and for taking that little video of me on his iPhone as I sang my song, “Except Her Heart.” Oh, and boy, there was this really cool trio that arrived for the first time, and it was their first gig together – and that was really, really exciting from the point of view of running the open mic. Check out the videos I did manage to do of them….

Next week Romain returns to do the job he has been doing so well…

Coolin Victim of its Success, Galway Great Relief

June 26, 2012
bradspurgeon

I occasionally write rotten, nasty, unfriendly things about open mics that a) I usually love, and b) I’ve written huge praise about before. I hate doing that, but if I kept the criticism to myself all the time and only ever said nice things about the places I go play music at, then who could trust that they would find anything like the truth on this blog? Who could respect me and think that there’s a real story being told here? And the friends who saw me angry about Coolin’ pub last night, if I said nice things about it – wouldn’t they find the real person and the public writer a bit of a hypocritical contrast?

So unfortunately, I had a rotten time at Coolin last for practically the first time ever and I feel completely obliged to say it. I will nevertheless temper the criticism with the statement that part of the problem was that I had to go off to the Galway afterward and so could not stay to the end of the Coolin evening to see how it all panned out, or even to play my own set. But the problem, at base, was this: Coolin has become such a fabulous success and draw to musicians as an open mic that last night there were 30 musicians signed up to play!

The organizers being so kind that they want to give everyone a chance to play, actually made a bit of a mess of it, as names on the list ended up not being on a first-come, first-serve basis, and some performers were surprised to see their slots not ending up where they had expected, and having to wait a lot longer than expected. One guy, in fact, discovered that his slot on the list had been taken by another guy who said he had the same name!!!! Had I not intervened on that one, the guy – whom I know – would perhaps not have played, or played last.

In short, it was total chaos AND the crowd was one of the loudest, least interested that I have seen. Having said that, the organizers made a big effort to get everyone up, and I’m pretty sure they must have, since the open mic went on until close to 2 AM. And photos I have seen show that it may indeed have turned into a great evening with warm audience connection and participation by the end. But I was embarrassed that my friends who came on my advice, ended up being thrown around on the list, at what appeared to be the convenience of other more important friends.

Hey, that’s all really petty, though, isn’t it? And actually, the only thing it really says is that for the first time Coolin, because of all of its success, had 30 people on the list and did not know how to deal with the influx – which is normal. I suppose all successful open mics have to pass through that situation at some point, and find ways to tell performers they will NOT be able to play.

In any case, I left at about 12:15, went to the Galway, and I was asked immediately if I wanted to play – as there were no more performers on the list, since they were at Coolin! – and I accepted happily (as I had told Coolin I would not play there) and then discovered two friends were there whom I had not expected. This was Joe Cady and Rony Boy, a fiddler and a guitarist from a band called The Romantic Black Shirts. I asked if they would play along with me, and they agreed happily. I had played with Rony Boy last week, and I have played with Joe many times. But we had never played all together.

So my Galway experience ended up being a fabulous dream compared to Coolin! I was so happy to play with those guys that I decided to place my Zoom Q3HD recorder behind us to record it, even though I was pretty sure the framing of the image would be crap. So I have placed three of those songs up on the site, but remember, I knew the image would be crap, and the sound comes from the monitor for the musicians, not from the speakers in the pub.

Oh, and by the way, I will not be returning to Coolin next week – but not because I’m pissed off. It’s because I will be hosting the Galway Pub open mic myself as the guest MC as the regular MC, All the Roads, is taking the day off. So all that ends well ends well… or whatever…. Of course, after this post, maybe Coolin would not even let me in again next week!!! But I have to be honest. I do repeat, however, that I might have perceived the Coolin evening different if I had stayed to the end – and my perceptions will not reflect those of all participants last night, I’m sure….

Angus Sinclair: When the Highlander Meets the Tennessee

March 4, 2011
bradspurgeon

Thank goodness for a half bottle of Chateau Camarsac Bordeaux Superieur that just gave me the idea for that post headline. I can’t think of a better way to sum up the little concert I went to last night at the Tennesse bar than that.

I am in the habit of going to the open mics at The Highlander bar and the Tennessee bar – especially during the F1 off-season – as readers of this blog will have noticed. And at the Tennessee I sometimes see this guy named Angus Sinclair, who it turns out is Scottish – ie, the Highlander. But last night for the first time I went to his gig with his band at the Tennessee bar, and I found that this particular Scot has a fairly American south sound to his music – whether it be the south of California or the deep South, I’m not sure which.

In any case, it was a very cool concert of nothing but songs by Mr. Angus Sinclair and his make-up band of the moment, with among others my friend Joe Cady on violin. (Joe having played my brunch and also the violinist and guitarist for The Romantic Black Shirts, who played at my concert at the Disquaires last Sunday.

In any case, this Angus guy is interesting also in that music is his sideline, even if it sounds fully fledged professional and ready for Top-50 hit-making. He is a longtime Paris expat with a business in graphic designs – making logos – and he likes to design music for fun. Great songs, good cheer, and an hour and a half long set without a break. The man has a voice, presence, charisma, charm and a song-writing ability. I would have liked to hear a little more solo-playing out of Joe and the guitar, but maybe next time!!!! (And Joe told me he was strictly there to fill out the sound, so what do I know?)

I’ve put down a couple of songs, including the last, long, one in which he introduces the band.