Ollie Joe | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

The Film: P’tit Bonheur la Chance Closing

May 15, 2013
bradspurgeon

p’tit bonheur la chance

PARIS – Readers of this blog may well have grown sick and tired of the myriad posts I have written over the last two to three years about one Paris open mic in particular. That is the P’tit Bonheur la Chance open mic, run on Tuesday nights, first by Ollie, then when Ollie went to Berlin, by Ollie. Yes, yes, somehow the one Ollie left, and the other Ollie took over. Also known as Yaco, the second Ollie defied all expectations that a great open mic must be entirely about the person who runs it – and he made as big a success of it as the first Ollie did. So that is when it became clear – I think – that an open mic is about the MC, the bar shape and layout, the proprietor and/or manager, the style, the musicians who come, the neighborhood… okay, you get the idea. Well, last night was the bar’s last open mic, and I decided to make a short film of the evening. Pierre, who owns Au P’tit Bonheur la Chance, is moving on to bigger and better things – if I understood correctly. So this is not totally one of those sad stories of complaints from the neighbors – although there were some of those.

In any case, I think I want to shut up now and let the film take over and tell the story. Last night was the last night of the open mic, and I was eager to do something different and special in terms of this blog. So last night I did an interview with Yaco/Ollie – or is it Ollie/Yaco – and I caught some of the great moments of the evening on my Zoom Q3HD recording device, and decided to not do what I usually do, which is to inundate this page with videos, but rather to spend the day editing bits and pieces all together to make a little documentary of the last evening. All bits from this shaky little roughshod documentary come from last night – all the performances, interview(s), etc., all represent the last night at the P’tit Bonheur la Chance open mic. I forgot to bring my wind protector from the camera, so there are some brutal wind sounds, brutal cuts, it is full of flaws, but I HAD to get this one down. I wish I could have got and fit everyone on this film – in fact, from all the P’tit Bonheur open mics…but it was not possible.

A Great Open Mic Gone

Paris is losing one of its best open mics – but I am sure there will be more to come. Oh, and by the way, as you will see in the little – actually waaaaay too long film (for Internet purposes) – there was some kind of prize-giving last night to the people who had come to the open mic the most and contributed the most, etc. I got that, and so did Wayne, John and Sven. I hope I have not forgotten anyone – I made frequent trips from the music to the bar to the street, playing, talking, having a great time – as usual. There must have been close to 30 musicians, but I only managed to grab a few of them for this.

Oh, and I have to mention that 1) a massive thanks to Brislee Adams for using my Zoom to film me – and somehow I was elsewhere when he played his great open mic song – and 2), the bit in the film towards the end where my interview cuts off brutally with Yaco/Ollie happened because there was no more space on the 8 gigabyte SD card!!!! But as he had just talked about the mic cutting out abruptly and brutally one recent night, it seemed like a great way to end the interview!

Hope you like it, and please bear in mind that in the interest of getting this out on the site tonight before midnight, it is a bit roughshod – but it is intended as being as off-the-cuff as the average open mic night at the P’tit Bonheur la Chance…..

PS, the bar will not close until Saturday night, so there is still time to go and imbibe – and in principle, there is supposed to be quite a celebration on Saturday night….

Exhaustion at the Paris Open Mics

March 26, 2013
bradspurgeon

That is a purely subjective headline, nothing to do with the state of the Paris open mics on a Monday night. Pure indulgence on my part as I write about how I went from a 32-hour day right into my favorite Paris open mics without a break.

It started, that day, at 9 AM in Kuala Lumpur, continued in Sepang at the race track, went on to dinner and preparations for the flight at the airport outside KL, continued on the flight to Dubai with a 300 pound giant sitting beside me and nailing the entire left side of my body to my seat for 7 hours, continued in a break for air in Dubai, and then on a nice flight back to Paris with the weirdest couple of brother and sister team sitting next to me – exasperation even an Emirates air hostess – and then ended with the RER, Metro, home cleansing and finally the open mics.

So I went to the Tennessee bar open mic first and found it to be a very exceptional night of talent, everyone seeming really in high form. Could that have been thanks to my own particularly low form? In fact, when I arrived, I fooled myself into believing that I was in great shape! Little by little, despite the great music my eyelids began to drop.

I began giving in to the grip of the fatigue so badly that I decided to no wait around to play my own set, preferring to go off and play at the Coolin, where I was sure no one would listen. I was right. There were more good acts there, but the spectators were not of the most listening kind, which suited me really well in some ways – but depressed me in other ways.

I decided to sing two fairly quiet songs for once, and not feed into this particular audience’s need to sing along. I did “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” and “Father and Son.” It worked, the talking continued. When someone else went up after me and roused the interest of the audience, I decided I was definitely too tire, and had to go – I’d been too lifeless to elicit any audience reaction anyway.

Returned home, forcing myself awake with my iPhone in the taxi ride, and then dropping into bed and sleeping straight through to this morning at 9 AM. I feel certain that the jet-lag has been beaten in one night….

Of Loyalty and Success at the Ptit Bonheur

February 13, 2013
bradspurgeon

I’m a great believer in the concept of loyalty in certain situations in life, maybe even in most situations. But when it comes to deciding where I am going to go to have fun playing my music in an open mic, I don’t care at all about loyalty. I’m going to go to the open mic(s) on any particular evening where I think I’m going to have the most fun, both behind the mic and at the bar talking to people, and within the confines of what my availability is within the sign-up rules of the open mic. But when it comes to the MCs of great open mics, I sometimes feel that maybe they should show a little loyalty. And last night, Ollie Joe, the MC of the great Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic decided to disappear from his post to go off and do a personal concert at the Espace B. I wanted to go and see him, but given the choice, I decided to go to his open mic, being hosted exceptionally by Sven. Wow! I was not the only one who remained loyal where Ollie did not! The place was jam packed with spectators and musicians, more than any other time practically that I have seen….

Having said that, Ollie Joe is a wonderful musician, and had I not had such a selfish motivation in doing music at open mics, I would have attended his concert – and he later returned to the Ptit Bonheur la Chance and told me the Espace B was also packed. So all ended well. But I can say that loyalty had nothing to do with the fun at the Ptit Bonheur last night. A vast list of performers, a full bar on the ground floor, standing room only in the concert room below, and some wonderful acts. NOT a night to miss – and woe to all those other bars in Paris that choose Tuesday as their open mic night….

Oh, I forgot to mention that I was actually taken enormously by surprise, got to the Ptit Bonheur so late that I was virtually the last one on the list to perform, and even then, I was no doubt on the “standby” list. As it happened, I had so much fun as an audience member and listening to others, that when it came my turn and Sven had reduced people’s slots to one song, I decided to give my second song to a crazy Australian and crazy Frenchman who had never performed at the Bonheur before. And even that was selfish, since I actually did not want to perform at that point, it was such a great night.

OK, I admit. I’m not telling the full truth. Another reason I didn’t want to perform by that time is I had a run-in with a very disagreeable spectator who treated me like cow manure for making a video of one of the better performers. That kind of thing happens very, very rarely; which is why I tend to take badly to it. (I’m actually completely cool with someone telling me that they hate being videoed and would rather I not do it – but the secret is in how it is done, IE, treat me like a normal human, my video camera is not a weapon, and lots of people love seeing the videos (of themselves or others). I needed a bit of time to cool off on the only low point of the night…. (There, I have adhered to my strict effort to speak my mind on this blog, no matter what happens….)

Wild Times at the Vieux Léon, Despite the Holiday Season

December 28, 2012
bradspurgeon

People who are addicted to doing open mics no doubt rejoice when they are on work holidays – if they are lucky enough to have a job. But they are also most likely to be on work holidays during periods like the month of August and during the Christmas and New Year’s period. These same periods are also those when bars and open mic organizers love to close down exceptionally, leaving people who are addicted to open mics with practically nowhere to go on their holidays with so much time available to them to do open mics. This is how the world works. Fortunately, there are a few open mics that remain open during such festive periods. Of course, THEY often discover that there are not nearly as many people coming to play and listen to music in the open mics, because it is the holiday season. Last night, however, a day after Christmas, although The Highlander open mic was closed in Paris, the Vieux Léon was open – and what a wild and crazy open mic did it turn out to be….

When I arrived shortly after 10 PM, it turns out the open mic really just started to buzz along and kick into action. Hosted by Ollie Joe this time – he of the great Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic on Tuesdays, which closed for both Christmas and New Year’s – it turned into a riotous evening, moving from one end of the musical spectrum to the other. That is, from complete amateurs, to beautiful pro musicians, and from deep and serious emotion all the way to a completely mad and crazy guy who whipped up the audience into a fever of mirthful participation and excitement and laughter. (I regret my finger accidentally turning off the videos I made of this guy, because they sure felt like “viral” material – although I put both videos here on the blog anyway.)

And for me personally, it was a great evening because I not only got to play solo, but I also got to do songs with me on my Gibson J200 and singing and with Ollie Joe on lead guitar, and another song with me and Aurelien on lead (who normally plays with Ollie Joe, and vice versa). I also got to let other people use my Gibson and listen to some great musicians make it sing….

So in the end, it was quite an unexpected Christmastime open mic, and thanks to the Vieux Léon (and Ollie Joe) for having the trooper mentality, and keeping the show going through the holiday season….

Passing on the Flame at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance

September 28, 2011
bradspurgeon

I have little time today to say much on this blog as I prepare to rush off to the Highlander for the fifth anniversary of one of Paris’s best open mics. But I must get in a word or two about last night’s session at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, which has only been around about a fifth the time of the Highlander, but which immediately established itself as another of Paris’s best open mics. Last night Ollie Fury was back in town after a couple of months or so in Germany – was it only six weeks? – where he has decided to stay for sometime to come. He showed up at his open mic, yes, Ollie started it and MCd it from the beginning, to pass on the flame of the MC job to Yaco Mouchard, (also known as Ollie Joe!), who has been running it for several weeks.

The evening was a warm and cool one – if that is possible – as it usually is. And there were moments of moist-eyed significance in the handoff. There were great moments of music as well, and I have put up a few of the high points on videos below.

Oh, and I was again flattered to find a musician from out of town who had discovered the open mic and others through my blog and thumbnail guide of open mics. That was Hugo Kensdale from Manchester, who brought a new voice to the show.

A Good Night at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, Especially Kuku and Ilan’s Jam

September 14, 2011
bradspurgeon

Ollie Fury, who founded the open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, has moved to Berlin and hence has not run the most successful recent open mic in Paris for several weeks. The job at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance bar has now been taken over by his friend, Ollie Joe…. So if the names are similar, so is the open mic. It was quite a success last night, my first return in a few weeks. A number of the regulars were there, but there were some very interesting new acts, like the American-born Nigeria-raised KUKU, who returned to the U.S. to live many years ago. He is living for a while in Paris, and attending open mics. One of the high points of the evening was when KUKU and Ilan, of Israel, did an impromptu jam, that came out like a real bona fide “world music” vibe.

There was a very nice instrumental by Chardes and Nicolas, and Fabien Fabre presented one of his hit songs about a town in Essex, England.

I am in one of my perpetual rushes, so I cannot write that much more about the evening, and will let the videos do the talking. Unfortunately it is so dark in the bar where the open mic takes place that lighting is always a problem for the videos, and even worse, I was sitting in such a position last night that I had glare off the only light near the performance area.

Further Cool Meetings and Discoveries at The Highlander

October 14, 2010
bradspurgeon

I will keep my wordage to an absolute minimum here since I have written so much about the Highlander. Suffice to say that it was a thoroughly enjoyable open mic in Paris last night, and that like the one on Monday I had a meeting of minds with a foreign group on visit to this country. Also had a reunion with Ollie Fury for the first time since we played together in Singapore a few weeks ago. And got to see live David Broad play his St. James Infirmary, which is superb.

The meeting of minds, as it were, was with the two members of the band NoLand Folk from western Ireland.

I enjoyed their songs, especially the fun one about drinking up. And afterwards I spoke to Edel and found a lot of common ground, not just in music but in an interest in writing. But the high moment of that conversation was surely when we both connected totally on Paul Brady’s version of Arthur McBride, and we sang a few of the versions together. We both knew the video below as a high point of the return to Irish traditional music:

Here are a few of the videos I took from last night at The Highlander, oh, yes, and Thomas Brun’s version of the Dylan song, “Tangled Up in Blue,” which I love singing too, but cannot memorize….