the carhaix festival is the biggest rock festival in France. The 22th july gig was the only N.O gig in France so i've made the journey from the south to the rainy Bretagne ,1200 kms by car!!! A real fan journey...and the opportunity to spend a few days alone with my wife! Hopefuly the day was sunny ! Three huge stages were built on three distinct parts of the land where the festival stood. THe Glenmoor stage was the largest one and the band was planned to play there at 23h30 in the evening.we've had to wait,see other bands playing ,the festival atmosphere was cool with a very mixed crowd : teenagers,families,fifty years old people coming for the Deep Purple show !If there were english N.O fans i didn't see them easily - except a young girl at "la boutique des artistes" asking for tee-shirts ( nobody knew the price of the N.O ones !?), some guys drinking beer quietly , and a tall blond haired man who spendt the gig asking for "BLUUEE MMONNDAYYY"!!!shouting in my ears and telling everyone how he liked N.O, the Hacienda, etc...
I talked with some french fans but for a while it seemed to me that N.O was less interesting than this improbable Deep Purple come back!
AT 6 p.m we went to the Glenmour stage to hear the Buena Vista Social club with the old singer Ibrahim Ferrer. A really good gig, obviously their music isn't rock n roll! different moods, different feelings with a fantastic pianist. The band from cuba had great class and it was the perfect musical show to start the evening.

Then came Deep Purple !!! We were at the second or third row . EVeRyone was dancing , smiling to each other.I felt like a sardine in its box with a very short vital space. It was weird! I remembered when i was 13 years old trying to play smoke on the water on my first guitar! But anyway the show wasn't bad and i thought that we owed respect to this band.

The night came and N.O too!!!!On stage the staff brought the guitars and a bald roadie - looking like David Sultan(!? was it you David?)put the Hot'Hookey black bass on its stand.
AN Ennio Morricone tune introduced the band - what they did before, and which is coherent with their music (listen to Elegia or give an ear to the guitar line on "pour quelques dollars de plus"...the similarity with the Blue Monday bass line is striking!). And the band members , coming from the right side of the stage appeared . Barney wore a closed parka and with a glass of french white wine in his left hand (Muscadet de Sèvres ?)said hello to the audience who , obviously, had forgotten Deep purple!!They all seemed very cool and relax as they were in Paris Zenith in may 2002. we stood on the first row this time , just in front of Hookey and, as usual my eyes were fixed on the bass player... and my wife eyes on ... Barney
They started with Get Ready and next played Regret. A young french girl next to me (16 or 17 years old)told me she was a JD fan and that it was the first time they saw them , she said she had bought a book about the band and to grant her N.O played Transmission! JD material was not forgotten: transmission, Atmosphere, Love Will Tear us apart ( written in white letters on Hookey's amp), She's lost Control were played.We had two numbers from the new album:WFTSC and Krafty. The traditionnal True Faith , Temptation (dedicated to the victims of the London bomb attack and "for all the victims of the stupid wars"), BLT were played. i was very happy to hear EGC and i enoyed myself looking at Barney and Phil playing together the guitar riff like two happy kids: G G G GG FF C C C ! Obviously we were now very far from Deep Purle ! Hookey made a Joke about the hard rock band with a Roger Glover bass style imitation ! The man was perfect! Sometimes cool,motionless, with his arms crossed on his chest, then suddenly "diving" on his bass with an incredible dexterity.
They did two encore JD She's lost Control and ( for the pleasure of my neighbour) Blue Monday!
At the end of their show a little rain was pouring on Carhaix (Mancunian Atmosphere ?).Barney in his particular french said : bonsoir madame, bonsoir monsieur and "je m'appelle New Order" - a french mistake , of course, but a poetic sentence in a way, very symbolic too.

I don't exactly remember the set list - i'll give u the songs in an other part of this forum, with some pix i made. But anyway it was an event! I've travelled many many years with this band, since 25 years now.It's a part of me , a part of my culture a part of my life.

My wife told me - as we bought (the price was now knew!) some T-shirts for a mate and our youngest son -" everytime it's the same wonderful feeling with them, a real pleasure ( goodbye Unknown pleasures ?),they are special , unique".

Today the band is flying to Japan. Dreams never end.

Great review, Jean Noel, thanks. I haven't travelled so far or for so long with N.O as you, but I can understand what you mean.

My wife thinks Phil is cute, by the way. (!)

Cheers