Review of 2002-03-15: Paris; France Inter radio recording session
- Francois Drouin

 

On that day (Friday March 15) Elvis had lunch with Steve Nieve, then he
arrived at the "Radio France" building (where the "France Inter" radio
station is) around 1:30 pm (I think), with Milo and the people of
Mercury France.

I personally was lead (by Bernard Lenoir himself) to the room with a big
glass over the studio at 1:55 pm and Elvis was just starting to play
"Speck of dust" (first take) in the studio #109.
Elvis played just electric guitar, he was alone in the studio in front of a TV camera, using an beat rythmn box from time to time, (someone was filming, so Elvis was not properly alone)

Everything has been filmed by the cable French TV "Paris Premiere". The
people at the radio wanted him to played a second time "Spooky
girlfriend" and "this is doll revolution", but he made everybody
understood he didn't want (just thinking the first takes were good
enough, I think), by asking his technician (Milo) to put the guitar into
its box.

He then asked for tea or Pepsi MAX (because of cafeine he said), he was
proposed coffee and only given EVIAN water finally!
He then gave an 45 minutes interview, explaining
- why he didn't come to France in 98 (Burt Bacharach likes France he
said and wanted to play in France, but France showed no interest) or 99.
"Around 99, Steve and I did something like 200 concerts, we went
everywhere possible except France !!" He explained the cycle (poor media
coverage - less public/fans - less people at his shows - less sales -
more poor media coverage again). Actually he didn't find anyone in
France to organize a show in Paris (in 99)!
He talked about the very nice concerts he did in Paris the last 20 years
(78 to 96), with some nostalgia in the mouth (Cirque d'hiver - Olympia -
Folies Bergeres - Casino de Paris ...)
- Why Bob Dylan is still so great ... (After Ron Sexsmith (95) and
Elliott Smith (98), who's next ?)
- Why after 2 very disciplined albums, he wanted something a bit wild
and crazy.
For this new record, he had 4 producers/technicians, all of them being
less than 30. He wanted to work with "young" people for this new album.
He didn't explain why the word "cruel" appears on both the titles of
GoodByeCruelWorld and WhenIWasCruel, just coincidence, apparently.
He explained how his record label Island/Mercury/Universal is now owned
by Vivendi which is a French company, he said. "Vivendi used to mean in
England "Undrinkable water" and "Always delayed trains"" he said.
He was asked if he could understand French, he told how the accent of
his French teacher at school was very Liverpoolesque, so he didn't learn
French well at school!
He talked about the French movie (in 98/99) made by Steve Nieve's wife
Muriel Teodori, where he appeared : "Sans Plomb" ("Unleaded") spotted
around the town of Albi (south of France)
About Bruce Thomas: "I don't know where he is, and I don't want to know"
He even used the word bastard about him.
He didn't want to answer whom would he like to work with (after Paul McCartney and Burt Bacharach). "I don't have a list, you know ..."). "It used to be coincidences" he said.
When asked about some seconds of music used as a sampler in one song of the new album, he talked about this Italian female singer "MINA", who did many records in the 60s and still makes some.

The interview was not so much interesting (there was a double translation for each question/answer as you may guess, so it was annoying). Bernard Lenoir (of the radio) doesn't understand English so well, so Hugo Cassavetti (TELERAMA journalist) was the translator.

Elvis was VERY speed, just like if he was in a hurry.

The day before (April 14th) he gave interviews for :

Le Monde - Le Figaro - l'EXPRESS - Rock & Folk - Les Inrockuptibles and
did a session at the OUI FM radio station (I still don't have any infos
about it) and did some shots with Vincent (in the morning and at the famous and beautiful Place des Vosges, where his hotel was), the guy who took pictures for the Steve Nieve album "Mumu".

Elvis was expected to spend the whole week-end in Paris (March 16-17)