Rising again in The Promised Land - The Boss in Montpellier

It was 31 years since we first saw Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band play live, on The River tour. He was so mind-blowingly brilliant that we paid a tout double the odds (against a face price of £5.50!) for tickets for another show on the same tour. We then saw him twice on the Born In The USA tour in 1985 and again on the Tunnel Of Love tour in 1988. By that time, he was still producing some decent if unspectacular material (and even the odd classic), but his powers seemed to be on the wane. In my opinion, the first 5 albums (all made by 1980) have never been bettered. The so-called "lost decade" of the 90's, which coincided with Springsteen's ditching of The E Street Band - probably the biggest mistake of his life - helped to diminish my interest in his music to a certain extent, whilst also being instrumental in my voyage of discovery of so many other artists and genres. But as the old sporting adage goes, form is temporary, class is permanent. And with the return of The E Street Band in the late 1990's and some very good albums in recent years (and admittedly a couple of distinctly average ones thrown in) Springsteen has restablished himself at the very top of the tree. And how many artists can say that after 40 years in the business. The only other ones I can really think of that are still going strong (at least in terms of playing live) are The Rolling Stones and The Who.

Fast-forward to 2012 and Springsteen's latest album, Wrecking Ball, is (in my opinion, at least) a real return to form. So imagine my delight when I saw he was to play Montpellier, at the time we would be on holiday in the south of France. As soon as I heard about the tour, I contacted my winemaker friend Jonathan Hesford, who I know to be almost as big a Springsteen nut as me - indeed, at least 2 of Jon's wines are named after Springsteen songs(!) I must admit that 100 Euros a ticket ain't cheap (and TLD thought I was mad) but who's to say how many more opportunities we'll get to see the greatest live performer of them all, before he finally hangs up his boots for good? So there we were on Tuesday evening (Jon, Rachel, TLD and I) in the Park Suite Arena, a purpose-built indoor concert and sports venue, to see just how much mustard The Boss could still cut.



The view from our seats - not the best seats in the house, but still pretty good.
We're too old to be standing for 4 or 5 hours in the stalls!

Needless to say, he still cuts it big time - and TLD finally agreed that it was money well spent! Here's a link to the full setlist from Montpellier - all 3 hours and 5 minutes of it. Not the longest set he's ever played, but still a lot longer than just about any other artist you could mention. It's a shame he didn't play too many of what I consider to be the real live classics, such as Rosalita, Backstreets, Thunder Road, Detroit Medley etc, but I guess it is all about giving the audience what he thinks they want to hear, and in the case of the French, it was probably the anthemic hits, such as Born In The USA, Dancing In The Dark, The Rising, Waiting On A Sunny  Day, Born To Run. There were a good number of songs from the new album in the set too, but it is a strong collection of songs, so I'm not complaining. And with a back catalogue of such depth and quality, it would be impossible to include them all. Amongst the highlights for me were Growin' Up (I found my self singing along with youthful abandon - "When they said sit down, I stood up", "I was the Cosmic Kid!"), Candy's Room (Mighty Max Weinberg still brilliant with his machine-gun drumming), Prove It All Night (a live staple for the last 34 or so years), The River (amazing falsetto from Bruce at the end), The Rising (such a powerful, emotive song about the firefighters in the Twin Towers), Fire (given away to The Pointer Sisters, but another long-standing crowd favourite), Seven Nights To Rock (a somewhat obscure but authentic rocker) and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (including a big-screen tribute to The Big Man - R.I.P).

 

The Boss, Miami Steve van Zandt and Mighty Max Weinberg

 

Nils Lofgren on guitar and Jake Clemons on saxophone -
- it will never quite be the same without The Big Man, but his nephew still blows a pretty mean sax!



How many 62 year-olds can hold an audience in the palm of their hand like this?

All-in-all, it was another memorable evening in the company of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, and makes an already brilliant holiday even more so. And it makes me realise that the soundtrack to my life would be immeasurably poorer without this man's music being such a big part of it.

And I can't sign-off without posting at least a couple of videos from the musical goldmine that is YouTube........

Here's one that he played in Montpellier (though this was recorded on a tour a few years ago).........

............and here's one that he didn't do (from 1984 and just an extract - the full version is often 12 minutes or more). Enjoy!

 

Incidentally, Jon brought along a handful of wines from his recent bottlings, which I have tasted and enjoyed over the last couple of days. I shall tell you all about them in my next post. Meanwhile, the pool beckons!

    

Holiday time again - and a visit to Domaine du Garinet

This week, TLD and I are on holiday in the Ariège, a sparsely populated region of pleasantly green rolling countryside, situated halfway between Toulouse and the Pyrenées. Our accommodation is a rather lovely and well-equipped house on the edge of a small village, with a large garden, swimming pool and even a tennis court - just the ticket for a week of quiet relaxation.



The house and pool



View from the verandah



Our own private tennis court!

 The Ariège is situated an hour or two west of Languedoc, so on this occasion, our route from the north took us down the autoroute from Orléans to Toulouse - perfect for a visit to Cahors.



Cahors market

After spending an enjoyable couple of hours strolling around the bustling, vibrant Saturday market in the centre of Cahors itself, we paid a visit to Mike and Sue Spring at Domaine du Garinet. Although we first imported their wines last year, this was the first time we had visited the estate, which lies up in the hills, around 15 kilometres west of Cahors. Mike and Sue turned their backs on the rat race many years ago and followed their passion for wine by enrolling in a winemaking course at Plumpton College. Although, like many winemakers, they employ the occasional services of an oenologist, the day-to-day running of the estate and the winemaking itself is all done by Mike and Sue. I discussed at length with Mike the farming and winemaking techniques they employ. The Domaine du Garinet website covers all of this in great detail and is a very interesting and informative read. Mike has a healthy disdain for so-called organic farming, which he argues is in many ways more harmful to the land than the "lutte raisonnée" (which means literally "the reasoned fight") farming methods employed at du Garinet. Pesticides or fungicides are used occasionally, but only when absolutely necessary, and in a reactive (rather than a proactive) way.


Malbec vines - actually north-facing, but the wines are ripe and structured

The estate is small by any standards, at just 2.5 hectares, and is planted to Malbec (for the Cahors reds and the Rosé), plus Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc for the Vin de Pays whites, in 3 separate plots surrounding the house and winery. The Malbec is machine harvested, but the white grapes are harvested by hand. The white wines are made for relatively early drinking, whilst the reds (especially the barrel-aged ones) are keepers. The winery itself is small, but perfectly formed and modern. The barrels are used for only 4 or 5 years before being replaced, and they buy up to 4 new barrels per year. Total production is around 16,000 bottles per year, and most is sold to personal visitors (indeed, Sue was busy conducting a tasting for a visiting group of holidaymakers at the time of our visit).


The small but perfectly-formed winery



The barrel room



Mike and Sue, serving some of their many visitors

The 2010 Sauvignon had all been sold and 2011 was only bottled the day before our visit, so we did not get to taste it. The 2009 Chardonnay Le Clos Vin de Pays du Lot though was delicious, with plenty of varietal character and an intriguing herbacious streak that lifted it above the ordinary. The Rosé Malbec Sec 2010 was fresh, vibrant and full of tangy strawberry and red cherry fruit. Of the Cahors reds, we import the 2001 Futs de Chène and the 2004 Classique, so we tasted instead the 2004 Réserve Malbec and the 2002 and 2003 Futs de Chène, all of which were excellent examples of their kind (though I preferred the lighter, more elegant 2002 Futs de Chène, as opposed to the richer, more tannic 2003). A bottle of 2004 Réserve Malbec paired beautifully with last night's meal of duck breast.

If you are ever on holiday in the area, I can highly recommend a visit to Domaine du Garinet, where you are sure to receive a warm welcome - and of course taste some excellent wines.

Incidentally, we arrived to glorious sunshine and temperatures in the mid-to-high 20's, but yesterday was cloudy and overcast, as is today. But this afternoon, we should get a glimpse of the Languedoc sunshine, as we will drive to Montpellier for the Bruce Springsteen gig. It is 31 years since I first saw him perform, and 24 years since the last time, but by all accounts his gigs are as epic as ever. I'll tell you more in my next post........
                         

A sad day - another hero bites the dust

Well, that's another of my heroes gone. Bruce Springsteen's long-time saxophone player and right-hand man Clarence Clemons - affectionately known to the E Street Band and his millions of fans as the Big Man - passed away last night, aged 69, following complications arising from a stroke the previous week. It is fair to say that Bruce Springsteen's music has played a very significant part in the soundtrack to my life. And the Big Man's wonderful sax solos figure prominently in my line-up of favourite Springsteen songs - and in many cases actually made the songs what they are. If you are one of those rare people who are unfamiliar with Springsteen's (and hence the Big Man's) music, then check out this live (audio) version of Jungleland, which features a sax solo lasting over two minutes - and probably one of the Big Man's finest..............

For those that are familiar, then check-out your Springsteen record collection and remind yourself how good the Big Man was, on other classic tracks such as "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)", "Thunder Road", "Badlands" or - my very favourite - "Drive All Night".

I was privileged to see Bruce and The E Street Band 5 times - twice in 1981, twice in 1985 and once in 1988 - and the Big Man's solos were always a highlight. This guy was far more than a mere "sideman" - when he stepped into the spotlight, the crowd would go mad, even before he played a note. And when he did play, it was enough to send a real shiver down the spine - he was that good. 

The death of long-time keyboard player Danny Federici a couple of years ago was a real body blow to Springsteen and The E Street Band, but the passing of Clarence Clemons may just be the knock-out blow. For sure, Bruce and the band may go on for a good few years yet. But it will never be the same again - not without the Big Man. :-)

RIP, Clarence - and thank you for the music.