vendredi 24 octobre 2008

"Melody Nelson" by Serge Gainsbourg @ Cité de la Musique Paris Oct 23rd 2008

UPDATED OCT 25th WITH 2 NEW PICTURES with BRIAN MOLKO
UPDATED OCT 24th with new video featuring Daniel Darc !!!

Jean Claude Vannier conducting the whole orchestra

Special Night @ La Cité de la Musique as we're gonna hear , at last , Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg live in its entirety for the second time.

First time was at the Barbican Center in London on Oct 21st 2006.
In 1971 when the album was released it had no success at all .
This album is credited only to Serge Gainsbourg but it is as much the album of Jean Claude Vannier as he wrote all the music and did the arrangements. Some music were written even before Serge put a pen to paper.

The concert was divided in 3 parts :
1st : 9 songs are played with JC on piano and vocals or instrumentals with JC conducting the orchestra ( see setlist for details ). Instrumentals were top .

2nd : JC is playing his unreleased and now cult album " L' enfant assassin des mouches" for which Serge Gainsbourg wrote a few lines. Some parts were very good others average.

3rd : we had " Melody Nelson".


The whole cast

See complete setlist for details :
French actor Mathieu Amalric didn't sing as he had the spoken parts , his voice matched perfectly the original version same with Martine Topley Bird ( who's playing Melody ).
Brian Molko did the vocals for " Ballade de Melody ..." he sung it his own way ( with his high duck voice ) but did a very decent job on it ( see video )with a punchy version.
French singer Brigitte Fontaine was out of it for " Valse de Melody", sometimes out of key. a let down .
Daniel Darc was Perfect on " Ah Melody" , the best performance of the night for what is probably my favorite song on this album.
French singer Alain Chamfort, considering his voice, did well on " l' Hotel particulier".
Seaming To "sung" like Yoko Ono on "en melody" but the original version has screams and gasps like Yoko Ono would do so it was perfect.
French actress Clothilde Hesme probably had the longest part to " sing" and did well too on " Cargo Culte".
In fact the whole cast did very good apart from brigitte fontaine , they all stick to the original version excluding Brian Molko who sung his song in a different key ( much more higher ).
It's funny to see that 2 years ago he had short hair and was starting getting bald on the top and now he has thick long black hair !


Seaming To , Alain Chamfort, Daniel Darc ,Martina Topley Bird, Brian Molko

Mathieu Amalric, Brigitte fontaine & Clotilde Hesme

UPDATED WITH NEW VIDEO :
" Ah Melody" with Daniel Darc :
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=d31eM7pPxS4
Updated Oct 25 th with 2 new pictures below:




Herbie Flowers backstage : Bass on Melody Nelson & countless other records ( left )
Complete Setlist + program signed by Brian Molko , Melody Nelson cd signed by Herbie flowers & JC Vannier (right )

"Ballade de Melody Nelson" featuring Brian Molko" :