My RECOIL experience in PARIS (english version) on April 22nd & 23rd 2010

Last week , Alan Wilder and Paul Kendall were in Paris to promote the release of their new best of album : SELECTED.
It’s the first time Alan Wilder launches a tour to promote one of his albums, and most of all doing a concert in Paris for this kind of promotion.

I couldn’t miss that event and I wanted to share that event with people close to me or at least with people that appreciate Recoil  music as much as I do.

For this promotion I was lucky enough to get  to interview Alan Wilder and Paul Kendall one day before the concert in Paris at the Bus Palladium for my Recoil fan website : Recoiline

On April 22nd , my wife Perrine, Bruno (another friend also fan of Recoil) and myself went to meet Alan in a chic hotel situated in the North of Paris in an area called « La Chapelle » in the 18th Arrondissement of Paris. For that interview we knew that we had half an hour to share with Alan for our interview. Alan was a bit tired because of all the travelling problems –by car- occurring lately for his promotions (because of the volcano in Iceland, for those of you who might not be aware of that news)

We were there a bit early and Alan was already attending another interview with someone else, with Britt close to him probably doing some reports of their last adventures on her computer. We waited our turn on a table nearby, while drinking some beverages in order to refresh ourselves (I admit we were all a bit nervous).

Our time comes and we finally know we will spend the next 30 minutes asking him the questions we’ve been working on those last few days, but believe me if I tell you that those 30 minutes went by so fast, it seemed it only lasted 5 !
Of course we couldn’t ask all our questions to Alan , but as usual he was  nice, comprehensive and relaxed. He seemed a bit tired though, regarding his agenda and the journey through Europe and all they went through those last days it wasn’t really surprising. He confided us the problems he encountered with some of the French managers for the venue regarding some stage setups and more especially about the screen. It seemed that weren’t making things easy for him and it seems he was used to that kind of attitude with some of the French promoters…

The interview ends quite quickly, but in a very good mood, a few laughs and some confidences, and we quickly leave the place to let the new team of the French site VirginMega lead by Anthony Augendre, to take our place to start a new video interview of Alan.

We got back to the main entrance room of the hotel and this time we meet Alan’s mate : Paul Kendall, someone real nice and comprehensive as well who takes a bit of his time to answer our questions. Bruno knows more about Paul musical background and he’s able to ask him questions more accurate than mine that pushes Paul to pay more attention to our questions.

While we were doing our interviews, Perrine took some time to make some photograph shoots  of Alan and Paul during our sessions , that will allow us to illustrate the interviews we will publish later.


Finally, we leave the hotel after both interviews , being really happy to have been able to live this kind of magical moment shared with artists  we appreciate and that we follow since quite a long time now….

Even though it wasn’t my first meeting with Alan Wilder, I admit that it’s always some emotional moment for me to meet him and being able to communicate with him that way.
Earlier on, that same day we talked about that Bruno, saying that  even though we’re near  our 40’s , we feel the “fan” getting out of us in situations like this, feeling a bit more like a teenager than a full grown up adult…. Anyway, it feels weird…

We get back to Vanves where we live and spend the time together sharing that moment together and reminding us that we were going to see him again the next day for the concert at the Bus Palladium.

Friday April 23rd 2010, we try to take our time and enjoy a bit the warm weather before the Recoil concert happening that night.
We went to have a walk through the park of Vanves called “ le parc Pic”, enjoying warm and sunny weather outside…

They day went by very quickly again and finally we were close to the beginning of the concert. We decide to call a friend, Nadia, to invite her to the concert because we had one spare ticket since one of our friends couldn’t come to the concert and also to the after-show party. We then head to “Blanche / Pigalle “area of Paris where the Bus Palladium hall is.

As we got there it was a total surprise to Perrine and I  for the design of the stage and the setlist of the concert , because we didn’t want to spoil the event reading anything in internet ( the only thing that we spoiled was the fact that the aggro mix of “Never let me down again”  [Depeche mode] was among the setlist, so when I saw that link on youtube  through a contact, I shared it with others automatically but didn’t even dare to watch or hear it…)

The room of the Bus Palladium  filled up quite quickly as the time was passing by, we could see  some people we knew like Mags, Anthony Augendre , Guillaume Michel ( from D-Side who helped organizing this concert ), Sharon and some few others we know from our different activities related to Depeche Mode.

Olivia Louvel got on stage to start this concert, along with Paul Kendall. That same day Bruno made me discover one of his late albums and made me enjoy her music. I really liked her voice and I enjoyed it even more during her live performance. The minimalist aspect of her musical approach, along with the electronic sounds and the video background going with the songs was a nice and smooth entrance that really got us in the mood of this night and made me want to know more of her music (thanks Bruno!)

There was another band before Recoil got on stage; it was two guys calling themselves Atomizer. Their sound sounded quickly analogic a bit of a mix between Erasure or Dead can Dance. I have to admit that at first I was surprised and didn’t feel reluctant to them, as their performance went on I wasn’t really appealed by their performance, most of the time I couldn’t clearly her the voice of the singer and the bass volume of their music was a bit too loud, and too strong, at least from where we were standing in the hall.

Finally Alan and Paul came on stage and were welcomed by a round of applause from the crowd. They stand in front of their 3 MAC laptops launching the promotional concert for SELECTED .
I knew it wasn’t a “live” show , with real live instruments  or singers ( except for few special concerts of the Tour) , but more a kind of DJ set controled live by Alan & Paul , who manage the sound effects and the background videos of the concert.

It felt like magic, it was intense  because I never thought that i would see one day a live concert of Recoil (in the past  Alan himself often saif that a live concert wasn’t something he  could easily organize) , but suddenly the dream came true , some new versions of Recoil songs  were remixed for this live show, versions never heard before , there was a nod , reference to Warm Leathere, the first single of Mute Records, and of course another reference to Depeche Mode by a revamped aggro mix version  of “Never let me down again” which is my favourite DM song ( what could i ask for more ?)
The songs that impressed me more from the Recoil set were Prey, Killing Ground and Stalker, I was really nicely suprised and in awe when I heard them.

The concert came to an end , Alan and Paul came twice to salute the crowd, and finally went off  to isolate themselves a bit after the concert, probably for a short meet & greet after the concert , or maybe a signing session for the fans.



We decided to head to the after-show party that was organized at the Caves saint Sabin near bastille, where Nicholas “Zen” Dumayne from the “ Waiting for Words” band was organizing  this party dedicated to Recoil. While we were driving  to our location,  our friend Nadia decided to give a name to our GPS , that were driving us crazy giving some erratic directions.We finally agreed on calling it “Deby” or sometimes “Debil” ( short nickname that maybe close to a french word meaning “dumb”).

At the entrance of the party  we met again the members of Atomizer who had trouble identifying themselves to enter the party  place at the Caves Saint Sabin,  we “helped” them to enter, saying to the security inside, they were opening for the Recoil concert, their french was quite limited I think which didn’t helped communicate for identifying themselves..

During the party , we met the usual people that come to the parties organized by Zen and  selection of music more electro / goth music influence, with tracks by Depeche Mode, Yazoo and some more often played during the night...
We met some people we knew from the past like Sebastien Michaud who wrote a french biography of Depeche Mode,  Nathalie T, who was an old friend of  Nadia, Mags ;) and some others as well ...

By experience , we knew that zen usually have interesting and well balanced sets that  allows all the different kind of people who attend to his parties to have fun , danse and celebrate . It was the right place to be then !
But that night was a bit different , because there were a lot of Depeche Mode and Recoil fans  were there because they knew that Alan was going to be there as well.

When alan arrived most of them quit the dance-floor and went to wait in a mass near the room where Alan was being kept. They were all waiting to take a picture with Alan or get something signed from him, but it was a bit scaring  and quite impressive.  Of course most of the people were there for that, we were there also a bit for that but also to enjoy the party, which we did because suddenly we had more space to danse on the dancefloor, and we were having fun together :)

By 2:00 AM , the crowd movement stopped a bit because alan wanted to spend some time with his staff and close ones.
We finally also did our “fan reaction”  with Bruno, Nadia, Perrine and myself  to meet Alan before he left the party to havve a group shot picture of us with him. But there was a small mistake with the shooting and unfortunately Bruno didn’t appear in the picture, that was a  bad luck  I feel sorry about it.

It was already 3:00 AM and we decided to get back home , but first we drove Nadia to her home  and then we headed  back to Vanves, after those two days full of emotions and strong souvenirs we were all quite happy !!

The next morning  we woke up a bit dazed to say bye to bruno who had to leave Vanves & Paris to get back to Lille where he lives . We just lived an awesome experience and I had the chance to live that with my wife  and also I had to chance to meet bruno who is a real nice guy and who shared intense moments those 2 RECOIL days ;)

I still have a hard time believing all this really happened a week ago, but those events are still quite vivid in my mind  and will be part of one the strong moments of my musical life and experience. Now as usual here’s a withdrawal period that we’re going through  and going back to our normal life ...

Here some photos taken by  Perrine during the concert and the party , some few pictures from me of  the Recoil concert at the Bus Palladium

and some nice pictures from  le hiboo website

TWO STRANGE DAYS IN A TOTAL RECOIL MOOD ….with some friends and family :)


Gilles / Pimpf / Recoiline