Dateline early 2007, and the CLUAS gaffer is proposing to his Paris correspondent that his leisurely monthly column become a hi-octane, fact-acting blog:

CLUAS gaffer: Your column is becoming a blog. Start posting toot sweet or there'll be no more CLUAS Foreign Correspondent Expense Account. That is all.

French Letter: Yikes!

Luckily for us and our lavish expense account, loads of Irish acts visited Paris in 2007 just so we could write about them. Some, like Nina Hynes and The Immediate, came more than once. Others, like Duke Special, inspired us to write dizzying prose the likes of which hadn't been seen since the last pages of The Great Gatsby. We were nominated for awards and dreamy French actresses started returning our calls.

It couldn't last. Now that there's a recession in Eire and everyone's queuing hours for sold-out stale bread, Irish bands are giving up their Paris trips to concentrate on rocking the lucrative Donegal bingo-hall circuit. Bell X1 supported Nada Surf here last week... and that's all. The Frank And Walters cancelled three French dates scheduled for April. We were starting to panic, and dreamy French actresses don't find that attractive.

And then, flicking through pocket-sized Paris listings mag Lylo to look busy, we found Junah (right). Junah have been supporting Kill The Young on their recent French tour, and they have their own show at the Café Montmartre in Paris tonight. Junah. You know... Junah. The Irish band. Junah!

No, neither did we. Junah are a five-piece band made up of four Dubs (from Tallaght and Palmerstown, to be precise) and a French drummer. As they say on their MySpace page, their acoustic folk-rock "[combines] the melodious hum of Irish Folk music charged with an overwhelming and embodied enthusiasm for the progression of the Irish rock scene". Seeing the dreaded Eleanor McEvoy as one of their prominent MySpace friends (they're supporting her at Aras Chronain in Clondalkin on 16 May) tells you all you need to know about that particular genre.

Still, in the spirit of "g'wan Oirland!" and shake-a-shamrock and non-begrudgery, we'll give them a mention. After tonight's show in Paris they'll be in Arles on 30 April and Sanary-sur-Mer (no need for me to tell you where that is, of course) the following night. Then it's off to Switzerland before coming back to Ireland.

Junah were due to compete in Phantom's battle of the bands competition but withdrew due to 'sudden unforeseen complications with schedules'. Never fear - one look at their MySpace page and you'll be able to find out where you can see them (hint: Clondalkin).

From a recent appearance on Balcony TV, here's 40% of Junah performing 'Walk Me Into The Ground':

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Thanks to John "Nevada" Lundemo for filling me in on the latest kunming outdoor music festival, held on April 18,19. John heads up a multinational blues rock band called the Tribal Moons, which plays gigs around China's southwestern capital of Kunming. Some 20 bands played the second installment of the Kunming Outdoor Music Festival took place over the weekend in Taiping Town outside of Kunming - 600 people and a wider variety of music than at the previous edition: Gouride, Tribal Moons and Heiyu. "We rocked the crowd," says Lundemo. "But there were too many "death metal bands" for my taste, so we were, as usual, a "welcome relief".

Maybe he was referring to No Answer, whose Chinese name means 'beat me to death and I still won't talk', are fronted by self styled punk-slut styled Bai Cai. Go Kunming reported that rock/reggae hybrid Made in Dali proved the consensus favorite among fans.
An excellent English-language blog to the region, Go Kunming reported that there was a sizeable military presence at the festival, "with dozens of (officially) off-duty soldiers checking out the variety of musical offerings under a nearly full moon." On Saturday night two personnel carriers entered the festival site with sirens blaring - the soldiers aboard however, seemed only interested in taking in a set by Rap Republic.

The Tribal Moonsband may be lucky that its base is Yunnan province, a balmy, hippy-friendly region bordering Laos and Burma. Certainly it's all gigs for the band, which headlines an all night festival party in the picturesque old town of Dali on on May 1st. "We also have a "fly out' (we're flying to another city) on may 8th for a big "private party". paying us a ton of money, but we're not sure what the exact deal is yet. It sounds exciting..."

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Here's what security looks like at the annual Beijing Pop Festival. Thanks to Judith Govey at Uk-based Association for Independent Music (AIM) who sent it to me. AIM-represented group The Crimea played the festival in 2007. Beijing Pop Festival organisers have privately moaned about trying to get security - required by the local government agency which grants the festival's license - into something less formal than their paramilitary unforms. No luck, lets see what they manage for this year's fest, set for September.

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French-based music fans have some tough decidin' to do for the start of July, what with three tasty festivals happening on the same weekend at different corners of la hexagone.

We've already featured the Main Square Festival at Arras in the north, and Eurockéennes at Belfort in the east. Both have their charms.

However, your blogger will be at a different festival, the third panel in our tryptich of French music trips for the first weekend of July. We're staying in Paris. There happens to be a tasty festival just down the road from Château French Letter.

Solidays takes place at the Hippodrome de Longchamp, the west Paris racecourse that holds the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (won last year by the Irish-trained Dylan Thomas). The festival was conceived as an AIDS-awareness event, but has grown into a bona fide heavyweight summer concert series.

The festival's honorary president is Antoine de Caunes, familiar to UK and Irish TV viewers as the host of Rapido and Eurotrash. If you know Paris then you'll know it's quite appropriate that the presenter of Eurotrash is heading a festival that takes place near the Bois de Boulogne, where all the 'interesting' people come out at night.

Now in its tenth edition, Solidays 2008 hosts a mix of French and international indie and dance acts.

Friday 4 July features the wonderful Vampire Weekend, the equally-brilliant French folk-pop duo Cocoon (left), Australian airplay-darling Micky Green (is she famous in Eire yet?) and impressive Belgian rockers Girls in Hawaii. There'll also be sets from local heroes Deportivo and Têtes Raides (not our thing), alt-folkies Moriarty and those irritating Hoosiers. Later that night there's a dance stage featuring Vitalic and Laurent Garnier.

The Saturday night line-up doesn't really appeal to your Paris correspondent. Unless there's some wonderful late addition, we'll probably head into town that night to drink wine on the banks of the Seine. But for those sticking with the festival, there's the happy-clappy folk-pop of Apple saleswoman Yael Naim and some are-they-still-around moments with Asian Dub Foundation. The samedi soir home favourites are rocker Cali, balladeers AaRON, singer-songer Thomas Dutronc (son of '60s pop icons Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc) and dreary slam-poet Grand Corps Malade, who we won't be sorry to miss. But the Etienne de Crecy DJ set might be worth catching on our way home.

Sunday night: that's more like it. The Gossip and Foals, with two French Letter favourites - Grenoble indie kids Rhesus and disco-pop princess Yelle (right). Also: Toots and the Maytals! Richie Havens! We'll have to check out those two too.

All of that for only €33 for early bookers. The normal three-day price is €45 - still excellent value. Camping on-site costs €8 per person. Tickets are available from FNAC.

You can read up on Solidays and its line-up at the festival's website and MySpace page. Here's Sunday night star Yelle and her hit single 'A Cause Des Garçons' ('because of boys'). If you don't enjoy this, there's no hope left for you:

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A review of the album 'Seldom Seen Kid' by Elbow Review Snapshot: Top class intelligent rock pop – Elbow could never make you happy but they could afford you a better class of misery...

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Announcer type voice: 

Key Notes is brought to you today by the number '0', the letter 'F' and the word 'Dilemma.'  

Key Notes is in trouble. You see, somehow, your blog has found itself in the midst's of a love triangle.  Finding itself torn between its long term partner and its new love, with whom it's recently spent many sweaty, drunken nights.  Key Notes, it seems, has some tough calls to make.

Now, before Mrs. Notes gets too worried, Key Notes is referring to Manchester United and CLUAS.  On Tuesday April 29th, this blog has a long-standing commitment to review the Gemma Hayes gig in Tripod, the same night its beloved United play Barcelona for a place in the European Cup final.  Of course, it would have been easy had United been beaten last Wednesday (indeed, they probably deserved to lose) but no, the match remains on a knife edge, with the possibility of victory and a place in the Moscow showpiece tantalisingly close. 

Then there is CLUAS.  You see Key Notes is also responsible for the distribution of gig passes to CLUAS writers and has to set a good example to all the other CLUAS writers after his enforced absence.  However, the reason Key Notes faces such a dilemma is not because he HAS to review this gig, but rather because he WANTS to review it. 

Tipperary born Gemma Hayes has always troubled this blog you see.  To Key Notes, most music is love or hate, eject or repeat.  Hayes however, belongs to the pretty exclusive 'meh' club (other members include Whipping Boy and - don't tell the boss - My Bloody Valentine).  There's nothing about her that's particularly offensive nor, until recently, has there been anything to keep Key Notes coming back for more.  That's all changed though with one song - 'Out of Our Hands' - which Phantom, have played quite a bit of recently. 

There's no particular reason why, but Key Notes likes this song a lot.  That is why he is so keen to review Hayes, to give her another chance to get out of the 'meh' club.  If only it wasn't on the same night as the football?  But that's just life isn't it, we sometimes have to choose between things we love, just to appreciate them even more.  Key Notes loves United, but it looks like his love for himself music, is going to come out on top.  Looking below, it's not really hard to see why.  Besides, United will probably lose 12-0 anyway.

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Richard Wageman, a lawyer at the Beijing offices of DLA Piper sent me an interesting appraisal of a new Chinese government policy initiative. Foreign investors will be allowed to invest directly in live performing arts projects in China for the first time. That’s according to Certain Comments on the Establishment of a Rational Supply System for the Performance Market and the Promotion of the Prosperous Development of the Performance Market, a torturously titled document released by nine Chinese ministries and commissions, including the policy-setting National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Culture.

Before the Comments were issued on January 30, the Administrative Regulations on Commercial Performance (in effect since 1997) had permitted foreign investment for renovation and construction of commercial performing arts theatres and other performance venues, but prohibited participation by foreign investors in operations and management. This is good news for China’s non-state performing arts troupes, perennially starved of funds. Entertainment in China trends towards massive outdoor pop concerts, performances by state-funded troupes in large government-owned halls (like the new National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing)

With even state-run troupes often complaining of lack of funds, the new bent in policy will allow private cash and stakes in these often underused venues. Some of the thinking may be to put on more traditional Chinese forms of entertainment for tourists – Peking opera is after all a dying art form. Coming from such a wide swathe of government authorities suggests the policy will be expedited and foreign investment approved fast.

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A talk with someone who’s seen it all: Stuart Watson was vice president for MCA/Universal before going fulltime on his consultancy, SWAT Enterprises to help record labels and artists break developing country markets like China. He has helped British indie bands and Spanish flamenco troupes get gigs in China. It says something about the potential of the local industry surely when the man who is credited with helping make Britney Spears a household name decamps to China.

In a recent interview Watson told me he sees similar problems between the market here and in Latin America, another region he’s beem trying to crack: in both territories Western acts and labels are so scared by rampant piracy and free downloading that they balk at tapping the “huge” market for live music. There’s another reason why very few music companies are sending artists to China: they don’t have the live rights.

Artists’ standard modus operandi of handing recording, publishing and management rights to different parties may work in mature markets like Europe and the US but not in China, says Watson. Artists should pool their rights in one manager to leverage the best out of cost-conscious but curious China. A manager like Stuart Watson, perhaps...?

See the full article in the May issue of China International Business magazine.

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The CLUAS gaffer, in his infinite wisdom, picked the Eiffel Tower as the signature image for this blog. And with good reason - it's by far the most identifiable symbol of Paris and France. (He also did well in picking a photo that makes it seem as if the tower is located by a lake in the middle of lush green fields.)

If you've been to Paris you've surely visited it. The best way to find it is to get out of the metro at Trocadero, where the giant Palais de Chaillot hides the tower from view. Suddenly, you round the corner and there it is, across the river, immense and beautiful. After years of living here, it still takes our breath away. It's the most visited pay-to-enter site in the world.

In its early years it wasn't so loved. Guy de Maupassant hated the tower so much that every day he ate lunch in its first floor restaurant; he said that it was the only place in Paris where you couldn't see the tower. A temporary structure for the 1889 World Exhibition, the tower was almost pulled down after its original 20-year lease expired. It was saved because Radio France needed its height for the huge antenna which still tops the tower today.

Many visitors to the Eiffel Tower try to recreate the famous sequence from 'A View To A Kill' where Roger Moore chases Grace Jones up the steps. (Tourists are generally dissuaded from copying the parachute jump at the end).

The film's theme song was performed by Duran Duran (left), and they made the video on the tower, playing at being spies.

At the time, the band members were not on great terms, so it's appropriate that the video features them trying to kill each other. The promo photo (left) was apparently taken after much persuasion to make the five bandmates stand together in the same spot.

Inevitably, it ends with the band's singer smarmily introducing himself as "Bon, Simon Le Bon". He shouldn't have been so smug. Performing the song at Live Aid, with a TV audience of half the world or so, Le Bon hit the most notorious bum note in pop history.

Here's the Parisian video, then, for Duran Duran's 'A View To A Kill':

 

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Belfort is a city wedged into that north-eastern angle of la hexagone where France meets Germany and Switzerland.

Given its crossroads location, historically Belfort has found itself caught up in the Franco-German conflicts through the years. The infamous Maginot Line, supposedly defending the western front against a possible World War I, ran from near Belfort up to the Channel coast.

An earlier conflict, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1, inflicted a six-month siege on the city. Unlike in the siege of Paris, the defenders of Belfort won out. Their sacrifice is commemorated by a famous statue called the Lion Of Belfort made by Frederic Bartholdi, who went on to make the slightly-more-famous Statue Of Liberty. (Paris has scaled down replicas of both works.)

Today, Belfort is renowned for two music festivals. The FIMU (Festival International de Musique Universitaire), takes place in May and features the cream of student musicians from various genres and countries.

The other festival is Eurockeenes, arguably France's top summer event in terms of size and quality. This year's edition takes place on 4-6 July - the same weekend as two other big French jamborees; the Main Square Festival in Arras and Solidays in Paris. (Your blogger will most likely be at Solidays.)

Remember how we said that Belfort was a crossroads city? Well, where in the past that attracted armies, these days the invaders are road-tripping music fans from around Europe. We hear there's usually a fair-sized Irish contingent.

The line-up for this 20th edition of Eurockeennes (left, viewed from above) is fairly impressive. Friday 4 July features Massive Attack, The Gossip, dEUS, Cat Power, Calvin Harris and Biffy Clyro, amongst others.

Saturday 5 July stars CSS, Vampire Weekend, N*E*R*D, Sebastien Tellier, Camille, The Dø (France's big contenders for 2008) and The Wombats, plus loads more.

Finally, Sunday 6 July offers you Band Of Horses, MGMT, Seasick Steve, Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Holy Fuck, Battles, Lykke Li, Girl Talk, Babyshambles (!!!) and Gnarls Barkley. In an act of kindness by the promoters, that last night's headliners (The Offspring, Moby) are rotten enough to allow you skip out early for the last train to the next stop on your Eurorail holiday.

A day at Eurockeennes costs you €40.50 and a weekend pass is only €90. To woo would-be Belfort-goers living in Paris, there's a special all-in bus + weekend pass for €166 (the bus leaves from Place Denfort Rochereau, home of the replica of the Lion of Belfort statue). Similar deals are available from most large French cities for much the same price.

You can book your ticket online at this page on the website of French usual outlet FNAC. As for getting there from outside France, Easyjet fly to Basel/Mulhouse Airport, 70km from Belfort (i.e. 30km closer than Beauvais is to Paris).

Full details on the line-up and the getting-there are available in English and French on the Eurockeennes website.

As we mentioned above, The Dø are poised to do well outside France in 2008, building on their Eurosonic appearance earlier this year. Their debut album, 'A Mouthful', is a charming mix of radio-friendly pop and alt-folk oddness. However, singer Olivia B. Merilahti's voice is a self-consciously quirky and whiny weapon of mass irritation. Judge for yourself; here's their big hit, 'On My Shoulders':

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