Two Englishmen in Paris

I still love it every time we have to go away, the whole thing, the trip, staying in the hotel, the gigging, meeting new people – of course its hard work too – but it’s all a pleasure.

Anyway, this three day Paris visit is to do Press and Radio/ TV interviews because our record label in France  – the independent label “Archambault” is going to release “The Last Post” at the beginning of November. They are turning it into a special package, adding the Carbon Casino live album and a couple of extra tracks.  It’s great when the record label do stuff like that – take the work and add new stuff – I always loved that, always bought the special versions of bands albums I liked – I remember buying the special Japanese release of the first Suicide album just because it had two extra tracks and a different cover design.  It was really expensive on import but I didn’t mind at all…. that’s what being a fan is all about, you love to get all the special versions and having them in your hands. If I really like a band I want everything they do and am always thrilled to find some obscure version in a specialist collector shop with a different photo I had not seen before – I’ve got every New York Dolls album variation, vinyl, Cd…tape even. The lot. Its all part of it.. I hope I never loose that feeling.  I think that is part of what works for Mick and I still because we are both such fans of rock and roll.  Mj still turns up every day at the studio with another bag of stuff – old books, music, dvd’s – everything to do with the Pop culture he loves.  Is that what gives us that rush of enthusiasm when we’re working? I spend a lot of time trying to understand what is it that keeps music vital, what gives it that spark of excitement, the spark that youth brings without even thinking about it because it just pours out of you? Can we still continue to find it at this point in our lives? I think so. I certainly feel that drive and enthusiasm every time we record or play a show and I know Mick does too.

And then there’s more – the next level – the hyper excitement.

I’m feeling it now.  Today we are doing so many interviews, back to back, talking, photos, talking more…that is how promo tours work. You get worked up and have to stay there.  The man from the label has a list of times and names and they arrive every half an hour.  They have done an amazing job here in Paris,  Remy and the others from the label.. it seems like every one wants to talk to us….. AND …they all like the record…AND they say it to our face.  Actually more than like, they are so enthusiastic it almost throws me….

Let me tell you about our journey with some of the press in England. Is it an English disease that no one wants to give you anything? Now I don’t mind if they love our music or hate it…but be honest and tell me.  But in England they come and they say …..nothing. They say nothing….. I find myself getting all excited, enthusing about our work only to be slapped in the face by the wet fish of nothing – they sit there looking flat and lifeless.   And sometimes that hurts and knocks your confidence – a thousand tiny stabs to the heart……But here…. they say what they think, show warmth and positivity, say how the record makes them smile. And I can feel our hearts growing…..

Aah Paris. It seems to us two Englishmen that every other second a beautiful girl walks by….. we eat fantastic food in pavement bars and we’re smiling and laughing. As we now sit in a cafe, just off the Bastille on a lazy Paris lunchtime with a 1664 beer and with Laurence the beautiful girl in charge of radio promotion from the record label, life just feels good. We’ve talked a lot about this too. To enjoy every little moment of life, appreciate everything. I know that sounds like cliched stuff but I feel us changing.  Every moment counts, every moment is of value to be savored…. You see us on stage  – it’s the best time ever and well, so is this day we’re living, here, now.  We sit there taking the scene in and talking…. Talking – its so important in a band, its like a marriage and there are good marriages and bad – to make it good you have to talk about….. everything. I’ve seen so many bands, bands who were great communicators musically, break up because they were great communicators with everyone except each other!  Drives Mj mad when I do the psychoanalyst stuff but I’m gonna keep on doing it because it makes us grow – into understanding even more about how this whole thing works between the two of us.

So now we are standing in the soft September sunlight. The trees are just turning from green to that cracking brown and we’re in a buzzing street on the way to a radio station. I think we’ve done 8 back to back interviews, said the same things over and over again and again but somehow you still find the freshness – each one is a separate performance and you realize it is actually incredibly tiring when you stop for a second.  Especially as Mj and I seem to have evolved into a kind of spontaneous double act where we talk about anything that comes into our heads – we love that – it keeps it fresh for us too.. you know we’re often talking to each other as much to the journalist, exploring ideas, the news, politics anything..its fun..we’ve been friends for 35 years and we’re still laughing at each others imagination.

Imagination said Somerset Maugham, contrary to popular belief, grows with age. He’s right. I realize that, finding answers to the endless questions I’m interested in and provoked every day by the sheer scale of imagination and creativity out there – on Myspace, on the Blogsphere, on Youtube, all of it pouring out of my laptop. New musicians, writers, directors, young or old everyone with a chance to be seen and heard. It is an inspiration. Mj and I spent a couple of hours the previous evening after dinner trawling Youtube (and not the normal TV), shrieking at the humor and brilliance of clips people had uploaded – it’s amazing what you find unexpectedly, such creative ideas – here is the new frontier of satire. Now in 2008 everyone can be a creative – you can get your ideas, however simple or amateur out there to ten or maybe to millions of people.  Its the idea that matters. I watch Youtube more than I watch regular TV these days. This is where the true ideas are happening and it’s you in control. People are not out there queueing waiting to get a job at Saatchis – they’re doing it themselves NOW. At schools, in bedrooms everywhere. No wonder big advertisers are pulling in kids they find on Youtube to inspire their ads. I believe its the greatest time ever for ideas in 2008…. free ideas too. The free internet destroying creativity? Fuck no……..

In the evening we walk a few hundred metres from the hotel to a hip restaurant called “Toi” to meet with Herve the enthusiastic owner of our label here and head of marketing, Christophe.  Me and Mick have both been through some pretty painful dinners with execs in our time, but this is sooo different.  It’s like old friends having dinner together, talking passionately about rock and roll past and present, the groups we love and also groups that none of us can understand why they are soo goddam successful.  I hope no one else is listening! Looks like we’ll be returning again real soon for some TV shows and then for gigs. We head back to the hotel just as the Dj is starting up and a flock of Paris beauties beginning to arrive…..

Next day we do the same all over again….more press, French Rolling Stone, and then there’s the gorgeous “Clementine” who is interviewing us over lunch for French Elle magazine. Our friend the great New York photographer Bob Gruen is by chance in Paris too and he joins us at the restaurant, bringing a copy of his new book of unseen photos of …….The New York Dolls (hah! them again..I could never have known when I as a seventeen year old fan seeing then at Biba’s in London on their first UK tour, that I would one day have Thunders and Nolan stay at my apartment for two months and get to play in a band with them).  And now Bob of course out trumps us in the interview with some brilliant quotes.. “well Lennon said to me…” “that reminds me of when Dylan said….” A great lunch and another memorable moment. And so much laughter….

Back to the hotel for three more filmed TV interviews… and then, before we know it, we’re back on the Air France jet, arriving at London’s Heathrow.  It’s all starting to feel like a blur and I can’t speak for days after…

But I feel a warm glow which will remain….. I loved Paris.

Tony James
25/9/08