If you want a cool description of the term "huge festival" : go to EXIT. In the Petrovaradin Fortress (near Novi Sad in Serbia) you 've got in four days , 600 gigs , 25 stages and 60000 persons who are doing the party!!
Well everything was big, the fireworks were big, the sound was big, the stages were big, even Voja the world stage manager was big....and very cool!!!
Even if the mixing desk exposed during the sound check
, even if the organization were 2 hours in late, Voja were always running and did all his best !!
We shared our back stage with the excellent Terrakota , we took a really good time with them before playing!!!
We began to play at 2 o'clock in the morning! But it didn't matters ...time and space notions were not very important for this audience who was dancing since 5 hours ... they gave us a very good felling and after this long wait , it was high time for us to play for the first time in Serbia!!! Very good concert for very good people, we will come back !!!
More than a concert, Exit Festival were a good place for us to meet a lot of friends and so, to do the very big fiesta!!!
Mister DJ KOSTA of Koln was here!!!!!!
Mister DJ CLICK was here too with VOJA!!!
big up to BUTCHA for his hospitality !!
Dj GAETANO FABRI ! SOUPA JU! SISTA KA! SUPREM CLEM!
If I say "Hradec Kralove" what does it mean for you? ... nothing?... a clue: it's a festival's place where Watcha Clan and Massive Attack played on the same stage....so?
For sure it's ..........
Only idea in our mind : to play. In the plane we were waiting to play , in the bus we were waiting to play , when we met our friends of Nomad Sound Sytem....we were waiting to play.
Well , we arrived soon in the afternoon, everything was cool, big sun, big stage and big sound...
we walked around the place and we could appreciate that it was a really big festival with people and stages everywhere!!!
With the night,the time to play arrived , our patience had ran out and we jumped to stage....
the playing time was short 50 min...what ever we did our best !! our trio formula was so efficient...
we took so much pleasure to play in front of this crazy audience!!! the stage manager liked the music too and said at the end " 10 minutes more!!!"
just enough to play "ELI" ...Party time!! everybody was dancing and shacking !...unfortunately time to stop arrived...and we said goodbye....
After our gig, Mister Horace Handy came in our dressing room to congratulate Sista Ka on.....
..
Before we came back to the hotel we took the time to see a very good concert...Big up Massive Attack!!
If someone doesn't believe that we really wanted to play at the Fusion Festival, read this lines...
After a very short night in Reignier, we took the bus to go to Switzerland in Geneva , we arrived just in time for our plane , direction: Brussels in Belgium.
We waited one hour and we took a second flight , direction Berlin. Naturally our driver was in late, and we staid under the rain maybe 2 hours and half...with all our stuff and Sista Ka's walking sticks.
..Well the driver finally arrived...2 hours to go to Larz. The Fusion was crammed , people everywhere, walking, dancing,sleeping, drinking, searching for stage, eating crazy vegetarian food and what ever ...the driver had to drive very very slow even if we were in late...Finally we arrived near the stage, took our back line and went directly on the stage for the sound check...but all those unpleasantness were quickly erase. Because playing at the Fusion Festival it's really a big pleasure...
we did the longest gig of the tour, 2 hours with no break and in front of a huge audience...who gave us so much good vibrations and so much power...everybody was happy , The new sound of Watcha Clan "rock the place", it will stay a big remember! THX TO FUSION FESTIVAL
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After all those emotions, we could finally eat and drink and .....go back to Marseille..LARZ-BERLIN-BRUSSELS-GENEVA-REIGNIER-MARSEILLE...
Hey Mister Ti-seb what do you think about this trip?
Toute l'équipe du clan mit tout en œuvre pour arriver dans les temps au Festival des Rockailles 2008 à Reignier
. Après 6h dans le camion, nous arrivâmes aux portes du festival, heureux d'être à l'heure , mais c'était sans compter sur nos amis de la gendarmerie qui avaient décidés ce jour la (comme par hasard) de contrôler tous les camions.....
Direction donc la gendarmerie et c'est accompagné de leurs collègues de la douane que toutes nos poches et tous nos sacs furent vidés sur la voie publique . Bilan : rien si ce n'est un retard d'une heure....
Heureusement grâce a notre ami Clinty Steph (mister régie)
ce malheureux désagrément fut vite oublié et toute l'équipe (Tchitch, Ben, Damien, Sista Ka, Suprem Clem, Mat la besse et Nassim) put se mettre au boulot.
Ouvrant cette belle soirée :Aloan et Beat Torrent. Le joli lieu des Rockailles se remplissait surement.
La nuit tombante , se fut notre tour....quel accueil!!!! On s'est tout de suite senti à l'aise sur cette belle scène des Rockailles ( et dès le troisième morceau les gens commençaient... à Slamer!!! Super publique jusqu'à la dernière note BIG UP les Rockailles !!!!
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Apres un bref changement de plateau , le Peuple de L'Herbe pris place, pour clôturer cette première soirée cet excellent festival!
L'heure était au rangement du matos assistés par toute l'équipe, et chapotés par notre ClintySteph du soir!! 5 heures de sommeil nous attendaient...il fallait faire vite histoire d'assurer le lendemain à 1300 km de là : au Fusion Festival!
PS: comment ne pas parler de l'homme qui s'est tatoué le Live au Cabaret Rouge sur l'épaule!!!
We are in Palanga , it's raining outside (it's normal because Lithuania is the country of the rain....) and we are waiting for the sound check at the Kultûros Centras Ramybé....
As luck would have it, our plane didn't crash and we arrived at Vilnius,
on Monday 16th of June, but unfortunately one baggage was missing...(even if we paid for it.......) . The day after, Sacha and Guennadi (from the Republic of Belorussia's French embassy ) came by bus to bring us to Minsk...
After 3 hours in the van, we arrived to the Hotel Belaruss where we met Inha from the organization
Wednesday 18th of June, we discovered "la Philharmonic", and we did the sound check in this incredible venue! (like a big green theater...)
Quickly, time to played arrived....we went to the stage ...the theater was full...1h30 of pure happiness emotion, we felt so good on the stage, peoples were dancing on their chairs ...Sista Ka and Nassim were everywhere on the stage at the same time, dancing in the middle on the right on the left, and Sista Ka spoke in Belorussian!! All the tracks were so easy to play....at the end we felt really fool of good vibrations and Joice. Thanx to the audience !!!!!
Before we went back to the Hotel we couldn't miss the traditions of Belorussian!!........
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Thursday 19th of June : bad day! After 7 hours in the bus we arrived to Palanga (LT) , Sista Ka sprained one's ankle!!!!!!!!!!!! misery...
Fortunately we met Lena and Sandra (two girls of the hotel) who helped us to treat her ankle, thank you very much!!!
Friday 20th of June, first concert for Sista Ka with her new walking sticks in the Kulturos Centras Ramybe , big up for our Sista!!
Saturday 21st of June
We came back to Vilnius to play in open air place
.....Naturally it was raining...but when we were starting the rain stopped , a huge rainbow and a huge audience came together! Nassim filmed a part of the concert , we hope he will do something with this..(go Nassim! go!!!)
Sunday 22th of June
We discovered Daugavpils (LV) under an amazing sunny weather , we met Farida who showed us this beautiful town,
Damien did magnificent photos but unfortunately somebody stole his camera.... (no luck) ,so after a police questioning we could start the sound check in front of the Daugavpils Hip Hop crew !!!
But no problem on the stage, everything was ok and safe,
and Farida said "I never saw somebody who can dance like that with walking sticks!!!!!!!! People really like our World 'n' Bass style it was a big party time for everybody even for Nassim who had forgotten his guitar the day before in Vilnius ...he had to play on a classic guitar even if he is a left-handed person! (well done)
We will come back here for sure!!
After a very long trip we came back to Marseille....33 degrees Celsius !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are in the plane, goingto Vilnius from Amsterdam , 3 hours to try to understand why this take off was so strange and abnormal...
Well, we arrived by plane in Tilburg onFriday 13th of June for the Festival MUNDIAL. After one night in the hotel, We discovered a huge park, in a family atmosphere but no time to saunter, our driver mister Bas (what cool name, isn't it?) brought us near the stage with the stuff and we started to install all our equipment while an other band were playing ...
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No sound check!The other band had only just finished when we jumped to the stage and began to play...only 45 min it was too short for us and sure for the audience too, who was dancing on this sunny afternoon!!!
Well after a good meal we heard that the Seun Kuti's concert was just starting, and all the clan went to dance!!! amazing show!!...after some nice pictures we went back to the hotel...
Sunday 15th of June:
Everybody in the van , direction : Amsterdam Roots Festival!!
...(huge park, family atmosphere, etc...) like the day before , no sound check , directly on the stage, but this time for 1h30 min !!Aperfectduration for a real good show....Nobody knew but we jumped so much that the stage collapsed under our feet!!!! thanks to the guy who repairedwhile our concert!!!!
After these emotions , we could meet and see a really good band named Terrakota...excellent concert good vibrations , we will see them again at the Exit Festival (10th of July) .
After a short night all the clan said goodbye to Mister Soupa Ju (who had to go back to France)
, and went to the airport...for a new destination....Vilnius!
Ce ne sont pas les 776670 mètres séparant notre Bonne Mère de la tour Eiffel qui allaient empêcher toute l'équipe du Watcha Clan de débarquer dans les temps au Nouveau Casino. Bien qu'accueillis par le mauvais temps, l'ambiance de cette jolie salle allait rapidement nous réchauffer les esprits. C'est Panko et Max du groupe Ojos de Brujo qui, de bien belle manière, ont ouvert le bal pour cette nouvelle édition du New Bled Festival.
Pendant ce temps les discutions au sujet de notre dernier concert Parisien (cf Maroquinerie le 16 avril) allaient bon train et c'est dans le bon souvenir de ce concert ultra chaud que le clan pris la direction de la scène. L'inflammation de la main de Sista Ka sous les coups de tambourin
, le cassage de corde de contre basse de Mat
, et notre matos qui se déplaçaient réellement sous l'effet des vibrations des digibasses de Mister Suprem Clem
témoignent de l'énergie dégagée pendant ce concert débridé devant un public Parisien toujours aussi chaud!!!
Samedi 7 juin:
Les petits bobos de la veille réparés , le clan mis les voiles vers la région Champagne -Ardenne, pour finalement stopper le bus dans la ville de Vitry-le-François. Cette charmante ville fêtant Tlemsen et l'Algérie il aurait été ballot que nous y passâmes sans nous y arrêter!
Bref deuxième concert pour le Clan a L'Orange Bleue avec en première partie le groupe Nouraï. Concert intimiste devant des Vitryats connaisseurs et ouverts aux metissages
. Cerise sur le gâteau, les musiciens de Nouraï nous ont rejoins a la fin du set interprétant un Qoulou « Jam version » s'est terminé avec un Toast de Sista Ka sur une Beat Box de Suprem Clem...pour le plaisirs de tous!
Un spécial Big up a Nina et a toute l'équipe notamment Mister Jérôme!
After our German tour in February, many people said to us : "Come back soon!!!"...It's done.
So we took the plane Thursday 29th of May night for a long trip "Marseille /Amsterdam and "Amsterdam /Hannover" . It was the first time that we played in Hannover, we discovered a nice town under a powerful sun !!The day after we could walk from the hotel to the venue
and we began to wait our technical team who came with all the stuff in the bus. They arrived on time from France (great performance)
and we started to do the sound check in this Massala festival...We met also our friends of Montpelier les Boukakes who was going to play just after us...It was nice!!!!
Well time to go on the stage arrived , in front of a big hot audience ready to dance and shake!!!! Replayed in Germany was a really big pleasure (and not only for the catering), people are really cool, and they love our World 'n' Bass music!!! 90 minutes of happiness , we enjoyed doing our job in this place!!!
Saturday 31st of May , our truck took the direction of Koln in an absolutely incredible place : ODONIEN.
Unfortunately , my vocabulary (even in French) is too poor to describe it. It 's a big place where they create metal's sculptures so there have got many many things in metal, kind of row material with old cars, trucks, copters, bus , machines, everything up side down.
In fond of this huge museum : the stage...where we met DJ Kosta (Balkan express) and all his organization crew!!! We were so exited to play in this underground place!!!! With the night, this place became unrecognizable , first because many peoples came and second because most of the sculptures had an automatically ignition system....so fire came out of everywhere !!!! It was in this atmosphere that the concert began....audience was so receptive...and we were very motivated to rock the place!!! we gave all our last energy for this last gig in Germany!!!! Thank you one more time mister Kosta see u soon...As far as we are concerned, we are waiting for all the People in FUSION FESTIVAL at the end of the month!
Friday 16th of May, we are somewhere between Barcelona ; where we played yesterday; and Madrid where we play tonight. One more time, all the clan is in the van, rolling on the Spanish highway...
So, we arrived with 45 minutes earlier to the Salamandra . It was a funny venue in Barcelona , and we could see the Selva Sur's (rock/funk/reggae) sound check. In the same time we met the Carabana's crew, we did our last concert the year before with them, and it was cool to see them again!( Big up to the cooker)Well, evenif we got some technicals problems with our guitar, it was a good concert, we finished by «Quinto Regimiento»!!! when we heard the audience we knew that it was a good «encore choice»!!!
Saturday 17th of May, we are going to Alicante, the rain has finally stop. Through the bus' window, they are amazing landscapes most of red and green and blue colors...
Yesterday night , the Tempo Club was full and we understood that Spanish people are really good dancers...
We could play only 1hour: to short !!! if we could we played all night long!! But El Sombrero Del Abuelo (the other band) played after us and we had to go...with Quinto Regimiento!!!!! rock and Roll.
Sunday 18thof May. It's 8 hours P.M., we are in the van since 12h30, we will arrive in Marseille in 3 hours...Yesterday we played in Alicante...I can't find the words to describe this gig.. Big up to this crazy night with an amazing audience, maybe the hottest in Spain... We began to play at 1h30 and we finished 2 hours later in a big Jam session with all the M.C. 's crew...Everybody was happy and we really enjoyed this meeting...We'll come back. for sure..
3 days after the end of the French tour, all the clan was ready to go in Holland. Only two hours in the plane and we discovered a very cute city with typical architecture named Leeuwarden.
The venue: "pop podium romein " was an old church change in cool place with good sound and with a very nice and professional crew. So, it was a cool first gig for everybody perfect to begin this trip.
05/05
We arrived in Wageningen, after 3 hours in the van for a Open air concert in the down town…the only road to go near the stage: the audience. …Easy with a little bus (9 meters)
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…Well after this amazing and dangerous experience we went to the dressing room on a house's first floor, a good place where we could see all the festival!! But quickly the concert arrived and all the clan went to the stage to do a short line check… and just after a big concert!!! It was our first open air of the year!! What a pleasure….But it was time to go to Brussels where we played the day after…
06/05
The night had been short….whatever..we were so exited to meet Tinariwen and to play after in the ABclub ! the sound check was easy , and we took the time to Jam on the stage with Sista Ka on guitar, Supreme Clem on melodica, Nassim (juste arrived by train) on acoustic guitar and Matt on the electric bass, for an acoustic 'Natural Women". Great song. Tinariwen's concert was excellent , we saw the end , and just after their show we began to play in the stairway of the AB club!!!!! the Audience followed us step by step, finally we arrived on the stage and started the concert. Peoples appreciated the sound and danced until the end of the show!!
08/05
After 900km in the van we arrived in a French festival called Bald'Igé somewhere near Macon.
We felt a little lost in translation after Holland and Belgium but quickly we saw a lot of friends, with for exemple mister Nico Matagrin (who had mixed the "Diaspora HI-FI" album...)2 sound engineers Studio Vs Live!!
So after a hard work on the Album Mister Nico could finally see our live performance!! We enjoyed to play here , peoples are so cool and nice , rock n roll audience !!!
Thanx and big up to all the crew!!!
09/05
We came back directly to Holland for the music meeting in Nijmegen. (fed up with the van). We did 2 workshops with cool musicians to prepare 2 songs that they played Sunday on a festival's stage! For us , the show was Saturday night a 0h30min in front of lunacy audience, in a very cool atmosphere!! (their technicians were famous!! thanx)
Finally we went back to France by plane...
PS: Happy birthday SISTA KA!!!!!
PS 2: SupremClem what do you think about coffe on the highway?
accomplished
