ReviewsSo nice in Nice - The Stranglers in Nice on November 27th 2004Friday 26th Saturday 27th Sunday 28th Monday 29th |
Soulsec ArchiveIn their own words |
ReviewsSo nice in Nice - The Stranglers in Nice on November 27th 2004Friday 26th Saturday 27th Sunday 28th Monday 29th |
Soulsec ArchiveIn their own words |
It’s
5am in Berlin. My friend and me stumble out of bed, take a hasty
breakfast and make our way to the airport. The plane departs
at 7:30am. The flight is smooth and we arrive in Nice at 9:40am.
The weather is absolutely lovely compared to Berlin. A bus takes
us from the airport to St. Maurice in the north of Nice where
we get picked up by the staff of our hotel, Villa Saint-Exupery.
We are shown to our room, a seven bed dormitory which we’ve
got for ourselves because of the season. It could be quite nice
if it wasn’t for the people who have to go through our room
to the showers and toilets. Fortunately there are not too many.
Next
stop with the bus is Monaco – Monte Carlo. It’s about 5pm. The
sun is already setting and we get a lovely view of Monte Carlo
by night with all those huge hotels, the mountains in the background
and the Casino of course. After a few more hours of walking
we take the train back to Nice and descend to the old town where
we rest in a British pub with some Strongbow cider. Not much
sleep due to permanent noise… these walls are way too thin…
After
breakfast we take the bus to the venue, Le Palais Nikaia, to
meet with Aurelia from Belgium. As there is still half the day
till the doors open we decide to walk down to the beach where
we arrive after a little detour to the airport. Again the weather
is lovely and we try the sea which turns out to be as cold as
it looks… some people are actually swimming in there..
beach
and we take a look at the prize list outside. Aurelia is about
to go inside, but I’m signing to her that it is way too expensive.
An older man who is taking his lunch alone outside notices this
and tells us that he’d be pleased to pay our bill. He gives
us 100 Euros just like that… without asking anything…. really
unbelievable. 
We
arrive an hour early, but there are some football players at
the back of the hall who amuse us with their warm-up. Doors
open at 8pm. The venue is the smaller hall of a pretty huge
modern building. It takes about 500 people and the show is sold
out. The stage is not too big and not too small… seems to be
just the right size for the Stranglers. But first to the support
act, Asyl from France, this is my first concert of the French
tour and I’ve heard differing opinions so I don’t know what
to expect yet. They get on stage at 8:30pm and they turn out
to be really good. The music is well played and they seem to
be a tight unit as they easily transfer their energy to the
audience. The singer has a charismatic voice and is quite a
showman. Nice start. 
It’s
time for the Stranglers at 10pm. The place is already getting
very hot and as always we are welcomed with the Waltz In Black.
Right on time JJ, Jet, Dave, Baz and Billy Idol (sorry Paul
;)) enter the stage with good spirits and the audience
is already into it very much. After the first two songs the
barriers at the front don’t seem to be able to hold the people
back and two boxes have to be brought for support. I take some
photos during the first few songs and watch the rest of the
show from the side of the stage considering if I should go on
taking pictures or follow Chris’ advice not to… I must have
looked kinda bored since Paul makes some signs into my direction,
but that was not the case… I
was just concentrating on my options and after half of the show
I decide to get my gear back. As most of you already know there
are no changes in the set list apart from Nuclear Device, but
the band put everything into each of the songs and you don’t
notice that they’ve been playing them for a year already. Peaches
seems to be getting scarier with each show. Paul manages
to rip his trousers to shreds during one of his jumps.
After
showing this little change to the audience he covers it up with
his shirt later on. After the first encore JJ holds his French
speech which is a bit of a cool down for me, but probably only
since I don’t understand much…. Altogether
it was one of the best concerts I’ve seen this year. One could
feel the power the band put into the show and that’s what they
got back from the audience… It was great to hear Nuclear Device
for the first time. 
3 hours of sleep… yawn…
Up for a very sleepy breakfast and then back to the city for
our last day in Nice. We descend to the old town for some shopping
and I finally find a present for my brothers 16th birthday.
Lunch on the beach, a lovely walk around
the harbour, up to the city mountain with more castle ruins
and at last to the old beautiful cemetery of Nice… After some
beer we head back to our hotel. On our way we come across a
huge number of police men near the football stadium. It will
probably be a nice and quiet night… After being accompanied
by the police for some metres we finally reach our destiny and
drop to bed.
Not
much sleep... again… We get up just to realize that our plane
departs in 40 minutes. Don’t panic Alex! It's raining outside
which seems to be very suitable in this situation. We ask the
hotel staff for help and one of the guys drives us to the airport.
We arrive to notice that the check-in has closed five minutes
before… Not panicking gets harder… We book another flight for
an hour later which goes to somewhere in Germany at least. Fast
check-in and off to the gate… Due to technical problems the
flight is delayed for ten minutes… for one hour… for two hours…
for six bloody hours! Oh the irony… We get a coupon of about
28 Euros each to have lunch on the airport. After looking for
an internet facility we head to the restaurant and have a lovely
dinner with some red wine and Martini. At last the plane departs
at 5:30pm… to Dortmund… we have to get to Berlin though…