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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2017 11:12:15 GMT
Last week I received an email from the electric company (EDF) asking if I wanted to participate in a drawing for a free ticket to see Les Insus at the Stade de France. Even though I try to keep up with the music scene -- even styles that I do not appreciate -- this did not ring a bell, which is quite surprising. Not many people can sell 80,000 tickets for a concert in France. Looking them up, I realised that I did know them. Téléphone was France's first credible modern rock band... 40 years ago. 3 of the 4 members have reformed temporarily and have been touring for the last two years. The Stade de France concert was the grand finale.
Nevertheless, it is proof that I am getting old if people like that can tour France for 2 years and I do not even notice that they exist and cannot remember having seen the name Les Insus anywhere. Even though I liked maybe half a dozen of their songs over the years (their first incarnation lasted 10 years before they went on to solo careers), I was never really a fan, but I figured what the hell, I'll click on the email. Not only did I have no chance of winning a ticket, even if I won a ticket, there was nothing forcing me to actually attend.
Well, obviously I won the ticket and received very precise instructions for the rendezvous with the EDF person. After two searches, I arrived at the meeting point. The woman in charge really knew her stuff because she looked at her list and guessed my name on the first try, which she proceeded to do with every other person. I was surprised that there were only 16 names on the list. After all, it is the 5th largest energy company in the world and has 160,000 employees. (It would be the largest energy company in the world if EDF-GDF has not been split in two -- the GDF half, now called Engie, is the 2nd largest energy company in the world.) But employees were not invited; this event was just a few crumbs being tossed at some minor shareholders -- individual shareholders represent less than 3% of the capital. I was selected out of 49,000 possible people although Ms. EDF told us that only about 900 people tried for tickets. After all, it was one ticket per person and lots of people never attend anything alone, and also for some reason, not everybody lives in the Paris metropolitan area, or they have kids or they're in nursing homes or just who the fuck wants to see Les Insus, I've never heard of them, I don't like crowds, I'm too old for such things, there might be a bomb, it ends too late... In the end, it is sort of surprising that 900 people tried for tickets on 3 days notice.
Why 16 people? Because we were invited to the special VIP box of the CEO of EDF and it has 16 seats. Karine (Ms. EDF) said that we were luckier than we could imagine because the previous CEO absolutely never let anybody else use his box.
We got our tickets and all I could think was yikes, who would pay that much just to see a concert? (Yes, I know that a lot of people would.)
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We went through more security and were delayed slightly because Tran, the Vietnamese member of our group, had too many suspicious electronics on him. We were greeted by at least a dozen greeters, walked through the big open bar and snack section ("You can have as much as you want and it's all free.") And finally we entered loge 88, which immediately made me think that it was chosen by EDF with China in mind.
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Basically, each loge is a big lounge with a small kitchen and bar and then 16 seats outside for watching the event.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2017 11:37:23 GMT
It was still early, so we just hit the champagne and the first snacks. imageshack.com/a/img924/6318/RMpo17.jpgimageshack.com/a/img923/330/yeCHHp.jpgThe stadium was still filling up, and the opening act began to play, a hard rock band from 30 years ago. Nobody seemed to be the least bit interested in them. imageshack.com/a/img922/7025/Eh9Aef.jpgimageshack.com/a/img923/3692/dTNvoZ.jpgimageshack.com/a/img924/8819/LoSfds.jpgimageshack.com/a/img923/922/BAxRIX.jpgThe average age of spectators was about 25 years older than I am used to, which of course is normal. Lots and lots of white hair in the crowd. Oh well, I went to take a look at the general bar area. imageshack.com/a/img923/487/zpKUSN.jpgI bet some people never even saw the concert. imageshack.com/a/img922/706/JrNFpo.jpgLater in the evening I went to get a mojito at this bar, and I think the bartender poured about half the bottle of rum into it. When nobody is paying, you don't have to use dosers. imageshack.com/a/img922/825/bMGvub.jpgThe 80,000 people now seem to have all arrived. imageshack.com/a/img924/4738/Ua2Eyw.jpgThe VIP boxes were not being used much tonight since it is not the style of spectacle that interests most giant multinationals with boxes. imageshack.com/a/img923/5461/7O1Edc.jpgimageshack.com/a/img923/8462/ci036T.jpgLes Insus were now on stage. imageshack.com/a/img924/9854/OfVGDA.jpgimageshack.com/a/img922/3469/S9XPoU.jpgThis is Jean-Louis Aubert, age 62. His first rock band was called Masturbation. imageshack.com/a/img923/7472/ZyesRS.jpgHis acolytes are Louis Bertignac (age 63) and Richard Kolinka (age 64). imageshack.com/a/img924/9060/XfNmfh.jpgimageshack.com/a/img922/3893/dh7toM.jpgimageshack.com/a/img923/1802/j5Bbij.jpgAs Téléphone, it should be mentioned that they were the opening act for the Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop, among others, so they had a bit of street cred. imageshack.com/a/img922/3302/XcDTCA.jpgimageshack.com/a/img923/9388/tyzjQE.jpgAging performers need to sit down from time to time. imageshack.com/a/img924/4455/jcKan2.jpgFor old guys, they still had a bit of energy, though. imageshack.com/a/img924/6739/Wz4Eak.jpgOne of their biggest historic hits was Un Autre Monde (Another World), so they trotted out some giant balloons for that song. imageshack.com/a/img923/7091/UtzBIn.jpgThese digital cameras certainly turn certain views into another world, too, when they decide that a night sky is actually yellow. imageshack.com/a/img922/2532/YhrKTi.jpgOkay, here is a glimpse of the concert in sound and motion. Well, I'm glad I went because it's something that I absolutely never would have done otherwise. It's only the 2nd time that I've been to the Stade de France. imageshack.com/a/img922/2669/H30gXw.jpgYes, the RER back to Paris was a nightmare, but they put on lots of extra trains right after each event, even though it was almost midnight. There were even announcements: "8 trains left." imageshack.com/a/img923/8562/N34abS.jpg |
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 19, 2017 17:36:57 GMT
Well, this is different and interesting! Congratulations on winning a spot. Your story is a good rejoinder to those people who drone "I never win anything". I admit I scrutinized the snacks -- snacks which looked to constitute a very nice light supper. And yes, the free bars would be compelling. I also scrutinized the people in the third photo and my conclusions were corroborated by your comments and other photos further down the page. It's funny, but even as we all insisted in our youth that "rock and roll is here to stay", we didn't actually envision what that would look like forty years on.  Live music is always hard to judge from a live-recorded video, but it does seem as though the music was good and that the spectacle was fun. I'm glad you got to go -- even though you had to pay with that grueling ride home -- and very glad that you shared it with us. |
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2017 17:57:08 GMT
Oh, those were just the early snacks. The main dishes and fancy desserts were brought out later with more bottles of wine and champagne. (Needless to say, each loge had a serving person to bring out food, wash glasses and take away dishes.) When I went on my single mojito run (which I must admit seemed to be about 75% fewer mojito runs than most of my companions), I also got a big plate of cheesecake and raspberry sorbet in the shared VIP zone.
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