Festival de La Cote d’Opale, Calais, France
Set-List:
Intro – Shine It All Around, Tin Pan Valley, Seven and Seven Is, Black Dog, 29 Palms, Going to California, Morning Dew, Friends, Another Tribe, Four Sticks, Freedom Fries, Gallows Pole
Encore: Enchanter (plus arab remix); Whole Lotta Love
Reviews:
This review by Graham and Kim Bland
As we had already booked our holiday, we couldn’t get to the Somerset House or Cornbury gigs so after some searching managed to get tickets on line for Calais. The Calypso Sports Hall is set in a residential area of Calais and seemed an unlikely location for a Planty gig. My wife’s camera was confiscated at the door, so sorry no pictures! Once inside only about half the hall was used for the gig and I would guess that the crowd was 750-1,000 at the most, very mixed in age. It felt more like a Priory of Brion gig in size with a really friendly crowd! The support was a six piece called Marlango who were an excellent Spanish jazz influenced group with a Natalie Marchant sounding female lead singer.
There was quite a wait after the support and a lot of the crowd sat down on the floor and ate baguettes and rolls!
Robert’s set opened with the remixed Shine it All Around the band entered the stage with a very slim and relaxed looking Robert Plant. The sound was a bit shaky for the first couple of songs but was excellent for the remainder of the gig and Robert was in fine voice.
Robert spoke mainly in French with the occasional comment in English, making mention of the fact that he had been watching all the English coming over to buy up the wine.
The general mood of the gig was very relaxed with the band smiling and laughing, this was helped by a very warm and appreciative audience that probably could not believe Robert Plant was in their town. I think it took a while for the audience to pick up on some of the songs because of the reworking, especially on 29 Palms. Picking a stand out track was difficult because every song was performed so well, the reaction of the audience to Going to California made this my stand out track of this gig.
I did not hear another English voice apart from the merchandise man who hailed from Sheffield.
Was anyone else from blighty there?
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