Well every day is different, that is for sure . . . tonight we are in Lyon playing one of the nights of the venerable Les nuits de fourviere . R.E.M. will play in a classic Roman amphitheatre tonight here in Lyon and tomorrow night in Nice. Wonderful to be back in France and wonderful to have a nice, dry day unlike the first few shows in Holland, Belgium and Spain. The catering tonight for band and crew is set way up on a hill in front of a manor house somehow attached to this theatre– that is not an everyday occurrence. And the festival, which has been going for some seventy years, tomorrow night features Leonard Cohen and Thursday night Damon Albarn . . . and all sorts of theatre and dance spread over more than six weeks night after night– a pretty decent attraction for this part of France. The iTunes Live From London EP is out, some new R.E.M. shows are announced, we head on to Dublin and Glasgow this weekend for festivals, then Germany, Switzerland and Italy next week– it is summer in Europe on tour and all is well.
Bertis