21. Monsieurs et Mesdames ... Meester Ggo Cock-airr

Joe Cocker was in town for one show only.  You can't not love Joe Cocker!  

So we and 5,998 Parisians packed Le Zenith at the Parc de la Villette in the northern suburbs of Paris to clap and scream and sing and whistle and have a great night with the Mad Dog himself.

Caught the metro to the Cité des Sciences & de l'Industrie at around 3.00pm.

Went to the Expo "Housing for Tomorrow - Re-inventions of the Way We Live".  Completely absorbed for nearly three hours (but no good photos) until they asked us to leave at 6pm.

Out the back, past the real submarine seemingly hanging in the air.

Across the bridge over the Canal St Martin.

And down the path through the park to the music venue - enjoying a brief patch of late afternoon sunshine.  Once we worked out where we needed to be and at what time, we drifted off to find a drink, something to eat, a nice sit down and a toilette - not in that order.

It's 7.40 pm and we join an extremely orderly, sombre and uniformly grey group of senior citizens at Le Zentih.  No pushing and shoving here.  No queue jumping.  What patience!  What restraint!

Once inside we queue for a beer that we can take with us to our seats.  How civilised!  500ml plastic tumblers of Heineken for not more than you pay at the supermarket.

Waiting patiently.  It's 8.00 and there are still lots of empty seats.  At the Madeliene Peyroux concert they started on the dot of 8.00 pm - we expected this to be the same but maybe different venues have different cultures.

By 8.15 the support act comes on for 30 minutes - Batiste Giabiconi.  

Funny story:  You know how Paul is hard of hearing?  Well, when Batiste finished his first number I turned to him and yelled "That was a good song - "It all Ends in Disaster"".  "Wow" yells Paul, "You translated that well!" "No", I said "It was in English!"

And finally at 9.00 it is Joe himself.  It is now a full house - 6,000 people who forgot they were old and had a fabulous time. 

We have seen Joe Cocker three times.  20 years ago at the Palais-St Kilda; 5 years ago at A Day on the Green-Spray Farm, and yesterday in Paris.  This was the best show in terms of production, sound and lighting.  At 69, Joe's voice is almost gone now, but no-one minded.  He still has the jerky movements and the little jumps, perfect timing and great control even though his voice doesn't always do what he wants it to do.  A female bass player, two great singers, Hammond organ, piano, sax, lead guitar and drums.  So a big, big sound.  It was so good!  And despite his voice, he sang for 100 minutes - full repertoire.

I tried to include my little video here - but alas - it would not upload.