Photo by Nial Pollock
Gilles Ferte at M-LA-Music interviewed me recently about the La Route du Rock Festival in St Malo. Catchers played the festival in 1994 and 1998. You can read the full interview in French here:
http://www.m-la-music.net/spip.php?article4345
I have published the English translation below:
You played with The Catchers, in La Route du Rock festival, during the first edition which took place at Le Fort de Saint-Père. Do you remember the performance?
Yes, I do remember some of it. We had been recording the first album, ‘Mute, at Mike Hedges’ house in Domfront and when we played, the engineer from the album sessions came to see us along with Bernard Butler (who happened to be staying at Mike’s house).
I remember when we went on stage there were people in the crowd waving banners with ‘Catchers’ written on them and they also seemed to know the words well enough to sing along to some of the songs. It really took us by surprise because we had no idea that people would know us. I think Bernard Lenoir had been playing ‘Cotton Dress’ quite a lot by that stage on his radio show.
I also recall having to borrow a second guitar for the show from Edwyn Collins as I only owned one at the time. I used to play guitar very heavily at that stage and always broke strings so I needed it.
We were stuck by how beautiful the place was. We really fell in love with the festival and the area.
In 1998, when you played for the second time in La Route du Rock festival, I remember that you preferred sleeping in a tent than in a hotel: why? Because of the atmosphere of the festival and its camping area?
We only found out that we were going to play the night before the show. We had been playing a show in London and got a call from our agent in France saying that ‘Cornershop’ had pulled out and asking if we would like to play.
It was crazy. Peter, our drummer, could not come with us to play the show but our guitarist at the time suggested a friend of his. We ended up traveling to St Malo with a stranger in our van who had never heard our music before. He listened to both albums and made notes. When we got to the festival we only had time to run through 3 songs with him. So, when we did actually play later that day we played another nine songs with this drummer for the very first time in front of 1,000s of people. I wouldn’t like to be in that position again. It was terrifying knowing that it could fall apart at any moment but I think we did ok in the end!
We ended up staying in a tent because we wanted to be a part of it. I think we stayed in a hotel in Cancale in 1994 but this time we came with some of Alice’s family and we thought it would be great to just hang out on the site with everyone else. We weren’t very prepared though. I remember having to borrow a hammer from some people in the crowd who asked us to sign it for them after we had finished putting our tent up.
The atmosphere was so good that year – and the line up was amazing! Portishead, Spiritualized, Yann Tiersen… We watched PJ Harvey from the side of the stage with Alice’s little niece transfixed by her.
I saw you several times in the audience of La Route du Rock festival, in particular during the last decade: what are the reasons why you often came to the festival?
Yes, I kept coming back after Catchers played. As I said, I fell in love with the place. I would travel by plane or on the overnight ferry with friends. I usually ended up staying on in Brittany for a week after the festival, as the parents of one of my French friends owned a cottage there.
I have so many good memories. I would sometimes get recognized as my photograph had been in a few music magazines, but really wanted to get away from that. I just wanted to be anonymous and be a part of the festival. It was a holiday for me.
Through going to La Route du Rock I got to see so many new bands and loved sitting at night, chatting and drinking with people in the camping area.
I remember seeing Interpol there before they became well known. And Sparklehorse…
Would you like to play once more during a next edition of La Route du Rock festival – with The Sleeping Years or – even – The Catchers?
Well, of course, I would love to play there again. After playing twice it felt almost like home to me.
I haven’t been for a few years now, but I always mean to go back. Actually, my friends are going this year so I could have gone with them. Maybe you’ll see me there next year whether I am playing or not.
