Making A Living As A Blues Man In France
A wandering blues man takes us on a tour of Paris, illustrated with video, where he explores the local life and performs in some well familiar spots.
This romantic city of the Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge and the Notre Dame Cathedral is home to an incredibly diverse group of people battling to live and breathe in the French metropolis.
Lets Play Guitar On The Underground
The Paris underground is the most dense system in the world, and some of the statistics are impressive. For example, there are more than 300 stopping points and in the whole of Paris there is nowhere further than 400 yards from a station! The system has additionally been a long-time haven for the ‘street performer’. As I’m one those fabulous creatures, I thought I’d check it out.
How Does One Start?
You might think that you just find a spot and start to play – wrong! That romantic way of thinking has long faded. The whole thing is organized now and all hopefuls need to sit an audition ( that’s right – a real one!) arranged by the street music performance department of RATP, the folks that operate the metro.
And listen to this – every year, the best of the Paris metro performers are recorded in a professional studio and a CD is released for commercial sale to the public – we’re not in Kansas any more! As usual, the genre of the music varies a lot,ranging from tin whistle players to string sections. Some well known French stars have been found playing here.
Of course, you have to stick to some rules, like ‘no amps’, ‘no CD sales’, etc. I would obviously have to break a few of those, I’m afraid to admit. But as we will see, in reality nothing ever happens how you want it to …
And Now For The Big Audition – Help!
I hopped on a train, guitar case in hand (sounds like an old blues song, wouldn’t you say?) in the Southern part of France and five hours later found myself sitting in a little room in the offices of the Metro, waiting for the audition to commence. I’d decided that I would play four of my best and sing my heart out – ‘need this license, need this license’ was my unspoken prayer. It was the key to untold wealth beyond my wildest dreams (and they could get quite wild.)
It seemed logical that, I reasoned, my prowess would be appraised by a hardened team of pros. This could be difficult. I tinkered with my guitar and waited, almost apprehensively. A man came in, switched on a video camera and chirped “Hello – play something.” He then sat down and appeared to read a newspaper! Unshaken, I launched into a very loud rendition of Love In Vain from the playing of Robert Johnson, at which he raised an eyebrow. After inquiring if I could play anything close to modern, to which I shook my head, he told me that the audition was finished and I would get a letter in a few days. That was about it.
I took the subway to Montmartre, had a meal with my mum-in-law who lives there, and took the train back down south. Funnily enough, a week later I got an letter of acceptance and organized my first day performing in the city of Paris.
I Love Paris In The Autumn, When It Glistens…
Don’t want to let you down, dear reader, but that’s what the subway was – a big let down. Well,maybe that’s not exactly true. It wasn’t what I expected, that was all. I arrived one cold day and dived into the nearest station to find a spot. That was the first mistake. There are so many musicians, so it’s important to get there very early to ensure you have a prime spot. In fact, like real estate, it’s all about location, location, location.
Having said that, I saw some great stuff while I was looking around, a whole range of musical activity from jazz to opera. At one station crossover tunnel (these are often big!) I came upon half a Russian band, complete with a dancer. Of course, the rules espoused by the authorities didn’t mean a thing down here. About 75% of all musicians use amplification and very often sell CDs. I can understand this, in my own area, sales of CDs make up half of street based income.
A Success Story – Sax Always Sells
Paradoxically, the musicians making most money are the ones that didn’t bother getting a permit, and don’t even play in the traditional places. Let me tell you what they do. These people often play a sax, or trumpet, or an accordion (well, it is France,after all) and concentrate on the passengers actually using the trains. I went with one of these guys on one of his trips and we chatted a little, as we were brothers-in-arms, so to speak.
He took a train for five stops, playing jazz saxophone over a backing tape. I found him to be really good at his music and he engaged people, which is a good trick to pull off in the city. He would the repeat the journey in the opposite direction for eight hours every day.
I was pleased to go back into fresh air and sunshine at last, thinking that the life of an underground musician is not my cup of tea. The second part of that day was spent exploring some other parts of this interesting city, and performing a song or two in some nice places above ground.
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