Camille at the Roundhouse

She took to the stage wearing an orange fleece cape and orange bedsocks. I think we can safely say she is not vain. Her vocal dexterity and pure tone are impressive.
Camille was soon joined by a gang of backup singers and beat boxers all in orange and black. They produce an incredible array of sounds considering that there are no instruments. Her big hit is "Je vais prendre ta douleur", a jazzy, unique track perhaps one of the most accessible on her latest album which is quite avant-garde.
At one point Camille asks the audience for black or orange shirts

"No not that one!" she admonished when handed a black shirt "one with long sleeves."

A woman passed over an orange long sleeved Tshirt. Camille sniffed it contemptuously "You sweat alot huh? When was this last washed?".

Then Camille did a bit of 'clowning' that is a section of business with knotting and buttoning the shirts together. Making her stage outfit from the audiences clothes. It was quite funny except that she showed the fact that she had not mastered clowning to the same level as her skill in singing when one of the crew came on to help her disentangle the shirt from a mike stand and she shouted at him:

" No, go away, I can do it by myself"

My sister, who kindly gave me a ticket to this event, has done extensive clown training and observed that a true clown would have incorporated the stagehand into the piece.
Her gifts however are undeniable. I like the fact that she is unconventional and generous with her talent. She gave at least three encores to this mostly French audience. She joked that the concert would last 8/9 hours.

Then she called out into the dark "Jamie? Are you there?"

There was silence. "Jamie? Did you come here?"

No answer. "Maybe he didn't come?".

Then a young man stood up in front of me "I'm here".

"Come onto the stage and jam with us" suggested Camille.

We waited sometime for 'Jamie' to reach the stage, so long in fact that Camille wondered aloud if he had got lost or not been allowed access by security. Finally Jamie arrived in the spotlight, revealed as Jamie Cullum, the young British singer/ pianist. Bravely they jammed, Camille singing, Jamie using the piano as percussion. Whenever it didn't seem to work, Camille would stop the proceedings and say:

"No, lets do something different"

We were watching a workshop on stage. Would Amy Winehouse have the courage to do this? Would Madonna?
Then Jamie accompanied Camille on piano for a swooning romantic jazzy version (Camille used to sing for the bossa nova outfit Nouvelle Vague)of Tuxedo Moon's "In a manner of speaking". Sublime!  At the end Camille turned her back to the audience to reveal that her black dress was so low cut that we could see her bottom. Cheeky!

Jane Birkin at the Roundhouse.

She doesn't look 60, more like 40, this slim grandmother in her combat trousers, simple grey v neck and no makeup on her face. Jane Birkin sings with lightness, grace and modesty. True, she doesn't have much of a voice but it's tinyness is all part of her charm. For the encore she sang "Je suis venue te dire que je m'en vais" with a tear in her eye. I was living in France when Serge Gainsbourg died. I remember the video of this song that Jane sang in his memory, constantly rotating on the TV channel 'la cinq'.
This concert at the Roundhouse was more like a trip to the theatre than a gig and all of her musicians took a bow together at the end like a theatre troupe. This singer 'interpreted' the songs, sometimes literally...Jane sings and talks sometimes in English, sometimes in French, sometimes changing language in the middle of a sentence. This is a habit that English ex-pats adopt in France, of using 'le mot juste', the right word, whatever the language.
At the end, Jane effusively thanked everybody involved including Hermés who sponsored this one night concert. Of course it was Jane Birkin that inspired the famous 'Birkin bag' by Hermés, which, if you want to buy one, costs a fortune (thousands) and you must wait months, even years to obtain it.

On ne dirait pas 60 ans, plutot 40, ce grandmere mince qui porte des pantalons 'combat', une pulle grise, et une visage nue de maquillage. Jane Birkin chante avec une legereté, une grace et une allure modeste. Vrai, elle ne possede qu'une petite voix mais cela ajoute à sa charme. Pour l'encore elle a chanté 'Je suis venue te dire que je m'en vais' avec une larme à l'oeil. Je vivais encore en france quand Serge Gainsbourg est mort. Je me souviens de cette chanson de Jane, consacrée au memoire de Serge, dans le clip qui tournait sans cesse sur 'la cinq'. Ce concert au Roundhouse fut plutot une pièce de théatre, avec la troupe de musiciens qui s'inclinaient ensemble à la fin et une chanteuse qui s'interpretait dans le sens vrai ses chansons. Jane chantait et parlait parfois en anglais, parfois en francais, changeant de language quelquefois au milieu d'une phrase, tant qu'elle a l'habitude des anglais en france (dont je me rappelle bien) d'utiliser le mot juste quoique la langue. Elle a beaucoup remercié tout le monde, inclus Hermés, qui a soutenu ce concert d'une soirée seulement. Bien sur, ceci est Jane Birkin, du sac celebre "Birkin bag" par Hermés ce que pour l'obtenir l'on doit patienter des mois, meme des années, sur une liste d'attente. `