Presentation du projet
Notre volonté d’initier un réseau d’échanges culturels en Europe ne nous permettait pas de laisser le « Projet Kosovo » en suspend. Ce dernier impliquait, de fait, que cet échange soit multilatéral. C’est pourquoi nous avons travaillé dans une démarche constructive et évolutive. En 2005, le projet se concrétisait par:Une tournée d’une dizaine de dates dans 5 pays d’Europe du sud-est, organisée en partenariat avec des associations locales ;Le « PEJ’Alterniv festival », au cours duquel 9 groupes français et kosovars se sont produits durant trois jours. Sa réalisation n’aurait pas eu lieu sans le soutien financier des conseils généraux 91, 92, 94, la DDJS 91 (fdaij, défi jeune), les mairies de L’Haÿ-les-Roses et de Sèvres, les salles de concert du Radazik (Les Ulis), Le Rack’am (Brétigny s/ Orge) Lino Ventura (Trashi trasho-Saclay). Pour le projet 2006 nous souhaitons continuer de travailler avec toutes les personnes rencontrées durant la mise en oeuvre du premier projet, tout en élargissant l’éventail de nos partenaires. Nous concrétisons ici cette envie en mettant en œuvre un évènement musical à travers l’Europe. Celui-ci se déroule en 2 phases. La première consiste en une tournée d’une dizaine de dates à travers l’Europe de groupes Italiens, Slovènes, Croates, Bosniaques, Kosovars et Français. La seconde phase de ce projet est la participation de chacune des personnes à un échange de jeunes européens autour du thème de la mobilité géographique.
Tour Diary by Uros
1st day (27th of March)
At 8 pm, Dagoja bus arrives at our base – Firehouse Trbovlje – and there is around 25 people rushing from the bus (now I know why – Škvorc took some homemade šljivovica with himself), with whom we breathed the same air for the next three weeks. Handshaking, toasting... on the way we stopped in Ljubljana, where we had interviews for couple of television networks and on the invitation of Skabina checked out German Maskapone (all participants on the ET2 had free entry).
2nd day (28th of March)
Drive through Italy – boring till' arrive on the coast of the Mediteranian Sea. By the time we arrived to the Coast of Azur, the sun was already shining, so the trip became really nice.Around 6 pm we arrived in Marseille and we got accommodated in squot????. Pizza, beer and an easy going party...
3rd, 4th day (29th, 30th of March)
29th of March
The gig in Marseille was cancelled, so just after the coffe, the nice people from squot made for us, we headed for Toulouse. After arrival in this beautifull city, the locals and and crew had organised themselves and provided us accommodations. Marko, Jernej, Janez and I stayed at Ben's house. We stayed in Toulouse for a couple of days and Ben and his friends had shown up as a great hosts. French crescent-rolls with coffe in the morning, pasta in the middle of the night, French lesson courses for our Jani... Once again, thank you for everything all of you!
30th of March
In the earl afternoon we've headed for the gig scene with a 30 years old bus (speaking of bus; hats off to Les Bouches Confesses, Joke, Fizcus?!, Duberman, Les Skalopes and the rest of the Kosovo 05 tour crew for having a balls, to go with this bus from Paris to Kosovo). The place, where we played in Toulouse, was a small hippie farm, with horses, dogs, cats... and the place was a small hall, renovated by Toulouse artists. In this evening, we were »introduced« to music from two extraordinary bands – Antenat and Dbau iza djale. And they with ours. With approximately 45 minute program we were after Antenat and before Dbau warming up local audience and crew, which turned out as a great support and made???? them dance. Solid gig.
5th day (31st of March)
In the morning we had taken leave of from our hosts and took of for Seclay. A whole-day drive towards Paris has exhausted us complitely and we were all shocked over the difference in temperature between Southern and Northern part of this country. Otherwise, Seclay is a small village, which is a part of Paris suburbia. We were accomodated in a place with a room to sleep, sort of a living room and a small kitchen (and a small backyardJ).
6th day (1st of April)
We had a gig in Etampes on this day with the Italians Mach Shau. The gig began at 8 pm with Mach Shau. We started ours after the Italians at around 9.15, and played for 45 minutes, becouse the show had had to be ended at 10 pm. We hardly made few people dance and most of the visitors were around bar of this big hall, which could easily hold 1000 visitors. Piteous.
After the gig, we managed to get to Seclay (where Dbau and Antenat were playing) on Deja Minuit festival and cought the act of one of the most famous french ska bands 100 grammes de tetes. Phenomenal!
7th day (2nd of April)
After party on 1st of April, our french hosts prepaired us traditional french feast, where we got soaked from french wine and had beef with potatoes. Of course, the french cheese wasn't missing. Along with the meal, we were listening quartet Yapa. Great music, great musitians! Unforgettable!
On the afternoon, Dagoja took us to Paris. Bit of a drinking (continuing from the lunch), bit of a fotoshooting...
8th day (3rd of April)
Around 10am, we went to club Radazik in Les Ulis, where we had a rehearsal for few hours and we also set to music song Vrbas, which lyrics were written by our dearest friend Dragan. Punk!
9th day (4th of April)
On this day, we headed for Radazik as the day before (around 10 am), where the recording equipment was already prepaired and where we were about to record some of our songs with guitarist Simon (we were all quite shocked and it was a pleasant surprise to see, that Simon, whos masterful guitar playing we were admiring couple of days before on the Yapa concert, will work with us – he is also a guitarist from Joke), DJ Likweed and Bino the saxophone player (also both from Joke). All of this musicians appeared as special guests on concert in Fresnes. The whole thing was recorded during the live session, under wand of sound technition Fabien.
10th day (5th of April)
On this day we went in studio 111, where we were just sitting around most of the time and do nothing. We've met members of Fizcus?! (Djeff, Paco and Bertrand) and just jamming a bit with them. They have told us, that Mano Negra (now known as Mano Chao) comes from this town and we've told them, that we perform their song Mala Vida, so we decided, that we will perform this song with Paco on the vocals on Saturday night in MJC Fresnes where Djeff was our sound technician. On the evening we had a dinner and a discussion about problems of the organising events inside European Union in MJC Palaiseau.
11th day (6th of April)
We were playing in Radazik with Dbau on this evening. Les Skalopes were supposed to come aswell, but they've cancelled the gig. If there hadn't been Antenat crew and the rest of the gang, this gig would have been a disaster. Only a couple of locals showed up. Luckiely, the crew made shure, that the athmosphere was hot!
12th day (7th of April)
On this evening we were playing in club Kfet, which is located in the middle of the student campus Bures. First what shocked us was amount of drinks we got and the great feast they prepaired for us (and thanks for that once again)! We've met Dogged Skankers, which opened the show and after them Mach Shau were playing. It was our turn around eleven and the audience, already easily warmed up, began to dance just after a couple of chords. After half an hour it was heavy skankin' and after an hour, when we were ending our show, the things got nearly out of control. We had to return on the stage for four times and each time we have played two songs and ended show after hour and a half with song Mala Vida, which attained it's purpose – make people burn! Dagoja Bus Culture Crew helped us sang this song. Unforgettable!
And we must not forget this chick, who was constantly bringing us beer. Thank you, once again!
13th day (8th of April)
On 8th of April, RFPS were having a gig in MJC Fresnes, which is a kind of a cultural center, with very beautiful interier and a hall with 400 seats and a place infront of the stage for people to dance. The show was opened by Yapa at 8 pm and the hall was nearl full. Once again a great show from this great band. After Yapa it was Fizcus's turn, who warmed up the audience quite good. Such an energy on stage! After Fizcus it was our turn and I felt quite unpleasant, remembering (during the playing) the discussion I had with Simon (Yapa, Joke) before, who told me, that being the last but one is a »Royal timing« for band to play in France and that Joke gave up this timing for us. And the hall was almoust empty. But as the audience outside began to hear some noise from the inside, the hall was full in 5 minutes and everybody were dancing with us and our musician guests (Simon, Likweed and Bino) after a couple of songs. Diving, pogo, skankin'… and everything that comes along with a good show. Once again we (kind of traditionaly-but only in France) ended up our show with Mala Vida and Paco from Fizcus helped us sang it and members from Yapa, Fizcus and Joke just appeared up on the stage and wild-danced with us! »You make people burn!« was a statement from one of the visitors of the show. Crazy!
And Joke after us proved, that they are the band that has a good reputationa with a reason. Good musicians, that are in music with their harts! And on the very end, Sony and Gal helped Joke with the song Le monde bouge in combined brass sections from Joke, Fizcus and Red Five Point Star.
14th day (9th of April)
All the groups, participating on the tour (Dbau, Antenat and us) had on this evening show in club (bar) Abracadabar in Paris. They have this noise limit in the club, so we were all a bit sceptical. We were playing first, because this was our fourth night in a role that we were having a gig, so we prepaired a bit shorter program. We began the show with a songs, for which we predicted that wouldn't exceed the noise limit. But we only have few such songs, so we were (despite our short timing) »forced« to start »playing«. And soon we found out, that the noise limit won't affect the dancing, nor the singing. Abracadabar was packed full and the locals and crew were having a lot of fun during our show. And we were also very glad and honored to see our friends from Joke and Fizcus?! in Abracadabar. Show was ended by Antenat with Dagoja bus song, performed with a help from the crew. Fun!
(The only thing, that was bothering us (and probably locals aswell), was beer for 5,60 Euro (you can get a pizza along with it in our country for this money) and that the monkeyurity didn't let us to bring a couple of six-packs in – not even to the crew (we wouldn't want to do that but 5,60 for a beer?!) – Marko couldn't entered in the bar for a whole hour (luckily we've already played) nad a big guy told him to go to bed or something and threatened Julien from Joke - in french – when he helped to smuggle through a couple of beers - you rebel, youJ and even wanted to stop the show, when he found out, that someone from the crew was having Notinabarsold beer. It all reminded me on a redneck discos in Slovenija.)
15th day (10th of April)
We took this monday off to relax (we smuggled beer in a bar afterall, hehe) and went to Pariz, to play tourists. We've visited »red light district«, took a walk to Louvre… Tiring. We had a dinner and discussion about mobility of artists and works in European Union in MJC Palaiseau. After a discussion, we were talking with Julien from Joke about the song Our van (which was written specially for this occasion) and were playing around with the idea of recording the song together. (links for lyrics - Uroš, Julien, song)
16th day (11th of April)
Around eleven we went in Rackam to record a couple of songs with Simon and Likweed from Joke. We've recorded three songs (live session), but we've decided, that none of them is good enough, to put it on the compilation, which will be released for this tour, not even the song Our van, so we were all kind of worried. In the evening we've checked out the movies »Ca s'est fait!« (Projet Kosovo 05) and »Karavan za mir« in J. Tati cinema in Orsay.
17th day (12th of April)
In the morning we went in AJB studio, where we recorded Our van. We were recording the song for a couple of hours (the only problem was skin for bass drum, but luckily they had a replacement in the studio) and it was finished by the time Julien arrived. We knew where to put his vocals in the song, but we didn't know how Julien would did it. He prepaired his part of lyrics in advance, read it to us and translated it. We introduced him our idea and he introduced his idea to us. He went into recording room, Pierre (sound technitian) played him a song, he started and we all got goose-flesh. He performed a miracle in half an hour! We have already been satisfied with the recordings so far, but his vocals simply put the song on a complitely different level. He »used« us for his parts aswell as a supporting vocals (everybody (exept Pierre) went in recording room to shout). Alors, ….we did it…! Thank you once again, Julien!
In the evening we had dinner in MJC Palaiseu and debate about alternative and institutional networks. We were also celebrating a release of »Jus d'ananas«, a double DVD release (DVD about Kosovo 05 tour and DVD with clips from the groups participating in Kosovo 05 tour), realised by »Alors on le fait«.
18th day (13th of April)
We knew, everything was almost over, so this was kind of a day off for us. We went in AJB with Antenat (they had some vocals to record) and we used Škvorc to record sax on Our van (thank you once again), that we recorded a day before. In the afternoon we went in Radazik, where we (Dagoja Bus Allstar Band) were about to record Dagoja Bus song. With a little help from our friends (Joke, Fizcus?!) of course. Fun, fun, fun!!! In the evening we had a farewell party. Unfortunatly (or fortunatly) I didn't bring my camera with me… We had a great time with our french hosts and spent a last evening (night) together with all the nice people we've met and we've worked with… …and got soaked together.
19th day (14th of April)
Cleaning in the morning, leaving in the afternoon. Along with us came also Bullet Bottleneck (a great rock 'n' roll band from Paris), to play a play those gigs in Italy, Slovenija and Croatia. We picked up Dragan on the way in Lyon (he went in Marseille to visit his friends, who were recording an album overthere).
20th day (15th of April)
Around 2 pm we arrived in suburb of Milan, where Bloom is located. Expectations were big – Bloom is worldwide known club (Nirvana, Queens of the stone age… were playing over there), but the crew has shown as the best public. There was a little support from the locals. We have also noticed a bad commercial on flyers: dub and metal bands from Italy, Bosnia and Kosovo! WTF?!
21st day (16th of April)
There were only a couple of hours from Milan to Castelfranco, so we arrived in Castelfranco during the night. A place we could easily get used to it, but the audience was (accept a few exceptions)… well, there was no audience except the crew.
22nd day (17th of April)
Around 10 am we headed for Slovenija. The trip was only about three or for hours long and after the IT-SLO border I stayed in lower part of the bus, because I had to shown the drivers the way to Metelkova. It was a really great feeling to step on the home ground and shooke hand with Andrej, who waited us infront of the Gala Hala. We made soundcheck, invited Aki for a beer and soon after already hugging friends, girlfriends… It was a pleasure to see all that people (specially those from Trbovlje) that came to the show and supported us. The show opened Bullet Bottleneck and didn't left the audince cold, who were followed by Dbau, who were increasing mood in the atmospfhere and after them it was Antenat who were playing before us and got people ready for our show. We started to play around midnight and increased the party spirit 'till Simke from Dbau, the most calm member of this expedition, started to spill everything and everybody (including us on stage) with beer. The whole Gala Hala was dancing (though it wasn't full) and we closed the show with Our van, with a help from Škvorc (Antenat) on sax and Pero (Dbau) on backup vocals. Crazy!
23rd day (18th of April)
We didn't knew if Dagoja could drive us back to Trbovlje (from the show in Zagreb), so Mambus came (to Ljubljana) with a van and we used it also to go Zagreb. Some members of the crew – at least how I felt – thought, that we wanted to avoid this show in Zagreb (just becouse of this van thing – Colline was like: »Don't sleep, you must wake up!«J), but it wasn't our intention at all not to shown in Zagreb. Beside the fact, that this is one of our favorite destinations, we couldn't left the crew withouth saying goodbye. And so we left Trbovlje already around 1 pm (we usually never leave it befor 6 pm if we are having a show in Zagreb) and it was probably because of the fact, that we saw the crew for the last time and we wanted to spent some time with all the friends. We crossed the border withouth problems this timeJ and arrived around half past three in Zagreb and we were so happy when we saw each other, so the huggs, despite a few hour separation weren't missing. Soundcheck, beer and a lots of talking and having fun for the last time with people we were hanging out together for past three weeks. The Antenat crew and people from Kset made this evening really special – amount of beer, which is not to be mentioned in public, lots of meat from grill, from which Dino from Dbau got meat shock and the packed full – till the last corner – club. Hats off! The show was opened by locals Lucy, Bullet Bottleneck played after them and both bands have already warmed up public. After french it was our turn and we really tried hard not to dissapoint visitors in Kset. Lots of dancing, skankin' and uproarious applauses had encourage us to use every last atoms of energy we had after the tour. And again, the public persuated us, that it is always nice to have show in this city. Škvorc and Pero helped us with Our van, we played Dragans song Vrbas for the last time and ended our gig with – traditionally on this tour – Mala vida. Everybody did singalong and we were so glad and honored! After us it was Dbau who were rising the temperature in Kset and for the big finale, Antenat. Public knew all their songs, the whole club was jumping. Really nice reception from the people of Zagreb for Antenat!
After the concert, visitors were »send home« by security and the crew (and few invited people – we invited Medarda, our No1 Zagreb fan, who we met just before our gig) to have a farewell private party. It was the last hours of having fun with our dearest friends from France, Bosnia and Croatia. Around 7 am it was time to say goodbye, because Yann, Colline and Djeff with Bullet Bottleneck had to cought a plane for Paris, Dagoja with bosnian crew left for Bosnia and we took a last goodbye from croatian team. It was emotional, it was sad, but we all know that the whole Exchange tour 2 crew will meet on another tour!
THANK YOU ALL, WHO MADE THIS TOUR POSSIBLE FOR RED FIVE POINT STAR AND EVERYONE, WHO PARTICIPATED IN IT IN ANY KIND OF WAY, BECAUSE YOU MADE OUR LIVES REACHER!!!!!!!!
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