ROCKIN' CHAMPAGNE
JUVIGNY, FRANCE - Nov 9th, 2002
by Dominique Turgot - November 2002

After servicing rock'n roll for 15 years, Natchez decided to do a special event for this birthday. So they organised a festival, with the help of "Les Moissons rock" (an association specialized in sound and lights) and the Natchez's fan club "Bandanatchez" who will take care of all the merchandizing. SO were invited, a local rock band, ROSY (who replaced at the last minute NUT CASE whose lead singer was ill and laid in his bed), the famous band STOCKS and of course NATCHEZ. The crowd, about 520 persons, came from different parts of France, that is the Paris subburb, Champagne/Ardennes, Tours, Le Mans, Belgium and even from Lozère (south of France). Incredible, these guys from NATCHEZ have people from all around France. So after we spent the afternoon talking and listening to the sound check, the evening was about to be a great one. Around 8:30pm, lights went off and the evening was about to start when Alain (bass, vocals), Jérôme (guitar) and Manu (drums), the three members from ROSY took the stage and gave us a rock set full of energy and feeling. The drums had to be changed as MAnu is left handed and the legendary STOCKS tok the stage for such a wonderful set. A real nce set, really well worked, good old rock'n roll, bluesy ballads where the Christophe's voice is perfect. And what can we say about his wonderful guitar playing, his melodic phrasing on songs like "La tête à l'envers" reminds me a bit of the Gary Moore's atmospheres. All the great classics from the band were played, their version of "Cocaïne" with reworked french lyrics, "Elle aime le boogie" among others, and of course some tunes from their last album. The crowd really likes them and wants more of them. STOCKS will jave an encore where they'll play two more songs, one of them would be "La Grange" from ZZTop. The STOCKS's set has been a great moment of rock'n roll. Backstage, members of NATCHEZ were really satisfied by the STOCKS's performance.

Christophe Marquilly from STOCKS

STOCKS

After a short pause, BATCHEZ took the stage for about 90 minutes of pure rock'n roll. They start their set with "Trop tard", and then they played all their classics, "Papa maman", "Seul avec ma guitare" (played with Manu on acoustic guitar and his brother Thierry on vocals). They also played some covers, "Gimme three steps", "Sweet home Alabama" and "Crossroads" from LYnyrd Skynyrd and "Whatever you want" from Status Quo. There even were some pretty girls dancing on stage during some of these songs. We'll also be luvky enough to be able to listen four new songs from the next album, coming out next spring (if the album is as great as the songs we vould listen to.... it's gonna be a great new album). After hearing such great music at this show, rock'n roll music still has a future in France, major labels should do their job, but that'san other story.....
Thanks guys for delivering us such great shows. Hope to hear you soon.

Thierry from NATCHEZ

Manu and Andre from NATCHEZ

Andre from NATCHEZ

Ben from NATCHEZ

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