Richard Durrant is currently in the south of France working with this September’s French Guitar Adventurers…
Richard’s road trip south began with a one off, solo concert in the town of Melle, east of La Rochelle. The Cafe Boulevard is a hugely well supported arts venue that puts on a wide variety of different music and in the balmy heat of last Saturday evening they were having to turn people away from Richard’s gig.
Richard takes up the story: “To my delight the temperature was rising fast and the sun was beating down as we drove south. But on reaching Melle, and with the gig start time fast approaching, I realised I was probably going to roast onstage and began to regret wearing my jeans and heavy cotton shirt.
“Sure enough by the time I got to the stage I was already drenched and with the audience packed in shoulder to shoulder it must have been over 40 degrees in there! This could have been a problem – but at the Cafe Boulevard there was some kind of magic in the air that made it all ok.”
The atmosphere that night was electric and Richard worked his way around his four guitars and ukulele swapping styles as he went. A real highlight was his hot club rendition of Django’s Honeysuckle Rose which an audience member captured on a phone:
Django in Melle Sept 2019 from Revolution Arts on Vimeo.
Richard will return to Melle next year as he cycles through France during his Cycling Music Tour 2020. He’ll leave Orkney in early June and appear at Brighton Open Air Theatre on Midsummer’s Day.
Then, continuing south from Dieppe to Bordeaux in September, he’ll pause along the way to host another French Guitar Adventurers holiday at The French Retreat. If you would like to cycle through France with Richard please contact us.