Review
Festival Des Vieilles Charrues, France, 23 July 2004
by Mailla

Texas in exceptional concert for the festival “Les Vieilles Charrues”. The challenge was hard: replace Bowie for a festival. Many artists would have declined the invitation, but our Scottish band did accept it immediately for our greatest pleasure.

After a few hundred kilometres, and some hours to wait for the opening of the doors of the festival, we ran to the first row in front of the Glenmor stage. I always try to be placed between Ally and Sharleen and it’s what I did again. We had to wait untill 9pm to see Texas performing, before them we saw 2 artists : ROKIA TRAORE, which I really enjoyed and THE CORAL.

A few minutes before 9pm we still could not believe we were about to see Texas tonight but when we saw the Texas red lights being installed, things starting to be more realistic for us. During the set up of the stage we’ve been interviewed by a radio journalist. He asked us if we were here for Texas and from where do we come from between other questions.

8.45pm, the crowd started to shout “Shar-leen Shar-leen Shar-leen !!!” When finally her face appeared on the big screens. The audience was crazy, we all started to scream very loud to call the band. In 1 minute Texas got up on stage. Ally took his guitar, he started "I Don’t Want A Lover". It was an absolute hysteria in the public, we were all singing and jumping. It promised a great concert !! And what a great concert it was !!! I couldn’t believe Ally, Sharleen, Johnny, Tony, Eddie and Neal we in front of me for a gig. They all seemed to be in a really good mood, all smiling; Sharleen was running from one side of the stage to the other one and she looked at the public a lot. Then came "Halo" which is my favourite Texas song. To say to which point I was exited, I even did not recognized the intro, lol. At the same time the security man sprinkled us with water, which made me completely soaked but very happy; nothing could have made me take down the glance of the scene. Ally looked at me so I made “hello” with my hand he did a shy and cute smile. Then we had "When we are together" . Sharleen forgot to sing the 1st sentence of the song, she was probably surprised to see such a receptive public.

She took her black and white Telecaster and she said they would be playing an old song now. At first I thought of “You Own It All To Me” but she started with a “Yeaaaaaah !!!” . Once again, the audience shouted very loud. It seems we all recognized “So Called Friend” !! The song boosted even more the public at such a point that we were totally crashed against the barrier and some persons were evacuated. Then they played a new song called “Get Down Tonight”. The song started with a bass guitar riff, it’s very catchy and much more rock than the so-called rocky song “Carnival Girl”. It’s difficult to say more about it as I’ve heard it only once, but all I can say is that I really liked it ! I would described it as a mix between "Postcard" and "Telephone X".

Finally Sharleen put back her guitar and walked towards Eddie, behind the keyboards. It was for "Tired Of Being Alone". As Texas was here because David Bowie had to cancel his summer shows, they played it in medley with "Young Americans" which made me very happy because I’m a little Bowie fan ! I looked at Johnny and I did a sign with my hand to show him it was great. He saw me and made big smiled.

The public always shouted “Texas” between the songs, and the band seemed to be very surprised and happy of this warm welcome. Sharleen said as usual “Je t’aime mes amis”, “We love France”, which was very cute. She really know how to please the public !! lol. During the concert, Texas played a lot of their success, the set-list sounded like a greatest hits show : "In Our Lifetime", "Black Eyed Boy", "Inner smile", "Summer Son"… But also "Carnival Girl", they did change the end of the song and I must admit it was much better, I even almost liked it ! lol Sharleen and Eddie also did an acoustic version of "In Demand" and "I ‘ll See It Through".

Finally, the final arrived: "Say What You want". Excellent song as usual to enclose the concert. Sharleen “tried” to make the audience singing the chorus. I did not have any more voice but I shouted as much as I could lol For the Wu Tang Clan remix we all raised our arm and moved it from the right to the left.

The group left the stage under the cheers of the audience, Sharleen said they will be back in 2005.
I think the concert was absolutely amazing, one of the best Texas gig I’ve seen. It was a bit more spontaneous than before which made the things much better. I hope it made the band feel like going back after the relative success of CWYWF. I’m sure they’re gonna rock the charts again and the next concerts will be kicking !!!
My highlights were "Halo", "So Called Friend" and "Tired of Being Alone".
Thank you Texas !!


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