French Lessons: Gallery
Promo Material
There's a certain amount of detritus that accumulates around any band (and I'm not talking about the road crew). Ours is listed here—most of it isn't really promotion material but, as Frank Zappa would say, WTF.
Badges
French Lessons Badge
Well, not so much badges, but badge.
I don't remember whose idea these were, or who made them for us, but they were a damned good bit of psychological warfare.
French Lessons played Liverpool University's Students' Union a week or so before entering the Radio City Battle of the Bands. In the audience were a number of guys who were to provide the muscle for the loading and unloading at the competition. It must have been quite unnerving for the other bands to see so many of these badges as they were helped into the Liverpool Empire.
It's possible that Chris Sarson set these up. He was responsible for the artwork on the Reel Music cassette album as well as some posters—so he's a prime candidate.
Backstage Pass
Backstage Pass
Talking of Radio City's Battle of the Bands, here's the backstage pass for it. Top of the bill that night was The Steve Gibbons' Band. They weren't made to feel very welcome by the audience. Most of whom were very definitely there to see the competing bands.
The gig was a typical French Lessons performance; mainly because the power to the back-line went off during their set. The band did such a good job of covering this that most of the audience didn't notice. You may think that this was a good thing, but no. We were accused of pulling the plug ourselves as a stunt. At one point the organisers were so convinced of this that they were considering eliminating the band from the competition.
Jimmy Cuff gets a special mention for the light-show. None of the other bands put anybody on the lighting desk. Consequently, the lighting for French Lessons was far more appropriate than the generic stuff they others had.
Oh, and the guy driving the spot light had to tell Jimmy to calm down when the back-line came back. Apparently Jimmy whooped down the intercom so loudly it nearly blew is ears off.
Because proceedings ended earlier than we expected I volunteered to stay behind and load the van. Everybody else shot off to the after gig party. I think I'm still owed the meal I was promised for staying behind.