Military Planning

A quick search of the internet reveals definitions for ‘invasion’ variously in terms of ‘conquest’, ‘plunder’ or ‘dramatic increase in the number of individuals in a non-native population’. That covers the non-biological ones. I can’t say for sure if Fragile’s recent sojourn qualifies under all, or indeed any of the above, but I thought it would make for a dramatic introduction. One thing for sure, this perhaps qualifies as the second daftest thing we’ve ever done, after Helsinki in 2001.

This most recent episode in Fragile’s soon to become illustrious history began in September 2006. Steve Howe contacted us about the possibility of doing a one-off show near Geneva in Switzerland. Of course we were ecstatic about this opportunity! As the intervening weeks passed, we sorted out the fine detail. Marianne, our Swiss hostess and client, was organising a surprise 50th birthday party for her husband, a devout Yeshead. Her original intention was to book Yes. They were not available so she tried to book Asia. They were not available so her last chance was Steve Howe with Fragile.

With further communications, we agreed on a show format pretty much in line with what we successfully took out in the summer this year with Steve Howe. We decided to drive out there and take all our gear, so we could produce the authentic sounds. However, this was Fragile’s first official venture outside of the EU, even though Switzerland is as near as damn it to the centre of Europe as you can get. This meant applying for the dreaded ATA Carnet (no relation of our Steve) which is a passport for your equipment. Confused? With the excellent help of Paul from www.soundmoves.com, we got the document through which involved itemising our 112 or so bits of equipment including guitars, keyboards, drums, amplifiers, modules and Peruvian wind chimes.

To compound things further, Tom and Mitch decided to fly out due to other commitments. The result was a plan that was deserved of military precision to say the least. Would it all come together? We shall see …

The Journey and the Setting Up

Max, Gerlinde, Jon and I rendezvoused at Steve C’s house at a stupid hour on Friday 10th, prior to an uneventful Channel Tunnel crossing. Once across the water, we stocked up on supplies including beer and stinky French cheese and then ploughed on. We enjoyed a stress free journey through France. I could not ever say that about a journey on English motorways. In fact, we got to Switzerland quicker than we have got to Crewe in the past. Near the border, our two vehicles split up – not planned, but because I forgot my French road atlas and was relying on written directions.

Max, Gerlinde, the gear and the ATA Carnet went the sensible way via motorways and Geneva, traversing the impressive Jura mountain range via a series of tunnels and terrifyingly high viaducts over steep sided mountain valleys and lakes. Steve C, Jon and I in the ‘people carrier’ went via Bescanson and the high mountain pass over the Jura to the north of Lake Geneva. We later discovered that Max and Gerlinde got through the border without too much hassle except dealing with a grumpy Swiss border control officer.

Our route was spectacular, we climbed over a mountain pass to about 3000 feet high before descending into the land of cuckoo clocks, cheese and chocolate. The border guard let us through without question and without even looking at our passports. Max had warned us that there could be snow on the mountain pass. With the recent mild weather, I vowed to stick my bare backside in any snow we came across. Suffice it to say, my backside remained covered. Probably a good job too.
 
 

Lausanne is a beautiful, bustling town clinging to the steep north shore of lake Geneva. It has typical Central European charm, architecture and a sense of chilled out atmosphere. However, could we find the hotel?

My usual magnetic sense of direction was completely confuddled in this town.

I later talked about this with Steve H and we speculated that it could be either some magnetic effect of the local geology or perhaps some sinister activity at the particle accelerator at CERN. Steve H commented that his GPS machine was doing strange things. Or perhaps we were just being stupid. Nevertheless, we got there and were warmed by chocolates, grapes and a note of welcome from Marianne, our hostess.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday evening involved being entertained by the beautiful Marianne. We were given an exquisite vegetarian meal and then promptly rearranged all the plans she had made about how to set the stage up. It was all well-spirited though.

Saturday morning allowed some time off to explore before the show. Breakfast was slightly amusing in that we encountered a Swiss woman who must have been Lemmy’s grandmother. Either that or her voice was so deep because she smoked 40 Rothmans a day. We took a walk out and admired the lake, the distant mountains past Vevey and Montreux and the numerous statues of naked ladies. We had thoughts of Yes’s time in Switzerland around about the ‘Going for the One’ era.

Our Steve C then proceeded on to Geneva airport to pick up Mitch and Tom. Was the flight on time? Had Mitch remembered his drum key and sticks? Thankfully positive to all but the drum key and luckily the drum kit we’d hired from Tantalus drummer Tony was well tuned. The rest of us began the mammoth task of turning a respectable Swiss residence into a monster rock venue. I have to say that Ric, Steve H’s tour manager and technician, did a miraculous job in overseeing and creating the sound for the show. The PA system had been hired in: about 2000W worth and a 24 channel desk and enough lights to barbecue a few mountain goats. However, the ‘supplied’ Swiss engineer was none too bright about wiring it. During set up, he had the annoying habit of turning up all the faders, fiddling with a dodgy cable such that when it did work it caused an explosion of noise that rattled more than Steve H’s eardrums. Makes me wonder what Swiss for ‘Herbert’ was. However, as I said, with Ric’s professional intervention, we got everything working.
 
 
 

Prior to the Show

Marianne showed us our dressing rooms which comprised of an extensive office suite in her basement. We were then ushered out to a local Italian restaurant where I must say I had the lightest pizza I have ever had. Not like the stodgy crap you get over here. Marianne’s husband, the birthday boy was due back so we all had to take cover, else the surprise would be blown. However, with more guitars than you can count on 2 hands set up in her living room, including the ubiquitous Gibson ES175, it would not have taken a genius to figure out who had come for tea.

The party guests began to arrive and we settled back secretly into our dressing rooms. At this point, we questioned the inevitable. Here we were, doing basically a private function, where we were about to give them a 2.5 hour Yesfest where the audience was likely to comprise 1 Yeshead and 99 people with ordinary musical tastes! Should we have a Mustang Sally/Johnny B Goode set ready at our disposal? Tom said, “naw, Smoke on the Water”.

At this, Steve H then asked us how that one went – was it a whole tone or a half tone bend. I was about to give an answer when I suddenly came to my senses and exclaimed, “I’m not teaching Steve Howe how to play Smoke on the F*ckin’ Water!”. Not in full possession of all his senses and veering into automatic piano teacher mode  Max, who had sat in Steve’s studio back in June helping him work out ELP’s, Fanfare For The Common  Man for the impending Asia tour and had recently taught a 9 year old piano student of his a version of ‘Smoke’ for a school assembly, cheerfully recited the famous chord progression.

Just prior to the start, Marianne ushered us behind a curtain – she is very good at ushering – and proceeded to give her guests an introductory speech. My French is not that good but she explained that there would be 3 surprises tonight, covering the 3 sections to our show. Fragile then took the stage, tripping over a living room packed with hippy looking people sitting on cushions all over the floor. There was one guy dressed like Jesus or some other character from The Life of Brian who was the local judge.

The Show

We started the show as regular Fragile. We ripped into the intro to ‘Cinema’. I had reservations about this given that it is a loud piece of music. However, we had the volume at ‘function level’ and not ‘nob-out-Robin-II level’ so it worked well. I defer to Max for standing his ground on this one. We segued into ‘Astral Traveller’ and then into ‘Perpetual Change’ before stopping to breathe for a moment. The crowd were rapturous. Any earlier fears about playing to a non-appreciative audience were belayed. They were loving it. It was also nice to see some youngsters in the audience as well who were clearly getting into it. After some further wizardary from Ric, as we forgot our intro minidisc player, we launched into ‘Close to the Edge’ with all the trimmings. We concluded our section with ‘Yours is No Disgrace’.

After a quick turnaround, the stage was prepared for Marianne’s ‘second surprise of the night’. Steve Howe came on to many jaws dropped to the ground. He launched into ‘The Ancient’ from ‘Topographic Oceans’ followed by ‘Mood for a Day’, both played on Spanish guitar. These pieces were the highlight of the evening for me as the playing and the sound were so pure. Whether it is Wembley Stadium or a living room in Lausanne, this man delivers. Steve then played ‘Nine Voices’ and ‘Your Move’ on his new Portuguese guitar which was sounding bright and fruity.

Steve then switched to his Martin acoustic for Masquerade and then some rinky dinking. Steve was now in danger of getting too into it and giving a masterclass on the Chet Atkins style of how the guitar could sound like an orchestra. A well placed and well paced ‘Clap’ finished the Steve Howe solo set with Fragile waiting to return to the stage, hiding outside on the patio singing along with Steve’s guitar in unison much to the amusement of the Swiss guy waiting to open the door for us.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Without further ado, Fragile stepped back onto the stage. Steve H changed to his stereo Gibson 335 and we all launched into ‘Siberian Khatru’. Next was ‘South Side of the Sky’ where Max and Steve H traded licks at the end. These solos seemed to go on forever, which is testament to how comfortable Steve H is with playing with us.

The mood then turned emotive for a rendition of ‘Soon’ with Steve H turning to his Fender lap steel and me to acoustic guitar. This piece never fails to pluck the heart strings, especially in the build up to the end where the drums come in.

To quicken the pace again, our Steve C proclaimed that the audience were all a bunch of ‘Starship Troopers’, Steve H switching to his Gibson ES175. This was the chance for Steve H and I to trade solos at the end. Tonight we gave it a raunchy heavy blues feel more than anything. After a pretend exit, we encored with ‘Roundabout’ and teased the crowd with ‘House of Blues’ at the end. We made our farewell bow and left the audience in a state of rapture. Once again, we had delivered.
 
 
 
 
 

Partying On, Coming Down and the Journey Home

Marianne joined us in the dressing room jumping and laughing like a giggling schoolgirl. She thrust a bottle of 1988 Verve Cliquot champagne at us which we managed to drink most of and proceeded to successfully drink 2 further bottles.

We meandered through to join the party after completion of our night’s work and mingle with our Swiss audience. A local DJ was playing Moroccan groovy music on the 2000W PA system. The Jesus-look-alike judge was dancing more furiously than any of the youngsters and I especially enjoyed becoming acquainted with the chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and home-made profiteroles. They were all BTS (an acronym of which the first 2 words are ‘better than’. Work it out). Max to the home-made pumpkin soup, ad nauseum. Not quite sure what Steve C, Tom, Jon or Mitch were getting up to.
 

We enjoyed the moment but alas, it was time to pack up and make tracks back to our hotel where we managed to trash the carpet with mud from Marianne’s drive, almost trash the fridge where we were storing our beers and continue partying until about 4.30am, using our supply of French beer, some vintage red wine and the rest of the stinky French cheese.

Breakfast the next morning was quite a sober affair. In Fragile terms this is saying something. I constantly reflect with mirth back to York where Steve C disrupted a charming B&B dining room with the loudest, stinkiest bout of flatulence ever to befoul the North of England. Also, last year to Cornwall where Steve C’s fried egg managed to end up in the milk jug. Don’t ask.

While we were all still together, we managed a final trip down to the lake for some band photographs and a final look at the statues of naked ladies:

The journey home was less eventful than the uneventful journey there. We listened to the current rough mix of Aquaplanage about 7 times (all agreeing how good we were) and received several text messages from Marianne saying how much she enjoyed the show and our company. Max remained asleep for most of the return journey with Gerlinde driving the whole way, as she had also done on the journey there. One further uneventful happening was Jon getting all excited in North France asking, “is that a mountain?” I replied, “no it’s a cloud”. Steak and chips in Calais (omelette for me) and then home.

Reflections

I generally don’t like using rhetoric like ‘back to reality’. For me as part of this animal that is Fragile, our experiences are as much part of reality as any other reality. Furthermore, the road goes on and who knows where it will lead. Next year has some interesting possibilities with our yet to be released Aquaplanage original progressive music project. Somehow, we would like to feel that it is not yet the end of the road with regard to our activities with Steve Howe and others.

We express profound thanks to Steve Howe and to Ric French for making this trip happen. Maybe not quite an invasion. Perhaps the flouting of a few local traffic and obscenity laws. Certainly the second daftest thing Fragile have ever done.

Many thanks also go to our fantastic Swiss hostess Marianne, Hotel Elite in Lausanne, Gerlinde for driving Max and the gear over 1500 miles without batting an eyelid and Tony for giving us such a good deal on supplying the drum kit.
 

Prize Winning Quote

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