Moving house

Caravan Palace were a complete unknown to me. When I first glanced over their name on the lineup I briefly considered the possibility they were somehow connected to the Canterbury act from the same scene as Soft Machine. In fact they come from France and offer a a brisk update on swing and gypsy jazz. I'm almost tempted to say an unnecessary update since they were plenty lively without the techno garnish.

Colotis Zoe (a.k.a. Sonia Fernandez Velasco) is an exceptionally bouncy performer who plays clarinet and sings; behind her is Antoine Toustou, who handles the techno stuff.



Camille Chapeliere points out the nice weather while not playing clarinet.



Gypsy jazz guitar, courtesy of Arnaud de Bausedron.



Hugue Payens handles the shouting and violins.



Also hitting things.



Sonia revs up the crowd.



Whatever, Hugues!



Ahem.



Sonia goes down on bended knee.



And fans off toasty clarinetist Camille.



Apologies to Charles Delaporte, double bassist, of whom I failed to get a good shot. Or maybe he wasn't there? Memory fails ... anyway, much kudos to Caravan Palace who really got the crowd moving.

• Show reminder: Mackenzie Rhythm Section performs at Babylon; The Great Sabatini, Alaskan, Vilipend and Black Faxes rock Cafe Dekcuf; as mentioned earlier Jonas & The Massive Attraction roll into Zaphod's; Eternity Pocket and The Ticket play the Elmdale House.