Jarvis Kicks Out The Jams in Montmartre

Will Hutchins writing for IVY paris

From the Velvet Underground hanging out with Andy at the factory, to Damien Hirst designing the cover art for the recent Hours album, the worlds of pop music and art have often flirted and last week Montmartre witnessed a new adventurous chapter in this love story. Jarvis Cocker, former Pulp frontman, Britpop legend and current Paris resident, installed himself between the silver sprayed walls of La Chappe Galerie for 6 days, 6 hours a day, to rehearse with his band before embarking on tour to promote his second solo record.

These were no ordinary rehearsals however, open to anyone to pop in and watch or, if you were confident enough to bring along an instrument, to even jam with the lanky yorkshireman himself! This was a type of audience interaction that doesn’t happen at a gig, some would even say it went beyond the realms of pop music and into the sphere of interactive performance art. Not surprising coming from a popstar famed, thanks to a lyric in Pulp’s biggest hit single ‘Common People’, for attending St Martin’s College of Art in London. 

Sunday, the last day of rehearsals finished with Jarvis and co. venturing to the entrance steps of the gallery to play a ‘petit concert’ to a crowd of Montmartre locals, bewildered passing tourists and Jarvis fans who had made the trip from around the city.  

In between apologising to the residents of the surrounding immeubles for disrupting their peaceful Sunday afternoon and for his awful yet humorous attempts at French, Jarvis threw some of his famous shapes to the pleasure of those gathered at the foot of the idyllic rue chappe steps. Whether this was art or not, it was innovative, interesting and above all, fun. Just what you want when you come to Paris.

Comments

[simon]

thats brilliant!