Not wishing to shatter your illusions of Hot Press as a well oiled, faultless media machine but, as we step off the train at Clermont, we’re still not quite sure exactly what we’re doing here.
The whole concept of Europavox is still something of a mystery and the town hardly appears to be in the grip of festival fever. Worries are compounded when, on reaching the conference centre and supposed hub of the thing, there seems to be some sort of IT conference going on. For a while there’s nothing to do but stand there, bags in hand, looking fairly forlorn. Thankfully, however, several young people wearing passes emerge round the corner and it finally looks like this is the place.
Young people are really what Europavox is all about, above everything else; even the music. It’s not a festival as we would maybe recognise it. While it goes for the city vibe of SxSW or our own HWCH there is only one venue in town, La Cooperative De Mai. Europavox is more about a cultural exchange, using music as a platform. 25 countries’ music magazines have sent a team of competition winners (or ‘ambassadors’ as they’re known here) to Claremont for a week, to do what young people do in the name of cultural understanding. Somewhere out here are the Irish representatives, no doubt leading the party.
Strolling into La Cooperative on Saturday evening we’re greeted by a familiar accent and lo, they’re they are, our ambassadors, Caz from Dublin, Susie from Cork and Patrick from Longford. Their part in the proceedings seems to have largely consisted of a few day-trips, watching a lot of European bands and becoming unofficial group leaders for the other ambassadors. Alcohol we fear, may have been involved. They talk animatedly about the different people they’ve met, the acts they’ve seen and how only the Finnish have been able to out-drink them. Europavox, it appears, is a cross between the Eurovision Song Contest and the World Cup of booze.
Sunday is rock day and more importantly, for us anyway, Chalets day. Breezing into town on the back of a successful Paris show, you can only marvel at how they do everything just right. Their healthy attitude to touring in Europe is obviously paying off and the reports are that they’re the one band people have been talking about all week. As they stroll out to meet us pre-show their very appearance causes a buzz of excitement and when they take the stage at the relatively early hour of eight o’clock, the place is rammed. Gone are the tentative live band of a couple of years ago, replaced by an outfit that you feel could win over a crowd of any nationality with ease. They sound amazing too, putting a rocket fuelled boot up the arse of the album versions, particularly the perfect pop quartet of ‘Theme From The Chalets’, ‘Feel The Machine’, ‘No Style’ and a massive ‘Nightrocker’. To that foursome you can happily add newie ‘Cloudburst’, suggesting that the best really is yet to come. In short, a triumph in high heels.
The people of Europavox certainly seem to agree, as the band are mobbed when they venture back outside later on. Pee Pee and Pony are surrounded by a gaggle of teenage boys, and we swear we heard Chris tell someone that he was the first Irishman in space. The hysteria calms down a bit when French band Dyonosis start playing, allowing drummer Dylan to reflect on quite a year for the Dubliners, from supporting the Kaiser Chiefs to another less positive run-in with another Britpop ‘06 heavyweight. As the chief business head of the band, he has the most insight to offer into the ups and downs of it all but, as the whole Check-In period draws to a close, the Chalets glass is most definitely half full, as well it might be. It’s a fitting end to what has been a splendid few days, proof if it were needed that music really does make a mockery of all boundaries. For both the Chalets and Europavox, it’s an ethos that can only lead them to bigger and better things.