This was always going to be a weird one. Rather than put up with a day off in a expensive Switzerland, we had accepted the offer of an "unplugged" show (no, don't laugh...) What we hadn't been warned about was the owner of the club, a genial Moroccan called Samba (!), who acts as if he is angling for the job of Radio 1 DJ, or Ibiza party host. In between trying to calm Samba down and get him to do his job, not ours, and avoiding slow poisoning from the world's most lard-infested "mushroom pate", we do, in fact, assemble a rather splendid JBC Acoustic Soul Revue. Curtis opened up, playing his own numbers and a couple of blues classics. Michael then delivered half a dozen songs from his wonderful Spittle Rattle repertoire before the JBC took over, doing two band sets sandwiched around a bunch of solo numbers from the big fella. All in all we delivered about three hours of non-stop music to an appreciative house. Fashion note: Nick's shameless appropriation of Alpine styles were regarded as a major JBC sartorial breakthrough, and would later win him the Best Dressed Man Of The Tour award.
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