KASPER CHEVALIER: LE WARWICK, PARIS 1985
At work amongst the fab and famous
story: Kasper Chevalier/text: ahand83
I’ve been a Genesis fan since 1977. There was a guy at school who had GENESIS printed on the back of his jacket which I found intriguing. He was the one who introduced me to their music. The first album I bought was ‘And Then There Were Three’ and I still have a soft spot for that album, even though Genesis themselves think otherwise. In 1978 I managed to buy tickets for their concert at the Groenoordhallen in Leiden where they played on May the 20th. I’ve seen them play many times since then, in Holland and abroad. In 1980 I saw Genesis play at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. They hadn’t played the UK for a while apart from Knebworth ‘78, so ticket sales were crazy. I travelled to London with my father who went there to do business and he dropped me off at the Hammersmith. I vividly remember buying a sweatshirt at the merchandise stand, asking for a ‘sweetshirt’. They laughed at my pronunciation.
In 1982 I moved to Paris where I took French classes for about a year. To finance my studies I applied for a job at Le Warwick Hotel in Rue de Berri, nearby the Champs-Élysées. I managed to get in and got a job as a waiter, lowest in ranking. Le Warwick was a prestigious 4 star hotel and a lot of famous people stayed there. While working there I saw many celebrities like for example Elton John and Mick Jagger, playing together on the piano in the bar of the hotel. Bands that also stayed at Le Warwick were The Human League, Foreigner, Simply Red and Prince’s backup singers Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman who wanted to touch my hair when I was working at the bar, because I had these long blonde locks. I never saw Prince, he was staying somewhere high up in the hotel.
Phil Collins stayed at the hotel with his band in March 1985. I was on the midday shift and I remember two of the horn players walking through the lobby after breakfast. Everyone in the band seemed to have their own daytime activities and they didn’t encounter one another before heading off to the venue around five o’clock. Phil Collins was picked up by a limousine in the morning and I remember him saying he was going to shoot the video for ‘Take Me Home’. There’s a piece in the video where he sits on a bench near the Eiffel Tower, so that was filmed that particular day. When he came back, I was standing in the hall, I heard him say to someone: “Do you know who I just bumped into? Phillip Bailey!”
Because a lot of musicians stayed at the hotel the staff were treated on free tickets occasionally by someone from the touring crew. This is how I got a couple of tickets for the Phil Collins gig at the Palais Omnisports Bercy on the 6th. They weren’t real tickets though. These were stickers with ‘Phil Collins’ printed on them, and the venue and date were simply written down with a pen. I took my then French girlfriend with me to the gig and we had these stickers put on our jackets.
We entered the Palais Omnisports, got lost for a bit and then stumbled upon a barrier fence near the stage where security staff kept guard. To my surprise they opened the fence and we were allowed to walk through because of our ‘backstage’ passes. I remember thinking: “That was easy!” I still see myself wandering through those corridors. Everywhere we went gates went open and they said: “Come on through.” We couldn’t really orient ourselves, we just walked around for the fun of it. Without realising we got as far as the dressing rooms and I remember seeing Daryl Stuermer walking by, Phil’s manager Tony Smith and Phil Collins himself in a bath rope wearing a towel around his neck. It just happened, we hadn’t thought it through. Then the tour manager, I remember it was Dale Newman, came up to us and asked: “What are you doing here?” Because we had no plausible explanation we mumbled for a bit. He said: “GET THE F**K OUT OF HERE! YOU’RE A F**KING PAIN IN THE ASS! GET THE F**K OUT!” We were removed from the corridors, not quite harshly, but still… To this day I feel Dale Newman’s reaction was rude as it was disrespectful. No harm was done and we had absolutely no intention to invade anyone’s privacy.
Because most of the time I worked in the lobby of the hotel I managed to get the whole PC band to sign my concert programme, apart from Daryl Stuermer. Although I had made attempts before he was already in the touring bus when the last occasion occurred. He looked at me from behind the window, raised his shoulders as if to say “Sorry my friend, you’re too late!” I sold the programme many years later like most of my collection, but it’s the recollection I still have.