"The melody can get along perfectly well without me," Sheller announced to an audience of enthusiastic fans partway through his set at the Nice Jazz Festival, "so I'm handing things over to my musicians and they'll take it from here … " And with that Sheller withdrew to the side of the stage, leaving his excellent string ensemble to take centre stage. Sheller had decided to strike a discreet, modest note ever since arriving in Nice, settling into the dressing rooms at the "Garden" stage at 1pm with his crack team of tour technicians, numerous musicians and a handful of producers.

Sheller and his extended group of musicians were not actually due up on stage until 10pm and, it has to be said, nothing much appeared to happen in the nine hours between their arrival and their concert! The "Shellers" kept a decidedly low profile in the run-up to the show, exuding a confident professionalism as they went about their business backstage surrounded by an aura of silence and charisma. This atmosphere of quiet concentration could not have made a more striking contrast to the artist who leapt out on stage to open Friday night's show: ex-Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed.
In all the long years of the Nice festival, through all its jazz and rock permutations, there could surely never have been a concert uniting two such diametrically opposed artists as Lou Reed and William Sheller - and the audience assembled beneath the olive trees sensed that history was about to be made! After all, it's not every year that you get to hear a living rock legend at 7.35pm followed by a French artiste and full symphony backing orchestra at 10! (The contrast proved to be equally striking on the culinary front too, Reed ordering a dinner of steak and salad pre-show while Sheller nibbled away on melon and fruit of the forest!) As for me, tucked snugly away in the audience, my heart veered widely between the two musical poles. What's a girl to do when she worships Lou and loves and admires William too?

Needless to say, Friday night's concert also swung wildly between two poles, Reed working the audience up into a rock'n'roll frenzy while Sheller's musicians patiently lined up backstage, bows in hand, waiting for the veteran rocker to roar his last. Caught up in his exuberant performance, Lou actually ended up playing over his allotted time and eating 25 minutes into the Shellers' set! But when Monsieur Reed took his final bow at 9.35 a group of roadies were ready to leap up on stage, shift off the rock guitars and assemble a line-up of string instruments in their place. Meanwhile, the audience began to drift into a different mood down below as the heady smell of socca (a local delicacy made from chickpeas) wafted enticingly through the olive trees.
Sheller finally appeared on stage dressed in long shorts and an open shirt, looking for all the world as if he'd just stepped off the pages of "Tintin In The Sahara". Keeping with Lou's rock'n'roll spirit he opened his set with the electrifying guitars of Enfants sauvages but soon calmed things down with some soothing strings, delighting the crowd with his old classics - Carnet à spirales, Fier et fou, Dans un vieux rock'n roll - pacing the stage and recounting anecdotes and memories between songs. These two strikingly different concerts made for an unforgettable evening and I end this article with a heartfelt thankyou to Lou and a resounding "bravo!" to Will. Thankyou for reminding me that music is a cry which really does come straight from the heart!

Myriem WONG