The French Set And The Mandela Effect

I’m not sure I’ve ever come across a man quite as contradictory as Jim Kerr. Lol. He really is someone who seems to be both eager and willing to embrace change and move forward, yet paradoxically seems rigid in his ways and viewpoints and totally inflexible.

A case in point is yet another change to the setlist! Hurray! The constant shakeup has been a real welcome to the majority of the fans that have experienced the shows across the UK and Europe. When the pleas for a longer set and a different setlist to what the Antipodes was receiving were coming in on SMOG, I was pretty convinced that Jim’s usual inflexibility on such matters (ever so thinly veiled as changeable with only one or two songs jostled about in the past) would be served with the regular ‘sod what the fans want – this is what we’re doing’ metaphorical flip of the bird. Until I saw the setlist from Leeds. That was the overriding thing that set off my enthusiasm for Manchester the following night. I remember my ‘Pfffft! Tell him his dreaming!’ reaction to Toni Masson’s post with his little ‘ins and outs’ list and his strongest desire expressed for seeing Premonition. I really was thinking ‘Nae chance, pal!’ I fell off my giraffe when I saw the setlist from Leeds later that evening. But would it simply be a welcomed but shorted lived aberration? As it transpired, no! As I said in a previous post, I’ve never seen a constant setlist rotation such as this in my near ten years of fandom and 34 gig attendances.

And….it continues! The band played their antepenultimate gig in Paris last night and I’ve noticed another wee shakeup. Is someone listening? Is he taking heed? If not fully, then at least partly – because….by the old adage ‘a change is as good as a holiday’ HOLY SHIT – SANCTIFY YOURSELF has been MOVED! Whaaaaaaa??! And, yes…here is my other point. He’s still showing some inflexibility because….although it has been moved, it’s still on the bloody setlist in the end! Lol. But, at least it has moved from being the final song of the night to being shoved elsewhere and Alive And Kicking now has its more rightful place as final song of the evening. I mean, why wouldn’t you place one of your most successful (self-penned!) singles as your final encore moment and take your plaudits on a job well done with that? So, you get a tentative well done, Jim, for moving that old overplayed dinosaur (aka: Sannyfy) to be buried somewhere up the setlist. Congrats!

Not so fast, though, Monsieur Kerr! I have a fresh bone to pick with you on behalf of some French fans.

So, what I don’t understand is why Mandela Day is only ever really performed at gigs in France. Its release as a single combined it with Belfast Child as the ‘Ballad of the Streets’ EP. This single release went to No. 1 in the UK singles chart. I can’t understand for the life of me why Mandela Day seems to be particularly synonymous with France. I don’t understand what that’s about at all. I can’t speak for all French people, obviously, and perhaps by and large the French audiences love it – but I do wonder how much of this is another point in which Jim has got stuck and set in his ways? The French love Mandela Day (what specific evidence is there for this?) and therefore we’ll always play it for the French crowds. Erm….o-kay??

I have to say that I have only ever experienced seeing Mandela Day performed live when I’ve been in France – so that’s three times: twice in 2018 – in Paris, then at Aix-Les-Bains at the Musilac Festival; then in 2022 in Paris. My overriding memory of these performances was at Musilac in 2018. I was accompanied for the day by French fan, Françoise, and she as a French fan had only one song that was her bugbear. We shared our bugbears. Mine, even then, was Don’t You (Forget About Me) – I hadn’t grown tired of Sannyfy quite at that point, and I’m fairly sure Jim was still getting the words right at that point (either that, or I was indifferent to him getting them wrong at that time). Françoise was Mandela Day. And she elaborated, saying she couldn’t understand WHY they insisted on playing it at French gigs only. If the song had that much significance to them and to the world, and they were proud of it, why was it only ever performed in France for French crowds only? At this point I had only seen it performed live just the once and that had been a few months prior to Musilac, at the Salle Pleyel in February 2018. I hadn’t been aware of this penchant for the band to play it at every French gig and because I was so underexposed to the track it didn’t bother me much but it was a real bone of contention for Françoise. Of course, she had been a longtime fan and had endured many an airing of the song in the 30 years it had existed to that date. I recall her saying to me, ‘We’re here in France. There is no chance that they won’t perform it but I really hope they don’t.’ It had nothing to do with the politics of the song. She was aware of its significance in that regard and commended the band for having produced the song and having brought Mandela’s plight and struggle to world attention. No, the problem was the song was, in her mind, overplayed and had long served its purpose.

I don’t have the amount of time available to me to do the research to look at the setlists of the French gigs that have taken place since 1988 but I will assumed from Françoise personal experience of attending French gigs combined with my own recent French gig attendances that Mandela Day rigidly appears on the setlist.

I do recall some words Jim gave about the ties of Mandela Day to the French, but I can’t remember rightly exactly what he said about it. To me, from my vague inkling, the link tenuous at best. Obviously much more significant for Jim than anyone else, to my mind.

Anyway…it’s merely a curious observation and one that doesn’t appear to be attached to any other song in the way that Mandela Day appears to be linked solely to the French.

You are a curious beast, Monsieur Kerr – lang may yer lun reek!

FYI: The feature image for the post (seen on the blog home page) is of myself and Françoise at Musilac in Aix-Les-Bains in 2018. I would have been lost without her that day. From that night I had a love for Lu ‘La Petit Beurre’ biscuits. She had left me a pack of them to eat on my travels home. I love that they are now readily available in the UK (they weren’t in 2018!) – they always remind me of her hospitality and generosity. I’ll be forever grateful for her company that day.