Ten legendary concerts of the Pause Guitare festival

2003: Johnny Clegg’s fabulous show in Monestiès

The year is 2003. Pause Guitare has set up shop in the small town of Monestiès. The festival is gaining momentum. That year, Alain Navarro managed to bring in the star of word music, the white Zulu Johnny Clegg, without forgetting Christophe.

He is hoping for a big concert. It will be grandiose. The singer continues the songs in a frenzied rhythm, dripping with sweat. The public savors this moment in fusion with the artist. The time for the reminders arrives where the South African picks up a dry t-shirt to continue. It will end up worn, exhausted, washed out, to the delight of spectators who will leave with very beautiful memories.

2006: Louis Bertignac’s crazy concert in the green garden

The festival has changed destination. Place in Albi and its Sainte-Cécile cathedral. But Arpèges and Trémolos decided to set up a more intimate scene at the bottom of Bondidou, in the green garden. This is where Louis Bertignac performs solo, without his friends from Telephone.

Unique, extraordinary moment. Until the end of the night, he unfolds his compositions, those of Telephone, but also of the Stones, multiplying with his musicians, immense guitar solos. Real rock. For those who had the chance to experience this concert, we are sure that it is well positioned in a corner of memory.

2010: Icon Patti Smith on Guitar Break

You imagine. The iconic Patty Smith, emblematic singer of this rebellious rock-pop, in search of a new society, arrives in Albi. The one who discovered Bob Dylan, co-writing “Because the Nigth” with Bruce Springsteen, is there in the flesh.

In the audience, the gray temples have their eyes fixed on the legend of their youth. If on the first song, the voice is trembling, the rest is at the height of his career. Immense. Pause Guitare had just achieved its first international legend there.

2010: The festival in Paradise

Also in 2010, Place Sainte-Cécile experienced a moment of grace. In this sublime setting, all the fragility and talent of Vanessa Paradis made the moment beautiful and magical.

2012: An English man in Albi

After Place Sainte-Cécile, Pause Guitare decided to expand by setting up its stage on the Pratgraussals site in 2012. To fill this new capacity, big headliners are needed. This will be the case with Sting.

“When we programmed it, they called us to find out if it was a double or the real thing,” recalls Alain Navarro. The former leader of Police will put on a really good show, framed in the Anglo-Saxon style. One more step for Pause Guitare.

2016 : Sir Elton John à Pratgraussals

Another heavyweight on the world scene, Elton John sets down his bags in July 2016. Despite a torrid heat which somewhat relaxes the strings of his piano, the artist is there to meet the Albigensian public. Two hours of concert, well-known titles. A very beautiful moment.

2017: ZZ top at the top

It’s 2017. The two most famous bearded guys on the rock scene are arriving on the big stage of Pratgraussals. Rock, real, with a saturated sound. A pure treat. And what to say when they released the first notes of “La Grange”.

A real hysteria in the public. Billy Gibbons took a week’s vacation in Albi, taking many selfies in the pedestrian streets.

2017: The Insus thrill festival-goers

We are still in 2017. Pause Guitare missed the first Insus tour. The second will be the right one. The Pratgraussals pit is extremely full. Despite the heat, no one moves, so as not to miss a moment of the concert. Obviously, everyone knows every title from the iconic group Telephone by heart.

A concert full of emotions, with a touch of nostalgia which ends as it should with “Another world”, the one that everyone hopes for.

2018: The power of NTM

There too, we join legendary groups. The greatest of French hip-hop are there in front of an overheated audience, for this 2018 edition. We expected a lot from this arrival of NTM. Joey Starr and Kool Shen responded more than present. Big sound, big voices, big concert.

2018: Santana’s golden guitar

We couldn’t have dreamed of a better way to launch this 22nd edition in 2018. By welcoming Carlos Santana, the festival is perfectly named Pause Guitare. It was enough to see the heads in the front rows, mouths agape, to be convinced. The “guitar hero” shows that he has lost none of his splendor. Nearly fifty years passed between the year 1969 when he ignited Woodstock and the Albigensian concert.

The magic is always there when his golden guitar resonates and this so recognizable sound. He doesn’t need to put on a show. His two singers do it for him. Surrounded by a tribe of musicians in tune with the master, he strings together his songs, in this fusion of rock and salsa, paying homage to John Coltrane, the Stones. He wrote a new golden letter in the history of the festival.

2018: The Parov Stelar revelation

We are still in 2018. The Albigensian public has few references for the DJ, Parov Stelar, who will close the evening of Friday July 6. However, with his electro swing group, he fills stadiums around the world, mixing swing, jazz, hip-hop, electro.

The artist-public fusion will work wonderfully. Festival-goers will dance for more than two hours, with thousands of smiles. A great time. No, sorry, a great moment of music and sharing.