The Jolly Boys felt the love in the city of romance yesterday as the crowd swayed to their cool mento rhythms as they headlined their Paris premiere at La Maroquinerie . The septuagenarian ‘Boys’ lived up to their name and showed they could still give an impressive performance.



In case you missed it all you can see photos of The Jolly Boys at La Maroquinerie here! As a bonus, here’s a bit of what it was like to hear The Jolly Boys cover The Stranglers’ “Golden Brown” live at La Maroquinerie in Paris:
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The Jolly Boys are now officially on the road again! Today marks the start of their European tour and their first stop is Ampere Munich, Germany! Having performed for a German audience before The Jolly Boys now have a blossoming relationship with this part of Europe and are excited to be starting things off there. When German fans last saw ‘the boys’ they were performing for a roaring crowd at the biggest 3-day reggae festival in Europe; Cheimsee Reggae Summer 2010. The event, which featured a three day line up of a mixture of artists from around the globe but mostly from Germany and Jamaica saw The Jolly Boys in energetic action. In case you may have missed that performance you can see it now:



Then go behind the scenes with this Reggaeville interview with The Jolly Boys at Cheimsee Reggae Summer. Albert talks about the temporary silence of mento, the myriad of genres influenced by it and the birth of modern mento. Remembering the days when (while working as a fire dancer) he could only dream of playing music and the day he finally got to play with The Jolly Boys. He also gives us advice on staying ‘young’, fit and focused on the road and a mysterious drink called “Poor man’s friend”.

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The Jolly Boys are merely days away from embarking on their first full European tour (which kicks off on December 2nd), a great adventure for these hardy Jamaican septuagenarians. As a special treat we’ve decided to post the spanking new video for their cover of Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’ right here for you to see!

The video for ‘The Passenger’ by The Jolly Boys, takes the form of a filmic documentaryesque journey with lead singer Albert Minott captured on The Jolly Boys tours earlier this year. It is particularly interesting that the 72 year old Jamaican had never been over the Atlantic in his life, his observations on life in a Europe that he had only ever seen in movies and on TV was an insight. We will be seeing the full documentary of this later in the year.

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We are now just four days away from the launch of The Jolly Boys’ album “Great Expectation” in France and while ‘the boys’ are currently back at home in Port Antonio, Jamaica we’ve still got some unseen photos of The Jolly Boys in Paris (and even exclusive footage of Albert Minott in Paris from 2009). The Jolly Boys were in Paris to record interviews and appearances on two ARTE Tv shows: the Tracks Cirkus 20th Anniversary Special and One Shot Not.

While visiting the offices of PIAS in France in 2009, The Jolly Boys’ lead singer Albert Minott strummed a lovely rendition of New Order’s “Blue Monday” on his guitar, as a treat we’ve now posted it for you to see.

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To promote the November 15th launch of their album “Great Expectation” in the city of romance, Jamaica’s celebrated mento music veterans The Jolly Boys are currently in France to record shows for French national television!

‘The boys’ spent yesterday sight seeing and rehearsing for the shows, similar to their time in Paris last summer. Watch Albert (in 2009) taking a stroll on the streets of Paris, showing us an interesting French tradition along the way.

The Jolly Boys are only in Paris for a week this time around but they’ll be back in December for a performance at La Maroquinerie on the 6th. Look out for them on the ARTE Television shows ‘One Shot Not‘ and ‘Tracks Cirkus-Special 20 Ans‘ and also for the Canal Plus interview with Albert!