Passion

Everything began with this small autograph book and the artists I met at the Olympia, Boulevard des Capucines nearby the Madeleine in Paris. This blog is the story of how I filled it up. And how 45 years later I came back near the Olympia to open a new hotel called Relais Madeleine.

I met Jimi Hendrix in 1967 when he was over in Paris to record a pop show called Dim Dam Dom.

Here Jimi is photographed with me in Issy Les Moulineaux in the outskirts of Paris where the recording was made.

Boulevard de la Madeleine : Denny Laine (leader of the Moody Blues) is sat posing and playing his new song On the Boulevard de la Madeleine for me. Later we crossed rue Godot de Mauroy and went to the Madeleine Church a few metres away and the five Moody Blues were photographed by “Salut les copains”. One of these photos (taken under the Madeleine Church colums) is the cover photo for the EP (you will find this photo on the site)
So I began my autograph collection…

This is the first page of my first autograph book

(you can read in french : in this book 69 autographs)

The numbers at the top are number plates of cars of famous people we saw and or met. On the left is the number of the famous James Bond car featured in Sean Connery’s second portrayal of 007. I saw this car in front of the Marignan Cinema on the Champs Elysées at the Premiere.