Before performing on Sunday evening on the Vieilles Charrues stage, Philippe Katerine set the mood in the festival boxes.

Live from a corridor chosen by him for its cathedral acoustics, the singer explained to Emilie Mazoyer's microphone his personal preparation before going on stage.

INTERVIEW

"I have no memory of the dates. But, it was a good pay that I had not come back on stage!"

It is with an undisguised pleasure, but always borrowing nonchalance, that Philippe Katerine was preparing to return to the stage of the Vieilles Charrues on Sunday.

Between two frenzied ping-pong games against the group L'Impératrice, the singer explained to Emilie Mazoyer his impatience.

An interview carried out from a hallway with a pronounced echo, which the surrealist singer preferred to his dressing room.

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"This is the first time that I played ping-pong, I did not know. I saw people play, I tried", jokes the singer, determined to mark this interview with his touch of madness.

"What I like about ping-pong, and in this kind of sport with the baballe, is being able to destabilize the opponent psychologically. It's still a lethal weapon for me, who have a respectable level , but not very impressive. "

"We would have to sort out bad and good transit"

But "baballe sport" is not the only element of the singer's Olympic preparation. "How to tell you the mysteries of this show?" He asks himself. "Of course, there are rehearsals, because we are putting on a show. I sometimes mix recitatives a bit, what you might call performances, between the pieces. They could be similar to a certain Noh theater, of Japanese origin. " A deceptively pompous formulation that actually refers to the singer's comedic tribulations.

Philippe Katerine wants at all costs to avoid the clichés of concerts.

"I don't like to say, 'Are you okay?'

It's too intimate. You know where that expression comes from…. "

he smiles.

"And I don't want to know what's going on in these people's toilets. There are too many of them and we would have to sort out bad transit, good transit, etc."

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Among Philippe Katerine's little behind-the-scenes pleasures, there is also the fact of meeting artists he knows, scheduled for the same day as him. "Today, for example, there is the group L'Impératrice. David, who plays bass, played on my record," he explains. "We didn't think we would meet again, and then we meet again. And that is great. It really is a great joy."