In my younger and more vulnerable years I wrote “you’re too young for ghosts”—in Sunset Hotel.
I don’t say that anymore—so here’s to the ones who have disappeared from our lives, whose names no one says anymore. A thousand thanks to @seb_faits_divers for shooting this—the first time Afternoons was played live @lesvinzelles as 2023 was coming to a close.
Belgians whose work has hit me at some point—Varda, Delvaux, Brel, Akerman, Simenon et al. Plus longtime fave, Audrey. Here’s to Monday’s girl on her birthday. “She sat with her cigarette, a glass of champagne beside her and felt a faint stirring of hope….”
📷 Bernard Lipnitzki: Audrey Hepburn at the bar of the Hôtel Raphaël, Paris (XVIth arrondissement), 1956.
A Handful of Tomorrow set in the fields of Les Vinzelles in Volvic, with birds singing on a day filled with sun. Recording by the maestro, Sébastien Faits-Divers and shot by him in lush, vibrant colours (but here in my two favourite colours, black and white.) “you said they were your Venice years, some part of you had disappeared…”
1st May, 1986, The Apartments played Paris for the first time. The Rex Club. Promoter took us to Bouillon Chartier. I remember every detail. The Germans wore grey, you wore blue. Will we always have Paris?
Last month, touring France again 40 years on, I was able to get to the merch desk shortly after each show—the first time I’ve been able to. I got to chat with The Apartments’ kaleidoscopic audience.
I learned so much! In Paris, at Le Petit Bain which luckily had sold out months before, I met Marine who’d taken the train down from Reims (I struggle to pronounce this). Told me she was 23 when she was introduced to The Apartments at L’Européen in 2009 and she “discovered that night that I could laugh and cry at the same time. And tonight…the same feeling all over again.”
Over in Metz, near the border of Luxembourg and Germany, a woman who’d bought 5 different Apartments vinyls quite proudly told me there were only two Australian artists who interested her: me and Nick Cave. I said I didn’t know how Courtney Barnett was going to handle this disappointment.
Down south in Volvic, Magid told me “there is so much light—and darkness—within you” then introduced his daughter to me saying “But look—she loves it!”
I know it’s a casino life and it doesn’t have to be the 1st of May for me to recognise how lucky I am that so many wonderful people have taken this music deep into their lives. Thank you—bonne fête du 1er mai !
Brisbane: The first Apartments lasted a year. By the time of this photo, fringe flopping into my eyes, The Apartments were finished. I had a 4-piece band called Out of Nowhere: clarinet, soprano sax, drums and guitar and was looking for a way out of town, the country too. My eyes were on the exits. I moved to New York and just like so many before me, felt I’d come to the city from out of nowhere. At last, somewhere. A run of songs began again.
📷 Paul O’Brien, from a book of his shots from the Brisbane underground, ‘Nowhere Fast’.
Phone video alert! Love this take of Things You’ll Keep. Never started it quite this way before but hey, a great night, a great room. We really were enjoying our final show of the 2026 French tour at the amazing @lesvinzelles . My thanks for this video to the great translator and English teacher, Jean-Baptiste Santoni, who casually drove 9 hours from Baie des Anges to Volvic along with Cath Cerni to experience The Apartments.
The Apartments à @lerocherdepalmer
3 avril 2026 avec @initialspmw
"It's a Casino Life" - Tout simplement magique....
📽 Vincent MARTIN-CHAVE
@vincentmartinchave
#theapartments #petermiltonwalsh
