This is what I call another hiding to nothing post but there are certainly elements of interest to singer, band, venue and that he’ll be dead one year later. Why a hiding to nothing? Well, just as most men and some ladies will simply not go for this music, just as happened to Willy de Ville himself, as in a Wiki comment:

American Hit Network said of the (debut) album hin 77), “Under-promoted, under-appreciated and ultimately under-sold, Cabretta is a sleeper masterpiece that sounds as good today as it did in 1977.”

… also mentioned was that the singer was tough but tender, lived on the street but wore his heart on his sleeve, as can be seen and heard in the songs … melodic, Spanish style, redolent of westside story, very 50s but released right in the punk era … the music is one thing and in this recording late in his life, he has a super band behind him, reminding me of The Wrecking Crew, but on tour …

… trouble is, the drug and booze addled life has caught up, a harsh voice for such songs, even if written by him … and they just did not grab the public quite enough in the “modern” era, certainly in America, he had some currency in Britain but where his main base was increasingly found was on the continent, esp. in Germany. This recording is from 1988 at the Rockpalast, Bonn:

… and the lady posting it is Agnes, whom I think can be seen right at the end of the third song (coming up Sunday), front row … I’d put her in her mid 40s, a very nice age. There are all sorts of elements … he seems shy, asocial, no graces, does not engage the audience, yet throws flowers to them at the end (Sunday). At one stage, he readies the guitar and a roadie tries to plug it in, W looks back, gruffly … this whole tough-tender-unaware motif.

Frankly, there are too many discordant elements to satisfy us and our musical preferences … and yet the band is very good. One of his regular openers was Venus of Avenue D, tomorrow is a mid performance Spanish Stroll, Sunday finale is Just Your Friends, run a few times at the old N.O.