Journalist Alain Brunet from La Presse has interviewed musician Ric’key Pageot, who will play keyboards on Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour.

His article gathers together tidbits and memories from the work Pageot has done with the Queen of Pop for her promotional show for the Hard Candy album, but most of all contains the first information from behind the scenes about what we should expect from Madonna’s new tour.

Just to mention one news – Pageot reveals that rehearsals for the new tour will start in New York next week, that they will last for three months (well, you can surely guess that as the tour kicks off on August 23) and that Madonna is looking for some accordion to be featured in her show.

Click on the Full Article link below to read more.

Thanks to our Team member Sam.

Ric’ key Pageot, son of an excellent and well recognized bass player from Haiti, studied in Montreal and worked in Quebec before starting travelling the world.

From September 2005 to December 2007 Ric’key was the musican director of Delirum, a show by the Cirque du Soleil, and then moved to Los Angeles, where he was ready to jump to the next level and where in late April he received a call from Kevin Antunes, Madonna’s new musical director.

Kevin and Ric’key first met in Florida, when the musical director – who is a keyboard player himself – attended the Delirium show.

“Kevin suggested several keyboard players to Madonna” – Pageot told journalist Alain Brunet. “Later on, he told me that she was really interested to know more about the “French Canadian” and that the fact I also play the accordion helped much as Madonna was looking forward to incorporate this instrument in her new tour.”

“And the fact that I performed with the Cirque du Soleil was also good card to play for me as Madonna believes that playing with the Cirque is an excellent training for a stage artist.” – he also explained.

“Moreover, Kevin and I have a common friend, Philip “Fish” Fisher, the drummer that I enrolled for my work with the Delirium show and who I toured with for one year. He is also the drummer on the Fishbone band, he played with Parliament/Funkadelik and with Justin Timberlake, whose Kevin Antunes was also musical director for. Fish and I are very good friends, he promised to help me and he did – when Kevin Antunes asked his advice to put together the band for Madonna’s new tour, Fish strongly suggested me.”

The first set of rehearsals took place at the beginning of April, and was meant to put together the recent Madonna showcase concerts in New York, Paris and London, the half-an-hour long promotional show for the launch of hernew album, Hard Candy.

Next week, Ric’ key will return to New York to spend three months there to prepare the Sticky & Sweet Tour.

“Madonna is very cool with the musicians” – he explains – “At every rehearals, she asked us to tell a joke, as a way to break the ice. I found her very friendly and respectful, although she requires that the job is very well done. Do I find Madonna authoritative? Well I did not experiment anything negative about her until now. Madonna is very cool, and so is her team.

Original interview by Alain Brunet – cyberpresse.ca. Check out MadonnaTribe en Français for more.