Paris is a live album by the British rock band Supertramp, released in 1980. It was recorded on Supertramp's Breakfast in America tour in Paris, France, with most of the tracks taken from a 29 November 1979 show at the Pavillon de Paris, a venue which was once a slaughterhouse. The album was originally going to be called Roadworks. while the live version of "Dreamer" hit the US Top 20.

Background and recording

According to Roger Hodgson, Supertramp had several reasons to record a live album at the time, including a desire to introduce their pre-Breakfast in America works to US listeners and a mutual sentiment that some of their songs were pulled off better live than in the studio.

The album's set list contains almost all of the 1974 Crime of the Century (except for "If Everyone Was Listening"), three songs from Crisis? What Crisis? (1975), two from Even in the Quietest Moments (1977), three from Breakfast in America (1979) plus "You Started Laughing", the B-side to the track "Lady" from Crisis? What Crisis?. The hit "Give a Little Bit" was played on the tour but not included because, according to Hodgson, "we were shocked when we listened back to the live tapes to find how bad all the versions were. There just wasn't one version that we felt that we wanted to put on the album."

| venue = Pavillon de Paris, Paris, France

| studio =

| genre = Progressive rock, pop rock, art rock

| length = 94:44

| label = Eagle Rock Entertainment

| producer = Peter Henderson, Russel Pope, Peter Clifton

| prev_title = 70-10 Tour

| prev_year = 2010

| next_title =

| next_year =

In July 2006, the original master tapes of the album were rediscovered in the Northern California barn of the band's drummer Bob Siebenberg, along with video footage. The tapes were sent to Cups 'N Strings Studios in Woodland Hills, California, for digital remastering. The tapes were initially in bad technical shape, but were successfully transferred to a digital format.

In 2010, Clifton was contacted to finish editing the initial three videos, aiming to later release a concert film out of the Paris concert. The footage was delivered to Roger Hodgson before a concert in Sydney. Once Supertramp manager Dave Margereson and Eagle Rock Entertainment offered to cover the post-production costs, Clifton worked on finishing the film, doing his initial work in Australia. By the time he moved to London to conclude the project, Clifton found out his original idea to feature heavily footage of Paris, adding a story akin to his work in The Song Remains the Same, was nixed by the band, who edited most of what he had done without consent to instead showcase more of the group. The DVD was repackaged in 2015 with the full show on two CDs and correct songwriting credit on the rear packaging.

Track listing

1980 release

2012 deluxe set

Personnel

  • Rick Davies
  • Roger Hodgson
  • John Helliwell
  • Dougie Thomson
  • Bob Siebenberg (as Bob C. Benberg)

Production

  • Producers: Peter Henderson, Russel Pope
  • Engineers: Bernie Grundman, Peter Henderson, Russel Pope
  • Mixing: Bernie Grundman
  • Mastering: Bernie Grundman
  • Re-mastering: Greg Calbi, Jay Messina
  • Production manager: "Spy" Matthews
  • Lighting: Ken Allardyce, Tony Shepherd
  • Monitors: Ian Lloyd "Biggles" Bigsley
  • Sound System: Norman Hall, David Farmiloe, Mick Berg, Chris "Smoother" Smyth
  • Lighting System: Patrick O'Doherty, Roger Grose, Tam Smith
  • Stage System: Patrick Ampe, Van Annonson, Steve Dabbs
  • Piano technician: Edd Kolakowski
  • Projection: Gus Thomson
  • Rigging: George Packer, Jade Dearling
  • Art direction: Mike Doud
  • Design: Mike Fink
  • Cover illustration: Cindy Marsh
  • Photography: Mark Hanauer, Steve Smith
  • Liner notes: David Margereson

2002 A&M reissue:<br/>

The 2002 A&M Records reissue was mastered from the original master tapes by Greg Calbi and Jay Messina at Sterling Sound, New York, 2002. The reissue was supervised by Bill Levenson with art direction by Vartan and design by Mike Diehl, with production coordination by Beth Stempel.

Charts

Album

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

!Chart (1980–1981)

!Position

|-

! scope="row" | Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

| 3

|-

|-

|-

|-

!scope="row"| French Albums (SNEP)

| align="center"| 9

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)

| style="text-align:center;"|18

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|-

! scope="col" | Chart (1981)

! scope="col" | Position

|-

! scope="row" | German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)

| 38

|}

DVD

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:center;" border="1"

!scope="col"|Chart (2012)

!scope="col"|Peak<br />position

|-

!scope="row"|Australian Music DVDs Chart

|17

|-

!scope="row"|Belgian (Flanders) Music DVDs Chart

|6

|-

!scope="row"|Belgian (Wallonia) Music DVDs Chart

|1

|-

!scope="row"|Danish Music DVDs Chart

|10

|-

!scope="row"|Dutch Music DVDs Chart

|1

|-

!scope="row"|Irish Music DVDs Chart

|5

|-

!scope="row"|Spanish Music DVDs Chart

|5

|-

!scope="row"|Swedish Music DVDs Chart

|3

|-

!scope="row"|Swiss Music DVDs Chart

|1

|-

!scope="row"|UK Music Videos Chart

|5

|}

Certifications