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Stereo Total was in town Sunday 31/8, playing the open air Paris Feed Back festival with the Chicks On Speed, at the Parc de La Villette. Brezel looked like a technopunk Vince Taylor, all dressed in black : perfecto, shirt, tie and bell-bottomed Skai trousers. Francoise was in scarlet leather jacket, with a bleu blanc rouge blouse, faded jeans and a couple of accessories, like a disco bowl necklace and a cute little teddy bear bag.

They played about one hour, 21 songs, including 3 unreleased tracks : Cinemania, Tas de Toles, and (achtung surprise) an Iron Maiden cover !!! Cinemania is a fantastic thing, with Francoise listing I don't know how many actors and actress : Antonioni Mastroianni Fellini Pasolini Billy Wilder Lana Turner Rainer Werner Fasbinder Marlene Dietrich Ernst Lubitsch James Dean Charlie Chaplin Francois Truffaut Jean-Pierre Leaud Belmondo Brigitte Bardot la manie du cinema cinema cinemania... Tas de toles sounds like a crashtest version of Tu peux conduire ma bagnole. Very messy. Brezel plays drums during Cosmonaute, then takes off his black shirt to show a superb Motley Crüe T-shirt ! Absolutely overexcited, he first presents Exakt Neutral : "Musique Allemand, Musique déprimant", before climbing over the PA, screaming C'est la mort. They finish aufwiedersehen overkill with Iron Maiden, from the well known heavy metal combo.

Track-list : 1. Cinemania / 2. Kleptomane / 3. Les Chansons d'A / 4. Supergirl / 5. Party Anticonformiste / 6. Nationale 7 / 7. Ma Radio / 8. Nouvelle Vague / 9. Musique Automatique / 10. Tas de Toles / 11. Holiday Innn / 12. Cosmonaute / 13. L'Amour a 3 / 14. Oh Yeah / 15. Comme un Garçon / 16. Exakt Neutral / 17. Ringo I Love You / 18. Joe le Taxi / 19. C'est la Mort / 20. Tanzen im 4-eck / 21. Iron Maiden.
I meet Francoise behind the stage. "Oh, I've got a little present for you", she says, holding me a video tape of their Christiane F Berlin show. "I've got something for you too", I answer, giving her a small Monokini button, home made with my own Badge It machine. "Could you pin it for me ? " My hands shake a little bit, but I manage to do it. I give another one to Brezel, who picks it up on the collar of his black shirt. Rendezvous backstage in 15 minutes.
 
Francoise : some beer ?
Monokini : why not ?
(she's really fascinating, with her strange eyes, colored hair, impossible clothes and the funny disco bowl around her neck. We first speak about Christiane F).
F : At the very last moment, we didn't have the rights to show the movie, so we had to remake the scenes like a theater play. (She takes the tape and lists the actors) There were Gina and Anika from the Cobra Killers, San Reimo, Ghazi (Iznogood), who played the dealer role, Nicole, from Electrocute... Rosa, who tried to become Berlin mayor, and Paul, from the Puppet masters.... It was directed by Alexej Tchörnyj. He's from Russia.
M : but... was it a concert, or a theater play ?
F : both of them... you'll see.
M : let's talk about the next album. When will it be out ?
F : We will record it this winter. We'll stop touring for a couple of months to work on it. We already got many new songs :
Cinemania, Hunger, Cannibale, Baby Strich, La Douce Humanité, Europa Neurotisch, With My Sunglasses, Tas de Toles.
M : will you record it in Russia ?
F : well... partly, maybe. In St Petersburg. We'll see...
M : how will it be called ?
F : Ah ! we don't know. We always choose at the last moment. It should be out early next year, I guess...
M : OK, let's say early 2004. Some more concerts maybe ?
F : We'll do a little Australian tour, and maybe go to New Zealand too, 'cause we got a friend living there. OK, and we still do some benefit...
M : benefit concerts ?
F : yeah. One for a magazine called Jungleworld, and another one to support our district in Berlin, Mitte.
M : are you working on a new book ?
F : Oh, yes. It's gonna be called Neurosen Zum Valentinstag. Neurosis / new roses for St. Valentine's day. (she corrects my terrible German in my notebook) Everything's ready : cover, readings dates, title... I just have to write it ! It will be out at the end of October and I've only written the first 1/4 of it... OK, I'll finish it in Villeneuve.
M : l'Archeveque ?
F : yeah yeah... In Berlin, I can't do it. There's too much... (she laughs)
M : some more projects ? An exhibition ?
F : Ah oui. Next spring at the Bethanienhaus (she spells: B E T H A N I E N H A U S), with Stu Mead et Beth Love.
M : about pin-up maybe ?
F : ouais.... Actually, it will be about Lolitas.
M : really ? Like your little painting with the dog and the little girl ? And your first band ? Seems to be quite a long story...
F : Oui... ( laughter). I guess I will finish it all at the very last moment.... It's sometimes stressful, you know... I've started smoking again. (She smokes a cigarette, drinks a beer, and opens another one for me) Come on, let's go see Chicks On Speed.
We go out of the backstage together to see the girls. They sing Fashion, We don't play guitar, Warm Leatherette... Francoise can only stay for the first half of the gig 'cause she's got another interview going on. She misses the second part, with a weird Spanish trio playing in silver suits. They look like the Rockets, the freaky 70's Italian space disco band. Not bad...

We meet together again one hour later, to continue our interview. This time, I've prepared a long list of keywords.

Monikini : Paris
Francoise : euh... c'est une blonde ? (laughter)
M : Berlin
F : I love it in summer, I hate it in Winter.
M : Johnny
F : Hallyday ! It's the first concert I've ever seen. He had a accident and was full of scars. I passed out !
M : Disco
F : I love it. Especially the disco-trash... KC & the Sunshine band... All the disco-trash !
M : Europe
F : Neurotisch !
M : Color
F : euh...Blue.
M : Cinema
F : nia !
M : UFO
F : well... I've never seen any UFO, but I've got a friend in Berlin who pretends she's an alien. She looks like Vampirella. (laughter)
M : Hard-rock
F : not my thing... Oh yes, when I was a kid, I used to listen to Black Sabbath.
M : God
F : pain in the ass.
M : Fashion
F : Fashion ! The Chicks On Speed song.
M : you're really into fashion and gear, right ?
F : ah oui ! I guess it's because... when I was a little girl, we were always broke, so I had to wear my big brother's clothes ! So now, I make up for lost time. In Berlin, I've got a whole room full of clothes ! (laughter)
M : Electronic
F : It's not enough. I mean, it's not enough to buy some machines. You got to have some ideas too. There are too many people around who buy machines, pretending to do something, but it's not enough...
M : Sport
F : well... when I was at school, like all the tall girls I was good at basket and long jump, Now that I'm a little bit older, I'm trying yoga ! (laughter)
M : YeYe
F : YeYe, YeYe... What do you call YeYe ? Was Michel Polnareff YeYe ? Non ? So... Christophe. I love Christophe. In the Lolitas days, we already used to cover this Christophe's song, Aline.
M : Money
F : Now, it's OK, but when I arrived in Berlin, it wasn't a piece of cake. I had to do some ugly jobs. Like hostess in a cabaret or painting portraits on the Kudamm, hairdresser....
M : it's not ugly to make portraits.
F : no, but I wasn't gifted ! (laughter)
M : Eurovision
F : Eurovision ? When I was little girl, I loved it. We used to do contests at home. Someone would begin a song and the other ones had to find the rest. Actually, I guess that's how I began to sing.

We then speak about her notebooks. Those notebooks she always bring on stage, with pins pinching pages. Clairefontaine notebooks, listed from A to E, with all the Stereo Total songs.

F : I've always made notebooks, diaries.... I began when I was thirteen years old. I always use this kind of notebooks, with big squares and red margin. I buy them when I'm in France, 'cause you can't find them in Germany.
M : but... how many have you got at home ?
F : well... about 150.
M : 150 !!!
F : ouais ouais. But, you know, there are many things I wouldn't show...... I use them to pick up some ideas. Then, when a song is ready, I put it into the Stereo Total notebook.

Melissa, from Chicks On Speed, comes to ask Francoise if she's still OK for tonight restaurant. Brezel just arrives, looking very gentleman, with his Monokini button now pinned to his left pocket. I tell him I should soon get a audio tape with 2 Sigmund Freud Experience Lps, his previous band before Stereo Total. Ohlala...., he says, awful, awful ! And when I add I even got some 1995 concerts at home, he just can't believe it.
It's time to say goodbye. I kiss Francoise, who strongly recommends me Peynet's drawings, and I promise her a CDR of rare 80's stuff. Then I go out in mono, in the park and the sunshine...

 

 

Doro, September 2003.

(photo : Maumau)