L'Amour à la Chaîne pt.7

Following kitty’s suggestion we give you the lovely Miss Hills and her achingly beautiful rendition of The Zombies’ exquisite baroque-pop lament Leave Me Be.

The link from part 6 > Our Gillian had a small, but racy, part in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange: when that naughty Droog Alex picks her and her ice-lolly sucking friend up in the local record emporium, inviting them back to his pad to listen to some of his "angel trumpets and devil trombones".

Gillian Hills – Rentre Sans Moi

[buy Gillian Hills from itunes | amazon.co.uk]



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L'Amour à la Chaîne: what will be the next link in the chain? Leave your suggestions and reasons in the comments.
Jacques Dutronc - L'Amour à la Chaîne > Françoise Hardy - Je Changerais D'Avis > Les 5 Gentlemen – Cara-Lin > Add N To (X) – Monster Bobby > Serge Gainsbourg – Le Poinçonneur des Lilas > Les Shades – Orage Mécanique > Gillian Hills - Rentre Sans Moi > ?

All I want for Christmas is...

The Melody Nelson 40th Anniversary box-set

*DROOLS*

Yep, Finders Keepers have got me salivating again.  This limited edition box-set will be available from 21st November for the princely sum of seventy-five pounds and forty-seven pence, and includes:

• The original album on CD
• A CD of alternative versions of the tracks
• The original vinyl album
• A vinyl album of bonus sessions from the time of recording
• An exclusive 30-minute DVD documentary
• A large-format 52-page book in English and French, including lyrics from the album

*DROOLS AGAIN*

I shall be ordering my copy from Finders Keepers as soon as it becomes available, and you should order from them too (they need support having lost the majority of their stock in the PIAS warehouse fire in August)

Here's a little teaser for the documentary.

And we can only hope the Melody Nelson TV show will be included too!

Quietus interview Jean-Claude Vannier

Apparently he was once awarded Le Prix de l'Humour Noir (only in France would they have an award for "black humour").

Read the full interview at The Quietus.

Electro Rapide & Blood Red Roses

The wonderful Finders Keepers Records has just released 2 new Jean-Claude Vannier albums.  Yes two!

The first, Electro Rapide, is a collection of rarities and curios from the Vannier tape vaults, taken from the period before and during his time working with a certain Monsieur Gainsbourg.  It's a bizarre and brief (only 25 minutes long) mix of the epic, comic, strange, and sometimes disturbing mind of the composer-arranger.

More info and soundclips

The second, Roses Rouge Sang, is an album of brand new material recorded with the cream of the session musicians who plied their trade on the 60s scene (Vic Flick, Dougie Wright, Herbie Flowers, Pierre-Alain Dahan, Tony Bonfils, Denys Lable, and Mark Chantereau).  The fruits of this re-union could almost be a long-lost early-70s album by Gainsbourg himself - all brooding strings and taut, rhythmic funk. Whilst Vannier's vocal-style recalls Serge's earlier hesitant chansonnier style.

More info and soundclips


A version of the following song appears on Electro Rapide.  You can find this "mid-tempo version" as a bonus track on Vannier's L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches (also on Finders Keepers)

Jean-Claude Vannier - Je M'Appelle Geraldine (mid-tempo version)
[buy Electro Rapide and Roses Rouges Sang on CD and mp3 direct from Finders Keepers Records - they need your support having lost most of their physical stock in the PIAS warehouse fire back in August]