French Version

Interview Little Bob September 22nd 2007
Festival "Les Grosses Guitares" (VAUGNERAY/France)

1. Can you sum up Little Bob Story's history ?

   1.1) Wow...imagine ! We need about 3 weeks for that, it's been 32 years ! I had a lot of amateur bands before I created Little Bob Story, my first professional band. "La Story" was towards the end of my teenage years, great feeling, madness, folly. At that time I was already a blues' fan - but a the same time the high energy of rock'n'roll, bands like MC5, affected us head-on. So we ran into it, reducing the solos by half as well as reducing the guitar solo, and we played stuff that can be called rock'n'roll, rhythm and blues with our first album which was released in 1976 (High Time). After, "la Story" we continued with the same impetus. More than 300 gigs in Great Britain during the 4 years until 1980. But the fact that we toured a lot and when a band performs like we did, without any rest, always together, sooner or later there is a clash. It's a pity... but we couldn't afford to stop touring and say : "let's stop touring for a while, rest for 6 months and after that let's see each other again" and the band will be the same...

   1.2) We weren't well off, we had to tour to survive, so we reached a breaking point and we had to change the drummer, the keyboard, and unfortunately the guitarist, Guy-Georges Gremy. It hurt me to split up with him as he and I were the two figureheads of the band... but it was the only way not to lose the whole band otherwise I would have had to start everything again. At that time I felt it was the best thing to do... with the hindsight... There was too much alcohol and dope around and we didn't even smoke. It was hard drug or speed, when we didn't have enough money... So the first "Story" shattered, I re-formed a band which was a 'go-between' for the album Light of my Town (1980) with, for the first time, a pianist in the band and a drummer who came from Paris. It was no more "Le Havre band", there were only the two of us, Barbe Noire and myself. It lasted for a year, just for the album Light of my Town, then I stopped everything because I felt like I was in front, and the others behind me. We were no more a band, so I said : "guys let's end it there"...I kept the bass player (because Barbe Noire had left the band) and I re-formed a band with young desperados, a drummer from Le Havre, a guitarist from Evreux who was born in Montpellier but lived in Evreux. We only rehearsed for 3 months and then we went to London to record Vacant Heart in 1981 which was released in 1982, with Sean Tyla's help, Tyla Gang and a guitarist who mistook his way, he played with a French popular music star... We performed a lot of gigs, the "Bataclan", a great tour ! Guy-Georges Gremy (my favourite Chinese) came back into the band at the end of the tour because he was part of the history which lasted until Ringolevio (1987) with big tours and festivals.

   1.3) From 1981 - the Left's accession to power - televisions broadcast rock music. There were programmes like "Les Enfants du Rock" on Channel 2, scheduled programmes on Channel 3, every week, so French rock bands showed up regularly on TV. We were already well-known but this sparked off stardom... for instance when I was on tour and bought croissants, the baker recognized me ! These programmes died out unfortunately because nowadays French TV, apart from themes channels, don't broadcast rock or blues or jazz music anymore, but they broadcast French or whatever popular music crap songs... To come back to "la Story" before splitting the band, we recorded an album in London. Guy-Georges had already left the band because he couldn''t bear anymore the daily routine, leaving on time, trying to arrive on time, taking planes, it was too much tiredness for him... So I hired a guitarist who played with Ballavoine and Renaud, a very good musician but who hadn't the rock'n'roll feeling and the fans just didn't like him. We recorded a very beautilful album 'Ringolevio' with him, thanks to his skills at guitar playing. However once again I split the band, we were fed up, we were no more together and I said that I am going to only play with musicians, and not band mates, so let's stop here".

   

   1.4) Jeff Eyrich, an American producer, was at that time at Musidisc records. I worked with him and went to Los Angeles to record "Rendez-vous in Angel City" (1990) with excellent American rock musicians like Steve Hunter, who played with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Mitch Ryder and Kenny Margolis from Willy de Ville. There was also the drummer and the bass player of the Cruzados, Mexican Chicanos from Los Angeles who were all rock'n'rollers, not recording studios musicians. We did an album - I felt like I was in front of a window full of toys because I had 40 more new songs added to mine - with all these musicians this album was a great experience for me. They came back afterwards to do a Live album. These albums were recently released at Universal records as they bought out Musidisc's catalogue. So I toured like this, but I soon noticed that I had to turn down tours in England including a 4 days in a row support parts of Rory Gallagher in London. It wasn't viable so I founded again a core band which was the beginning of this one, with Bertrand Couloume who has been playing double bass with me now for 16 years. This I did as I was working on Lost Territories (1993) having with me J.J. Holiday who plays with the Imperial Crowns a very good band - They are not known enough in France - so go and see them, they play rock'n'roll and blues, Delta Blues are their roots ; Their singer is amazing, adorable, he plays the mouth organ very well and J.J. playing the slide guitar is a real killer ! Well, let's come back to Little Bob, so my band was half French and half American, Olivier Durand was also there... We did Lost Territories and then the problems came out. Until that day I was with the Majors at EMI, before that I was at RCA records, then I realised that I couldn't work with them anymore because the Majors have an Artistic Director who made you sign a contract. You arrive in his office where you meet the Director, the Chairman and Managing Director, and drink champagne. They then tell you that "we are proud to sign a contract with you, you are going to be our goal", but then you soon realise that within three months if you don't sell 30 000 copies, you are a nobody.. Majors stop promoting your album. They don't understand that some albums are immediately sold and others need time to live and to widen. My music is not the kind of music which can be thrown at one's face at once, except for the people who come to see us, it's not music which can be heard right away if you are not ready to hear it, my music is very specialised.

   1.5) I realised that there was no way I could work with the Majors, perhaps for distribution, but nothing else. Since 97 and for each album : Blue Stories, Libero, Live Rock on, Riff on, Roll On, Move On, The Gift, the Live containing the DVD, I am compelled to run my finances, to produce my records with SACEM (the French Association of Composers and Music Publishers to Protect Copyright and Royalties) wages. I am the songwriter and my musicians and myself arrange the pieces and the songs. This money helps me to pay my musicians and the recording studio and after that I still hope we are going to sell the album in order that the money comes back and allows me to do the next one. Now life goes on like and it's okay. The sword of Damocles is on our heads, the records have to be sold, people must come to see our gigs, it's the way to go on surviving because if I didn't sell a record, I don't have enough money to live on. Of course I can take out a loan or sell my house but I have a wife, responsibilities ! Today we need records to tour, not even to sell, because we are cribbed on the Web. I can't bear a grudge against people, someone sells them equipment to copy, they use it... As someone sells them cars which run at 200 km and they are told to run at 130 on the motorway, it's the same thing... smoking and alcohol kill too, but they rake it in with cigarettes and alcohol and keep on selling a lot. I am not Saint Bob, I like the whole things I talked about, but at the same time the Web scrabbing is as if I went to the baker and said that I wanted a French stick and two pastries with chocolate filling, then I take the goods but I don't pay for them. If all the customers did the same thing then the baker is going to close down. It's the same for Little Bob, if everybody copies one day he can't do anymore records, that's it...It's the same for all artists !

   A.M : "To have a record is wonderful ! It's like a book"...

   Yes. What is the meaning of scrabbing ? One can scrib the titles but will not possess the albums. A record is complete. There is a sleeve, there are photos, things which are said, all the songs count ! It's true that people think "disposable", one copies a title and then doesn't care about it, but stories are told on a record, all the songs are part of this story ! It's like buying a book with only images, one looks at the images but doesn't read the stories. It's the world of nowadays and I can't change it alone !...I can only say what I think about it !...

2. If you had to introduce your band with only 3 words, what would you say ?

   Rock with Blues roots, rather tribal and real. We don't lie, neither on stage nor in studio. I can say a lot of things...The musicians are here because they like to play and what they do.

   A.M : Your favourite words are honesty, generosity and integrity...

   Yes. Since I have been playing music, I wanted to look at myself in a mirror and say that I didn't do any concessions. I am sincere when I write a song, when I sing, when I come on stage, when I rehearse with my band, and when I say to my wife that I love her ! And also when I say that without people coming to see us, we will be nothing !..

3. What are your impressions after a 32-year career ?

   

   There are many more venues where we can play but it is very hard for bands with regard to promotion. I have a feeling that once again we become underground, as at the beginning. But it is not a bad thing as we can say more of what we really think, I always did. We can say that the French voted badly, I don't say that The Left was panacea... The world of today is deep in money, only money counts, and when there are people from The Left in power, they try to deaden the impact of those who earn their living by working and have to cope with it... I think we elected the worse...

4. Do you think rock preserves ?

   As far as I am concerned, yes ! I am getting old, look at my hair, and to tell the truth, the energy is not quite the same...But I am more experienced and have more know-how which helps me when I am tired on stage. When I do 3 gigs in a row, for the third one I need to go deep inside myself to find the extra energy, as my music is high energy, I have to be up to the mark ! Rock preserves but I don't know to what extent...

   What is your best souvenir ?

   There are too many, so many ! I can't tell...

   And the worst one ?

   Here is one I don't like at all ! I don't like when the audience welcomes us badly. We were in Holland at a big festival in Rotterdam to play on the huge stage. There were 80,000 people and we had to play before Gruppo Sportivo , a popular Dutch band from Rotterdam, which was the Rotterdam festival star. We arrived on stage with our punch rock and arseholes threw stuff on the stage, not many, fifty perhaps among 70,000 or 80,000 people, it's not much, but we ought to have played on the rock stage, which was on the other side where there were all the other rock bands. We played between Chris Rea and Gruppo Sportivo. It was hard for us, I gave them the V sign and sent them

   packing in English using words like fucking and bastards, but it didn't make any difference. We played for 35 minutes at top speed and gave them the finger by leaving the stage ! This is a bad souvenir as I don't like it when people are unbearable because they are determined to see the band which comes next, and this also happened to our support bands, and I don't like it.

5. Where do you find the source of inspiration to write the text of your songs ?

   It's life, my life experiences, what I see around me, trips also inspire me for example when I go to Africa. When I was in Nigeria, after I wrote Alabama Pedro. I have a new song about a young African who crosses the sea, you know those who come to try to find Eldorado here, and in fact find ghettos in shanty towns or in squats. It's also life that I see, the neighbour who is a little too fat but is sometimes desirable, the neighbour who comes home drunk and whose dog barks at 5 a.m when I go to bed at 3 a.m, the kids who remove the wheels from the cars in the street and sell drugs on the corner, my wife that I love...love because it's the most important thing.

   Is love your favourite topic ?

   Yes. There are also warning songs like 'Shadow over'. I wrote it 12-13 years ago with J.J Holiday from the Imperial Crowns who used to play with us. At that time I saw a black veil, a black shadow that was coming, 'Le Pen' was rising. But in fact we saw that his flock left for 'Sharko'. The shade still remains, I try to think positively but you can see that the world is not great at the moment concerning ecology. Look at the condition of the Earth's health that we live on. what is going to happen ? We feel that these things are arriving, and it's terrible. I don't know how long it will take, I hope as long as possible.We won't see it, but we do begin to measure the consequences. On religion the truth is that White, European and American people did lots of dirty things in Africa, in the Arab countries and in the Middle East. Now, here there is a backlash. What is awful is that generally innocent people pay... I try not to speak about all that, but 'No future is now' is the typical song which is about it all !