Festival: Les Francofolies

With the torrent of festival details emerging in recent weeks,  I can't overlook this year's Les Francofolies
event, taking place this summer in La Rochelle.

It's always an event that puts the spotlight on french acts, and this year is no exception. There are over 100 shows taking place across the town at a variety of stages, from the intimate to the large scale, with a range of acts from the emergint artists to the established stars.

This year the big names include Les Insus, Louise Attaque as well as Maitre Gims. Also on the bill are Mika, Nekfeu, Louane and Caravan Palace, while Lilly Wood and the Prick and Madeon are the latest names to be added.

Les Francofolies takes place on July 13-17.

Festival: Vieilles Charrues 2016

Some more very significant additions to the bill of this year's Vieilles Charrues festival in Carhaix, Brittany, in
July.

The Pixies and Lana Del Rey have been added to the haedline slots, with Pixies at the top of the bill on the second night, Lana Del Tey on the final night.

The two previosuly annouced headliners are Les Insus (the former members of Téléphone) and Alain Souchon and Laurent Voulzy.

Also confirmed today are Jeanne Added, Synapson and Denez Prigent.

It's a festival that's always had a strong representation from French performers, as well as some of the best international acts.

Also on the bill this year are Lou Doillon and Hyphen Hyphen, neither strangers to this blog, while Flavien Berger was added today.

More acts are yet to be confirmed, but given what has been confirmed so far it looks like an event well worth the 148E pass for four days. A bargain by the standard of UK festival prices.

This year's Vieilles Charrues festival is held on July 14, 15, 16 and 17 in Carhaix.

Téléphone: Les Insus..? - Live at Point Ephémère

We couldn't all be at the Point Ephémère at the weekend to see Téléphone, but enough people
equipped with decent mobile phones were, and they certainly took a few video souvenirs.

I know it can be a hassle at gigs when the guy in front has his phone in the air, and perhaps
 he should be enjoying the moment rather than documenting it, but I'm glad in this case that there were folk doing exactly that so that the huge number who weren't there were able to get a flavour of the show.

So Téléphone/Les Insus..? play again this week. A torrent of Téléphone re-issues and a tribute CD are in the pipeline for the next few months, but will the reformation be anything more permanent?

At the moment, who knows. A new album would be nice, a tour would be great.

But if nothing more comes of it, it was great to have them back, even for just a little while.