Christine and the Queens with Thee Diane - Ah Ya

A return from Christine and the Queens, this time firmly under the Christine and the Queens name rather than Rahim Redcar.

It even tells you in big letters at the end that it's by Christine and the Queens, in case there's any doubt. He's recently clarified that Christine and the Queens is the artistic project, while his name remains Rahim Redcar. 

Christine and the Queens was an identity he used in the past, but it is not his personal identity which remains as Rahim Redcar. He's comfortable with the older assumed name as it's part of his artistic legacy, but the difference between that name and his personal identity allows him to remain in the identity he is comfortable with.

It's only actually difficult to get your head around if you choose to make it complicated.  

I'm not sure if I really got into the Redcar les adorables etoiles/ Paranoia Angels, True Love work and Hopecore kind of passed me by, but Ah Ya is an interesting piece

Thee Diane, who appears on the cover of Redcar les adorables etoiles, released her debut single Bonjour in November 2024 and perhaps inspired mich of the musical direction of the new piece, but as Rahim comments: "Ah ya is the collaboration of two rebels", hopefully we'll see more rebellious creation on the horizon.

Gesaffelstein at the 2026 Grammy Awards

A significant French music presence at the Grammy Awards at the weekend with Gesaffelstein picking up the trophy for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical for his work on the track Abracadabra by Lady Gaga.

Gesaffelstein worked with her on the 2025 album Mayhem, co-writing four tracks and co-producing three, and also featuring on the track Killah.

Abracadabra was released as a single in February 2025 and reached the UK top five, and achieved platinum status in France

The song incorporates elements of the Siouxsie And The Banshees song Spellbound, the members of the band at the time getting co-writing credits on Abracadabra.

It was a lowkey winner's speech from Gesaffelstein - he didn't speak a word - but it was a memorable appearance on the winner's podium. It took me a while to figure out what was going on when I saw the initial photos of him, but it's a lot clearer in the video.

French acts have done well in this category at the Grammy Awards before, with David Guetta, Cedric Gervais, and Justice amongst the previous winners.

Lady Gaga had also been nominated for Album Of The Year, and Record Of The Year for Abracadabra, as well as Best Pop Solo Performance for Disease 

She won the Best Pop Vocal Award for the album Mayhem and Best Dance-Pop Recording for Abracadabra.

Lady Gaga put on a performance of the track in her own unique style during the show.

Serge Gainsbourg - La Nostalgie Camarade

A farewell to Sly Dunbar, half of one of the finest reggae rhythm sections. Sly and Robbie - Dunbar and Shakespeare - were a vital force in the work they did, whether with international stars like Grace Jones, Bob Dylan, or as the musicians at Studio One playing with Black Uhuru and countless others. But it's the work they did with Serge Gainsbourg that brings them to the attention of this blog.

Gainsbourg wasn't the first white Western artist to play reggae by any means, there was something of a trend among by-then established artists to embrace the style. Often with limited success or with what seemed to be little more than opportunistic appropriation.

Gainsbourg was different in his approach. he went at it not like a new trend or the adoption of a passing dance craze, he sought out the best musicians: Sly and Robbie, the I Threes and others and he recorded in Jamaica. Although many of the songs on his first reggae album was material he had previously recorded, it was in a radically different style, opening up new possibilities in his work, and his version of the French national anthem, re-titled Aux armes et cætera caused a genuine culture shock in France on its release.

There were two studio albums, 1979's Aux armes et cætera,and 1981's Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles as well as a live album, Enregistrement public au Théâtre Le Palace in 1980. All have been re-issued, re-mixed, extended, dub versioned and gainsbourg's reggae work rightly celebrated.

Gainsbourg didn't just do reggae. He did the best reggae and Sly and Robbie were it's backbone.

Alain Bashung: Immortel

 I make no promises, but this blog might be in danger of becoming an Alain Bashung stan blog. 

I recently got a hold of Bashung's Immortel complete studio recordings collection (24 discs!) at a ridiculous price (under £20!) online. Perhaps one of the few advantages of French artists being almost unknown in the UK is the occasional opportunity to pick up items like this at giveaway prices. It's always worth holding on to any vouchers you get at Christmas and checking regularly.

But I digress. I was familiar with some of Bashung's work, and a huge fan of it - albums like Fantaisie Militaire, Bleu Petrole and Play Blessures. Bleu Petrole, in particular, I considered a work of a major artist. But the complete works box gave me a deeper dive, and let me listen to material I was unfamiliar with - as well as material I already knew - in its more complete context.

The box has all his studio albums, including Cantique des Cantiques with his wife Choe Mons. The posthumous collections L'Homme A Tete de Choux and En Amant, two discs of instruments, four of duos and rarities, and a disc each for bonus material from Osez Josephine and Fantaisie Militaire. There's a lot to listen to, and I've still not reached the end of it yet.

Immediate follow-up? I picked up the Bashung Live 1985-2009 at an equally bargain price. 

I may be here some time.

Victoires de la Musique 2026 - the shortlist

The shortlist for this year's Victoires de la Musique awards has been released, and as always, it's an interesting read. It's the 41st time the event which celebrates Francophone music and artists has been held.

Sitting with five nominations is Theodora, with breakthrough female artist, live artist, album, single and audiovisual creation, so she'll probably be going home with something to decorate her mantlepiece.

Meanwhile, there are four significant nominations for Star Academy graduate Helena, best female breakthrough artist, live breakthrough artist, and best album and single, 

But not all the focus is on modern Francophone pop, it's nice to see Feu! Chatterton make the shortlist with what was - for this blog at least - the French album of the year as well as a nomination for best male artist.

The awards take place on Friday February 13 at the Seine Musicale arena, and long with the awards there will be some memorable performances showcasing the musical talent of France and beyond, televised on France 2.

Male artist

Disiz
Feu! Chatterton
Pierre Garnier
Orelsan

Female artist

Charlotte Cardin
Aya Nakamura
Vanessa Paradis
Santa

Male breakthrough

Ino Casablanca
L2B
Sam Sauvage

Female breakthrough

Helena
Miki
Theodora

Live breakthrough

Helena
Miki
Theodora

Album 

Hélé - Helena
Labyrinthe - Feu! Chatterton
La fuite en avant - Orelsan
Méga BBL - Theodora
On s'en rappellera pas - Disiz

Song 

Fashion Designa - Theodora
Les filles les meufs - Marguerite
Mauvais garçon - Helena
Soleil Bleu - Luiza & Bleu Soleil
Tant pis pour elle - Charlotte Cardin

Concert

DJ Snake
Justice Live - Justice
Santa
Zouzou Tour - Philippe Katerine

Audiovisual creation

Fashion Designa - Theodora
Je t'accuse - Suzane
Tant pis pour elle - Charlotte Cardin

Heroes Never Die: Tribute to Bowie on Arte

On the tenth anniversary of the passing of David Bowie there have been a raft of tributes, written, on the radio and on TV. The date was marked in France as elsewhere, and one of the most interesting was a special on  ARTE with some of Bowie's best-know songs being reinterpreted by other acts.

The Molotovs, The Horrors, La Roux, Carl Barat and Pete Doherty, Anna Calvi and The Divine Comedy all feature. Jeanne Added provides some much-needed French input while Yasmine Hamdan brings the show to its end with The Man Who Sold the World.

The documentary by Thierry Gautier and Sylvain Leduc, which runs just under an hour, includes a bit of background from each artist on their chosen cover. All sensitively and atmospherically shot.

You can cast questions endlessly about which acts deserved to be included here: Why The Horrors and not Suede? Perhaps it's a bit old school indie. Similar questions can be asked about the songs covered. Why aren's some of my favourites included? No matter. What's actually there is more interesting than what isn't and what could have been there. All the acts bring something different, from the reverential (Anna Calvi) to the more spontaneous and energetic (The Molotovs and Barat/Doherty).

There's some great stuff here. You might not like everything, but like those 'tribute' albums of the '80s and '90s that featured a raft of artists covering the work by a particular artist, it both throws up some unexpected gems and encourages a different interpretation of material you're probably familiar with.

Gims: Overton

It's probably not possible to overstate how big a deal Gims is in France. His Le Nord se souvient: l'Odyssée album was the biggest selling album of 2025 in France, in an end-of-the-year chart that saw every one of the top ten sellers in France being by French-associated artists, and rap/urban music dominating. 

The double album spawned a barrage of singles and videos, the most recent Parisienne in August, reaching number one in France and over 75 million views on YouTube in just a couple of months. Gims also released the top-selling single of 2025, with Ciel.

Add to this a tour that included five sold-out shows at the Paris La Défense Arena in 2025, He's got a busy live schedule for 2026, with dates at pretty much every major summer festival, and Gims is back at the Paris La Défense Arena in December. 

His new track Overton, a stripped-down rap number, is a nimble piece of rhyming and beats that shows  that even with the success he's had over recent years, he's still a master of the basics and can still hit as hard as any hungry young artist.

Vanessa Paradis - Les épines du coeur

A new video for a frankly funky piece by Vanessa Paradis from her 2025 album Le retour des beaux jours.

Les épines du Coeur follows Bouquet final which emerged as a clip in June, the album being released in October. Le retour des beaux jours is her eighth album, her first since 2018’s Les Sources.

She's a unique artist, who is probably one of the best-known French performers in the anglophone world on account of her early international hit. Although her status as a model and brand representative, her involvement with Johnny Depp and her acting career have probably helped maintain her profile outside France more than her subsequent musical career.

Paradis collaborated with Etienne Daho on the new album, Paradis having appeared on Daho’s 2023 album Tirer la nuit sur les étoiles, duetting with him on the album’s title track.

She’s touring extensively in arenas across France from March, two dates in May at the Zenith in Paris are already sold out.  

Additional dates later in the year include a show at the Accor Arena in Paris in November

"Mon frère" - Feu! Chatterton Live from Studio 104

A quite wonderful clip of the mighty Feu! Chatterton doing their thing live at the studio of France Inter.

While it's in a more controlled situation than a regular live show, it allows a closeness and a quality of the video production that are often missed when a full-scale live event is being captured. There's an argument that you'll never really capture an act's live experience on the small screen, as a million low-quality audience videos will testify. Perhaps this kind of session is an ideal compromise, allowing the intimacy of a close-up performance and the quality of a studio production.

I make no apology for thinking Feu! Chatterton are one of the best things to have come out of France musically in recent years. Their releases have been consistently high-quality affairs, literate, witty and intelligent, but somehow without taking themselves too seriously. They walk a fine line and do so with style.

It's ten years now since the release of their debut Ici le Jour (a tout enseveli) and their 2025 album Labyrinthe is every bit as essential as that first album was.

The clip comes from a performance in October  2025. It's worth tracking down all the other clips, including Allons Voir and L'affiche Rouge. A recent version of Mille Vagues is also available.

They're on tour across France's arenas this year from the end of this month, including two sold-out shows in Paris in February and sets at what seem like most of the country's summer festivals.

Indochine: Sanna Sur La Croix video

A new video from Indochine, marking the end of 2025 and the start of a new year. A video for the track No Name emerged two months ago, and now it's the turn of the song Sanna Sur La Croix, both from the 2024 album Babel Babel.

Sanna Sur La Croix is dedicated to former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, a political leader who Indochine singer Nicola Sirkis voiced his admiration for. During her term in office footage of her at a private party was leaked, which led to opposition right-wing politicians to call for her to undergo drugs tests. Marin was strongly opposed to Putin's invasion of Ukraine and led Finland to become a member of NATO.

The voice at the beginning of the video is Marin, explaining "I am a human being. And I too, sometimes want joy, light and fun in the middle of these dark clouds. 

"And that involves all kinds of photos and videos that I wouldn't want to see, and yet they're showing them to all of us. It’s private, it’s joy and it’s life."

The band are plain in their support for Marin in the song, and the unfairness of those who criticised her, who they say did not deserve her.

The band performs on the back of a lorry in the Finnish capital Helsinki, the footage interspersed with brief live clips of Indochine playing at Bercy in Paris.

Indochine have toured pretty relentlessly in 2025 and have dates in January, February and March this year to bring their arena tour to a close, including an astonishing eight dates at the Accor Arena in Paris. Meanwhile, the Babel Babel album has sold over a quarter of a million copies since its release.

It's kind of funny to see a crowd of maybe two dozen people applaud the band at the end of the performance in Helsinki, given the size of the audiences the band has played to during their latest tour. 

La Jeunesse Emmerde le Front National

With the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, we don't care to remember his vile politics, his ideology of hatred and division, his friends who were on the wrong side of history or the legion of idiots who followed him.

We remember and celebrate all who rejected him, who united in new ways to make their voices heard loud and clear that the values of modern France were not the values of Vichy. That liberty, equality and brotherhood do not have terms and conditions or exclusions applicable. 

He died at a time when some people who should know better need to remember that the lies offered by the far-right are always far wrong. We remember though that Le Pen's hateful agenda promised much and delivered nothing other than soiling the political discourse of the country and beyond. 

It's a stain that has tarnished society from Paris to Washington to the world, as the right dusts down its old uniforms to disguise the fact that they're more thieves than politicians while centrists politely drift in the same direction while trying not to rock a boat that should have long ago been sunk.

We remember Le Pen was ultimately a failure despite his posturing as the powerful, and how he was rejected by the voters and thrown out of his own party. 

We remember how he inspired a reaction against racism, inspired solidarity between people and made people realise that being actively involved meant there could be real hope for something better rather than empty lies peddled by Le Pen and his hopeless friends.

Vieilles Charrues - festval future in doubt

Some serious issues ahead for the Vieilles Charrues festival, France's biggest summer music event. Organisers are warning that this year's event, scheduled for July 11-14, could be the final edition of the festival unless the problems are addressed.

They're concerned about several measures that the local government has called on, including a loss of the land they can use for the event which means a loss of half of the camping area and less parking space, the local authority acquiring the festival organisers' office at the main entry to the event and a charge of 400,000  Euros for use of the site at Kerampuilh, despite organisers saying they'd agreed for it to be used for five years with the festival donating more than 2 million Euros in work, shows and the equivalent of 2,000 tickets to the local authority.

Organisers say the constant changes have resulted in a lack of stability that now endangers the future of the festival.

It's a difficult situation, and it comes at a time when the future of many large-scale music events is looking uncertain due to the economy and the difficulties that came in the wake of Covid, Vieilles Charrues cancelling its 2020 event.

The festival was created in 1992 and has been held in Carhaix since 1995 and over the three-decades-plus that it's been held, it's attracted some of the biggest names in music - both French and international - to Carhaix in Brittany. Some of the international acts that have played there include the likes of Bruce Springsteen. Iggy Pop, Muse, Lou Reed, The Cure, Bob Dylan, Rammstein, Neil Young, Lana Del Rey and Depeche Mode, while from France, acts like Stromae, Indochine, Justice, Etienne Daho, Vanessa Paradis, -M- have all played along with legends like Johnny Hallyday, Jane Birkin Charles Aznavour and Jacques Dutronc.

Last year’s edition included Robbie Williams, Blur, Soprano, Rosalia and Red Hot Chili Peppers in headline slots, alongside sets from BigFLo & Oli, Jeanne Added, Shaka Ponk, Lomepal, Pomme, Phoenix and Silmarils.

Despite having the big names at the top of the bill, the event has not lost touch with its roots, with local acts and newly emerging artists regularly getting the opportunity to perform.

The festival is - to say the least - a big deal and it draws a crowd of hundreds of thousands to the area, last year's event attracting its biggest-ever crown of some 346,000 people. 

A petition has been launched, calling for a halt to the threat to the future of the festival, with over 25,000 having signed it so far. The end of Vieilles Charrues would be a massive loss. Hopefully, things can be resolved before too much longer.

Jacques Higelin and BBH75

Love this clip of Jacques Higelin from 1976. Acoustic and up close and personal, with just a touch of

late glam rock and early punk about him. It's so lowkey and natural, and the talent at his fingertips just shines through.

Cigarette as metaphor? Something very French about that for sure, and it's the kind of song that you couldn't get away with these days. At the very least, a government health warning would be required, perhaps it would only be available in plain packaging and pressed in a nauseating green vinyl if a limited Record Store Day release came out.

The original was from his legendary BBH75 album, an astonishing work where Higelin, previously an experimental singer-songwriter, embraced rock music as part of a three-piece band with drummer Charles Bennaroch and Simon Boissezon on bass and guitar. It was a bold move, and one that not only established Higelin's reputation but also went a long way to establish the possibilities of rock music as a viable proposition in the French language. 

BBH75 maintains the experimental edge that Higelin had in his earlier works, but this is hitched to a raw electric sound, one that evolved from the electric blues and heavy rock of the early 1970s, and pre-dated the championing of the rough-edged urban experience championed by acts from later in the decade. BBH75 somehow sounds post-punk despite being released in 1974.

BBH75 sees Higelin in a place somewhere between Lou Reed and Ian Dury, the poetic lyricist drawing his inspiration from his everyday environment, earthy but with class, style and an effortless literacy. An authentic witness to his world, the sharp guy with the knowledge of the local streets and faces, able to articulate and sum up what's really going on internally and externally. There's perhaps a wink that he doesn't take himself too seriously though, as the smoker's coughs in the studio version of Cigarette confirms.

A French-speaking singer didn't have to try to match what was going in in American or British rock music but could create something unique on its own terms. Concepts like genre - rock, chanson, blues, whatever - could be used, incorporated or discarded as appropriate and a French artist could release something solidly groundbreaking. It was always all about authenticity all along.

Did Higelin ever better the BB75 album? I'm not sure, but I'll be spending some time going through his back catalogue and finding out.

Kendji Girac: UK headlines for the wrong reason

 It's still an unusual phenomenon for a French artist to make the news in the UK, and the circumstances surrounding the appearance of Kendji Girac are even more unusual.

The BBC report that The Voice France star was seriously injured in a shooting incident, apparently an accidental shooting caused by the singer himself while he was handling a pistol he had earlier bought in a junk shop.

His injuries were serious, with a gunshot wound to the chest, but while remaining in a serious condition he's no longer thought to be in danger. He was, reportedly, able to tell emergency services what happened when they arrived on the scene.

Girac has had four number-one albums in France, from 2014's Kendji to 2012's L'école de ma vie and he also performs as one of the members of Les Enfoirés, the charity group that raises money for the Restos do Coeur charity. Along the way, he's picked up a handful of awards. He's also become something of a representative of the French Gypsy community from the southwest of France, while his songs have made a significant impact in Spain, his Catalan-speaking upbringing winning him a receptive audience over the border.

While it's easy to assume a shooting incident involving a singer is somehow linked to serious or organised crime, Girac's always had a clean-cut reputation, and there doesn't seem to be anything sinister behind what happened. Police are obviously still investigating the circumstances of the incident.

Hopefully. he'll be back to health before too long. It's interesting that the UK media took an interest in this story, even if they did hang it on his The Voice France success rather than the fact he's been a massively popular artist for a decade. Still, a UK audience would know what The Voice was and are less likely to be familar with a singer who's not all that well known here. As usual, we're a very insular country when it comes to music, with anglophone artists always taking prominence with only one or two exceptions. Nice to see the BBC taking a broader view of things, even though it's in the most unfortunate circumstances.

Justice for Coachella

A high-profile appearance in the American press for Justice, unquestionably one of the finest French

acts in recent years. 

They're playing Coachella tonight and ahead of that they appear on the cover of Billboard magazine.

Their album Hyperdrama comes out at the end of the month, and I'll be surprised if it's not on a few record-of-the-year lists come December. It's hard to think that it's actually only their fourth proper album

One Night/All Night and Generator have both emerged as clips, both showing Justice still able to startle with images as well as sound, while Incognito and Saturnine reveal an act that hasn't lost any of their sense of urgency.

They've got more dates in the USA ahead of them, and they've got dates lined up in Europe including a set at the We Love Green festival in Paris at the end of May, Glastonbury in June, Field Day in London in August and two nights at the Accor Arena in Paris in December

Justice will be served.

The Z - Z of French female artists

What exactly is it with French female artists with the letter Z at the start of either their surname or in their single name?

I've disqualified Alizée as although she's close, she'd need a touch of Verlan to begin with a Z

Zeuhl is a genre, and Stell Vander's a major figure, but still not quite there.

Also close is Zizou, with a Mogwai soundtrack, but let's be honest, he's a footballeur.

Zaho 

Hindi Zahra 

La Zarra

Zaz

Zazie

Zouzou

But who was first? My money is on French actor and dancer Zizi Jeanmarie...

Grand Corps Malade's new clip: C'est aujourd'hui que ça se passe

I love this new clip for C'est aujourd'hui que ça se passe from Grand Corps Malade, I could listen to it on repeat for hours. 

As always he plays with words and rhythms, repetition and vocabulary. If I was just learning French or teaching it to those who were, GCM would be one of the finest teaching assistants that could be deployed. Language becomes a joyous thing in his hands without being overly complicated or obscure.

As for the track itself, it's a joyous thing, uplifting and positive without being trite or oversimplified. If you want the future - either a collective future or simply your own future - to be better, make it start now. Today.

It's all too easy to get in a rut and not get on with the things done that you say you will, to regret not having done it the following day, to plan to make things happen but procrastinate to the point that they don't emerge. I'm as guilty as most, and the weight of unaccomplished things can be a burden we can all do without. GCM makes it clear that life is an interactive game, not a spectator sport, and that rather than putting things off to the next day if we get on with them now we can have a better future. It's extraordinarily uplifting and liberating, simple and effective. 

The actual visuals are simple, GCM looking through a window at the world in its various ways in motion, whether city skyline or Paris streetscape, sea or sky and stars. With his image in the glass, it's a nice metaphor for being both reflective and looking outwards.

The song is the third release from his REFLETS album that came out in October last year, and the follows Retiens les rêves and Le jour d'après. He's been on tour for the last three months, with two dates in Paris, and he plays the summer festivals across France and beyond before returning to tour the arenas towards the end of the year.

I'll have this song on repeat to banish the uncertainty, the doubts and the inertia. The more I listen the more it impresses me. If we make things happen we can, as he puts it, turn our DeLorean Back To The Present. There might not be as much time as we think, but there's still space to take care of two or three important things.

Make it happen today, it's now or never.

Slimane: Mon Amour live at the Arc de Triomphe

 A landmark performance from Slimane on New Year's Eve in Paris, with a version of the song Mon Amour live from the Champs-Elysées in the heart of Paris for La Grande Soirée du 31 de Paris on France 2.

The song will be France's entry into this year's Eurovision, with Slimane performing the track in Malmo in May. It's always a bold move when a country puts forward an established artist to represent them in the competition, as a poor showing might reflect badly on their career. 

But equally an artist who already has an international following is also more likely to gather votes from other countries familiar with his output. However he does, the song's a strong enough one to win over new fans and Slimane's a big enough star to be undiminished if he's not the winner. 2024 looks like it will be a big year for the former winner of The Voice in 2016 and this is just another event in what looks like a key year for his career.

It will be better than the UK's entry that's for sure.

As for Slimane, he's off on tour across France and beyond for most of 2024 supporting his Chroniques d'un Cupidon album from 2022 - a number-one album in France that produced the singles Des Milliers de je t'aime, La Recette and Chez Toi. He's at the Accor Arena in Paris on March 1 although it's already sold out like many of the dates have. Another show's been added there on January 8 2025 regardless of Eurovision success or failure.

 

Beauregard Festival 2024

 Over the holidays we had details released of the lineup for the 2024 Beauregard festival in Normany in July, with some very interesting names on the bill.

While anglophone acts like Massive Attack, LCD Soundsystem and Bring Me The Horizon are big names that grab the headlines, there's much more than just that going on, with a strong representation of French home-grown acts.

Rappers Bigflo and Oli are probably the biggest commercial concerns, but the likes of Etienne Daho, Yodelice and Veronique Sanson broaden the range of acts and styles on offer. Etienne De Crecy teams up with Boombass, formerly of electronic legends Cassius, and L'Imperatrice is one act we've featured here in the past that's gone on to well-deserved success.

We're particularly excited to see Justice make an appearance and can't wait for their new studio album that's expected this spring, their first in seven years.  A snippet was previewed by the band in their New Year message.

As always, France is home to some of the best music festivals in Europe. Events like Beauregard fill the summer months across the country, with some of the biggest names internationally as well as French acts playing to massive audiences. 

We'll have more details throughout the year.

Shane MacGowan and Alan Stivell

 There have been plenty of obituaries for Shane MacGowan over recent days, some good, some bad. All giving him the credit he deserved and probably could have heard more of during his career. 

I saw The Pogues live a couple of times, and when living in Paris in the 90s was friendly with a mainly Irish crowd, for whom The Pogues - by then separated from MacGwan who was forging a career as a solo artist- were a landmark of recent Irish musical culture.

It was during these years that MacGowan would work with Alan Stivell, a French musician who was always ready to celebrate the celtic connections between Brittany, Ireland, and the other celtic nations.

Shane MacGowan appeared on two tracks on Stivell's Again album, a collection that saw him revisit earlier work, this time in collaboration with other artists. Three tracks featured MagGowan, Tri Martelot, Suite Sudarmoricaine and The Foggy Dew.

Many artists who worked with MacGown or who knew him have paid tribute to his unique talent, Stivell among them. 

He wrote: "It was a great gift he gave me, and for me a tip of the hat to these punk musicians to whom we owe their participation in a new Celtic wave that was about to emerge. 

"His iconoclastic way of interpreting Irish songs, the opposite of an almost classical polished approach, seduced me like many people." 

They worked together shortly after MacGowan parted from The Pogues, the collaboration probably being a welcome opportunity for him in what was no doubt an uncertain time. 

If it's a footnote to an extraordinary career and the life of a unique artist, it's a worthy one.