Eurovision 2024

I'd normally be writing something about Eurovision today, about how it's not a real representation of music across Europe. About how ultimately from a UK point of view it's seen as an excuse to laugh at those funny foreigners trying to do something we invented and are the absolute masters of. And how those foreigners just don't appreciate our mastery of popular music and vote for someone else instead.

I'd be discussing France's entry, and how it compares to previous times with a video or two to illustrate some of France's most memorable performances.

But this year it's a bit different. The competition comes with a backdrop of the atrocities in Gaza, and how the show must go on even with a representative of Israel on the stage acting like they're just another fun-loving country who are only there for the music. 

But it's a lie. They're there to normalise the situation, to maintain that Israel is an acceptable modern country that's the equal of any one of the others. Apparently, it's all just fun anyway, it's about music, not politics, isn't it? 

Aye, right, as they say around here.

Apartheid South Africa was shunned from international sport. Russia was excluded from Eurovision following the invasion of Ukraine. Rogue states can be held to account for their actions in non-political events and it would be right for Israel to be denied a place this year.

The organisers want the focus to be on the music, not the horrors off stage. The slogan for this year is "United by music." 

We should be, but only if Israel was dropping beats rather than bombs, 

 

David Hallyday - Sang pour sang

Another new release by David Hallyday, with a song aimed at filling the Johnny Hallyday-shaped hole in the world of French music, this time a duet between father and son of the title track of Johnny Hallyday’s 1999 album, a song co-written by David Hallyday

It’s from the forthcoming Requiem pour un Fou album due out at the end of June, a work David has described it as “the most important project of my life”. It’s a collection of covers of songs recorded by his father, plans for an album of songs by David that were originally intended for Johnny were abandoned in favour of a more direct approach.

The title track of the new album was released at the end of last year, a cover of the song from Hallyday pere’s 1976 Derrier l’amour collection, a song that would go on to be one of his best-known works. Like Hallyday Jr’s cover of Requiem pour un fou, the new version of Sang pour sang doesn’t wander far from the original. The production and music take it more into the 21st century. While it may be a comparatively recent Johnny number given the length of his career, but times, technology and tastes move on and its purpose is as much to win over a new generation of fans as to satisfy those already converted.

It’s an interesting take on the song, David and Johnny’s voices are so matched it’s hard to tell which is which, which is a serious credit in David’s favour here. Johnny was, after all, one of France’s most distinctive voices. It’s a tricky line to walk though, a tribute to a departed father, especially one who was held in such widespread esteem, risks being mawkish or, given the celebrity attention and the unresolved familial disputes, seen as an exploitative or in poor taste.

I don’t think there’s anything to worry about here. David Hallyday has more right than anyone else to sing his father’s songs. He’s already established himself as an artist and, lest we forget, a matter of years has passed since Le taulier left us. Maybe it’s only right that David should claim his family heritage.

As for the video, the game of pool an echo of the pool hall scene from the original Sang pour Sang video. There’s no crowd like there is in the original now, just David H on his own, later joined by another in a game of pool by a younger man. The part is, appropriately, played by Cameron Smet, the son of David Hallyday. The song is a duet between father and son, the video features a different father and son. Time moves on, new generations take their place.

There’s much going on in the video, and it’s nicely done. Johnny’s presence and influence is there throughout, but the focus is now on David. I expect that’s how David wants it to be, and probably Johnny would as well.

David Hallyday’s album Requiem pour un fou is released at the end of June, his tour begins in November

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.