Johnny Hallyday: 20 Ans

A new video by Johnny Hallyday, for the track 20 ans, one of the stand-out tracks from his L'attente album that was released in November last year.

Not an official video as such, but one that will be used to promote the song on TV and in the online media.

The video makes good use of old footage of Johnny, from the early 70s I think, intercutting it with film of the 2013 version of M. Hallyday.

The album was one of last year's biggest sellers in France, no doubt due to the extensive tour he undertook that saw not only dates across France, but shows in the USA and UK as well.

I was pleased to see the new Hallyday album for sale locally in the UK. Even if it was in the World Music section of a branch of HMV that is closing down.

As the lyrics suggest, he's far from retiring and will be touring again over the summer, his 70th birthday show at Bercy in Paris on June 15 will be shown on TF1, one of three dates he's playing there.

Indochine: College Boy

Indochine are to release another single from their Black City Parade album.

The track College Boy follows the first single release Memoria

The album has been the biggest seller of the year so far, having gone to number one of its first week of release.

The video, which has not yet been released, is being directed by Canadian Xavier Dolan

Indochine are started their first leg of live dates supporting the album last month, with dates this month and next.

A second leg of dates in the autumn that sees them playing larger arena sized venues around France.

So far there are no dates in the French capital, but they'll be playing in Paris, at the Stade de France in June 2014.

Vanessa Paradis: Love Song

Great to hear a new single by Vanessa Paradis, which comes out ahead of a new album to be released in May.

The track Love Song is a sophisticated slice of seriously funky electro and certainly a stylish return for the singer who has since the 80s been one of the iconic French music stars.

Her forthcoming album, her sixth studio collection, sees her collaborating with producer and composer Benjamin Biolay, along with musical input from Mathieu Boogaerts, Adrien Gallo and Carl Barât.

It's hard to believe listening to her new single that her most recent full studio album was her 2007 Divinidylle collection.

True, she's not exactly been idle in recent years, with a live album, an acoustic album and a very busy film career that amongst many highlights included her part in the animation Un monstre à Paris, which also saw the release of the song La Seine, one of the biggest selling singles of 2011 in France.

Listening to this new track she's obviously kept up with what's been happening in the world of music. Rather than taking things easy, she's taken up the challenge of releasing something with a freshness that artists half her age would be pleased with.

Her new album Love Songs, which is expected to be a double album, is released on May 13.

Vanessa Paradis is also reported to be touring in the Autumn.

Daft Punk: New album promo

Anticpation continues for the release of the new Daft Punk album, with the release of a short teaser clip at the weekend.

The clip was aired during an edition of Saturday Night Live in the US. It follows the recent release of a new image that emerged when they confirmed they had signed to Columbia Records.

There's not much that you can take from the short clip as to what might be on the cards with regard the new album, the band's logo and the new image, and some music that could be from the album.

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalte's last release was the soundtrack of the Tron:Legacy movie in 2010, their last full album Human After All came out in 2005.

Expectation will certainly be high, and Columbia won't be taking any chances in promoting it and building up some excitement about it. The fact that they've invested in a TV advert during one of the US's most watched shows suggests that they're not exactly intending a low key release.

As for the album itelf, Nile Rogers has said he has been working on it, while other names including Chilly Gonzales and Giorgio Moroder are also rumoured to be involved.

The picture will certainly become clearer in the months to come.

The new album is expected to be released later this year, with May seemingly the most likely release date.

Rumours of live dates have so far come to nothing.

Daniel Darc and Taxi Girl

Tributes have been paid to Daniel Darc, former singer with the band Taxi Girl, who has died at his hime in Paris.

Darc, whose orignal name is Daniel Rozoum, was 53. Details of the cause of his death have not formally been established.

Taxi Girl were a key band in the French New Wave scene, originally a trio that featured Darc, Laurent Sinclair and Mirwais Stass, later becoming a duo of Mirwais and Darc.

The band were active from 1978 - 1986, and they had two significant hits, with the songs mannequin in 1979 and Cherchez le garcon the following year.

While considered by some a new romantic outfit on account of their use of synths, Taxi Girl drew inspiration from acts like the Stooges and Suicide as much as Kraftwerk.

The band released several mini LPS during their career, their only full album being the 1981 collection Seppuku, which was produced by Jean-Jacques Brunel of the Stranglers, his fellow band member Jet Black contributing drums to the album.
The band would also tour the UK opening for the Stranglers and record an English language version of the album.

The album was one of France's first independent releases, on their own Mankin records label, under the guidance of Virgin records.

Following the split of Taxi Girl in '86, Mirwais would later find success as a producer and artist in his own right and produce albums by Madonna.

Darc had a successful solo career following the split of Taxi Girl, his debut album Sous influence divine coming out in 87, his 2004 album Crèvecœur wining a Victoires de la musique award the following year.

His most recent release was the album La Taille de mon âme, which came out in 2011. He was working on his autobiography at the time of his death.

Carla Bruni: Chez Keith et Anita video

The new video has emerged of the new single Chez Keith et Anita by Carla Bruni.

The song surfaced earlier this year, and its release comes ahead of her fourth album Little French Songs.

Her last album Comme si de rien n'était came out during her time as First Lady in France, now she's got a bit more time on her hands and a husband to support we can expect to see more of her musical output.

Apparently during her time as First Lady she suffered because she wasn't able to write music, took criticism of her husband badly and never felt at home in the world of politics.

Her position gave her a huge amount of attention that perhaps eclipsed her reputation as a musician, so with that weight now lifted she can perhaps now be judged on her merit as a performer rather than as a figure on the political scene with an interesting sideline.

Bruni's new album is released on April the first and she's playing some dates at the Casino De Paris in November.

Editorial: March 2013

Another month at Vive Le Roq, and February turned out to be a busy one.

Award season saw some interesting results and there were some strong releases, such as the new album by Indochine and a new track by the mighty Phoenix, and the shape of this summer's fesivals becomes much clearer with more line ups of some of France's big summer events being released.

Some big releases in March, with a new album by Saez and the debut by Woodkid hitting the shelves, Concrete Knives album also getting released in the UK.

March also sees the anniversary of the blog, and we've come a long way since March 2010. There have been more regular posts - I only managed a total of 24 posts in the whole of 2010 - and a bit more time and effort put into what goes online. Hopefully it's appreciated.

Anyway, more to come, and more projects on the horizon, and plenty of interesting new soinds in the month ahead.

As always, I can be contacted by email at the address johnkilbride AT hotmail DOT com, with the spaces and the appropriate @ and . in the address, or on twitter where you can find us @viveleroq

Merci et à bientôt

jk