French rock bands cross Channel to boost careers

12/03/2006 6:00 AM, Reuters


In the Windmill, a dingy pub in south London, a rock band with a smouldering male singer is on stage, driving the sweating crowd wild with raw guitar riffs.

Another night on London's thriving gig scene? Not quite. The band may sing in English, but it's French.

Neimo, a stylish Parisian act with a touch of New Wave, is one of a growing number of young French bands crossing the Channel in the hope of boosting budding careers.

Britain's independent label scene and French radio's language quota system that limits the amount of air time groups singing in English get mean that landing a record deal is seen as easier overseas than at home.

"I feel we are pioneers," said Bruno Alexandre, 29, lead singer of Neimo, a band whose catchy pop and arrogant rock is influenced by Blondie, New Order, David Bowie and the Stooges.

"Confidence in French rock has never been so high ... We really have our place in Britain, which is a shop window for the rest of the world."

The last time music put France on the map was the explosion of "French Touch" in the early 1990s, when electro and house artists like Daft Punk and Air invaded the world's dance floors.

The odd song in French has also made it overseas. Remember Belgian act Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" and French singer Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'aime...Moi Non Plus?"

But rock has been a genre where the French, often because of the language barrier, languished in the shadow of their U.S. and British cousins, rarely venturing beyond national borders.

It all changed in the last two years, with the return of guitar rock to both sides of the Channel and a new generation of musicians connected by the Internet and Eurostar -- young artists for whom singing in English was only natural.

"A buzz is now developing around French rock, which is no longer viewed here as a joke," says Corinne Micaelli from the London branch of the French Music Export Office, which aims to promote French music abroad.

UK-based music producer Ludovic Merle says French rock bands are increasingly turning to the English music market because it is more dynamic than its French counterpart and its industry is more geared toward new talent.

ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

Another part of the problem is the French radio quota system introduced in the mid-1990s, which states that 40 percent of tracks played on the radio must be sung in French, Merle says.

Such a system may have supported more traditional genres such as "La Chanson francaise," but it led to French rock bands missing out on air time and label deals as many sing in English.

"The quota system puts us between a rock and a hard place. They say we love what you do but you do not sing in French," said Alexandre.

"Labels tend to sign bands that are given airtime. So for purely economic reasons, we are forced to turn to the English market because French labels are reluctant to sign artists who sing in English," he added.

French rock bands and their supporters have taken matters into their own hands.

In January 2005, Merle helped put out the album "Le Nouveau Rock'n'Roll Francais," a compilation of French rock music that sold 6,000 copies in Europe and created a media buzz around French rock in Britain.

A growing number of French bands are landing their first record deals with a British label. The Dude and Thirteen Hole, from Rennes in Britanny, are signed on indie label Lime Records.

Neimo started its own label "Big Fields" and recorded a debut album aptly named "From Scratch" released last year.

But Alexandre said it was time to move into higher gear and seek a British label.

"You can be from France or New Zealand, they don't care. What matters is that you make good music and then labels will follow," said Alexandre.