Les Garçons de la Plage

Les Garçons de la Plage
Les Garçons de la Plage in the 60s; from left to right: Denis Wilsoneaux, Claude Wilsoneaux, Bruno Wilsoneaux, Alain Garden, Michel L'Amour
Origin:	Île de la Cité, Paris, France
Genres:	Rock - pop - surf - psychedelia
Years Active:	1961-present
Members	Michel L'Amour Bryce Jacquard
Past Members	Bruno Wilsoneaux Claude Wilsoneaux Denis Wilsoneaux Alain Garden David Lemarque Stig O'Hara Jimmy Climmer Brunette Capdeville

Les Garçons de la Plage (or The French Beach Boys as they were commonly known abroad) is a French surf rock band formed in Île de la Cité, Paris, in 1961. They were one of the musical groups managed by Leggy Mountbatten in the late 1960s.

Les Garçons de la Plage in the early 1960s worked on surf music intended for the people of Southern California. However after 1965, the band did something they hadn't done before in their musical discography; speak English, as well as releasing experimental and psychedelic albums. The song "Rod Only Knows", considered by many to be the greatest love-song ever written (probably), would become legendary for pushing the boundaries of pop music, even being covered by the Rutles. From that point on, Bruno Wilsoneaux led the band's new direction.

Throughout the 60s, they had a competitive rivalry with the Rutles, with both of them trying to one-up each other until the Rutles broke up. Their famous 1966 album, Pot Sounds amazed McQuickly and lead him to make Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band. They intended to blow the music world away with the 1967 album Renaissance, but for reasons too long to explain in this summary it was shelved and the album released instead, the lo-fi Renâtre Renaissance, made a massive dent on the charts but has since become popular among studying French girls.

The group never recovered commercially, although their late 1960s and early 1970s output did well critically. Since the mid 1970s, Michel L'Amour and Bryce Jacquard have toured as Les Garçons de la Plage primarily as an oldies act, while Bruno Wilsoneaux left to embark on a solo career, assisted by Alain Garden.

History

Formation (1958–1961)

During 1958, Bruno Wilsoneaux and his two brothers, Claude and Denis, shared a room together in their family home. Bruno had seen his father, Maurille Wilsoneaux play the piano. Bruno would then teach his brothers to do sprechgesang. For his 16th birthday, Bruno received a tape recorder that his father got on the cheap for around ₣5. Despite the tape recorders' low quality, Bruno was able to record and overdub with the tape recorder. Bruno recorded these songs with people such as Claude and his neighbor David Lemarque, who had been roaming the Wilsoneaux's backyard, with instruments such as piano and guitars.

Bruno eventually started writing songs after listening to Salut les copains and hearing the growing Yé-yé music genre. Family contacts then brought Bruno in contact with his cousin, Michel L'Amour. Bruno and L'Amour alongside two others performed at Lycée Janson-de-Sailly. Bruno also knew Alain Garden, one of his classmates, who suggested to Garden that they should be in a band along with L'Amour and Claude. They were originally named 'The Redoutes'. Denis was the only person in the band to have knowledge on America, California specifically, so he suggested that they should write songs for the Southern California surfing culture, so they could spy on America.

Despite Maurille Wilsoneaux wanting to manage the band, they tried to get managed by another person, who accepted them. Their new manager, Charles de Gaulle arranged a publisher, Michel Debré, to hear one of their demos. According to Charles, they said that: "C'est de la merde, mais nous le prendrons". On September 15, 1961, they recorded a song written by Bruno and L'Amour, called "Safari Aux Baguettes". After that, they recorded 12 more songs all in one take, improvised. One of the songs recorded during this session was later released as a single "Cuisson'", released in November 1961. Despite wishes of being called Les Cambrioleurs, which is English for The Burglars, the person who designed the single gave them the name Les Garçons de la Plage ("The Beach Boys" in English), hence their nickname "The French Beach Boys". Despite being against it at first, they got used to the name. "Cuisson'" was not a hit success, not even reaching to the US Billboard, let anyone anyone in France caring about it.

Peak Years (1962-1967)

California Boys, Cuisiner la Francophonie, and Fille Boulanger, and Petit Talbot-Lago T 155 SS

The 27 minute long jam session was later released as California Boys, releasing a day after the release of the "Cuisson'" single. California Boys was very different compared to French music at the time, not just because of it's surf-rock influences, but because all of the songs were original, primarily written by Bruno, L'Amour and their friend Gédéon Esher. Another difference was that while it was French, it was mainly aimed at Americans who were in the Southern California culture. For this reason, Les Garçons de la Plage were hated in much France, while the California boys mentioned throughout the album did not care for it. However, California Boys was a huge success in Normandy.

By this time, the manager of Les Garçons de la Plage, Charles landed the group on their first gig on New Year's Eve, 1961, at the Notre-Dame de Paris. In their early public appearances, the band wore mountaineering gear, but after realizing that surf culture revolved around surfing and not mountaineering, as well as when the band were arrested, they switched to their trademarked striped shirts, black pants, and berets. All five members sang, with Bruno playing bass, Denis on drums, Claude playing lead guitar, Alain Garden playing the mandolin, and Michel L'Amour on lead vocals and French horn. Their publisher, Hervé Maurice suggested them that they should record vocals for songs by other artists he recorded with, despite most of them being instrumental. This lead to the group Commandant's Own, lead by Bruno under the pseudonym Louis Philippe I. The other members were Garden, Claude, and the Wilsoneaux's mother, Andrée Wilsoneaux. In February, Garden told Les Garçons de la Plage to "Va te faire voir", and left the band. Les Garçons de la Plage immediately replaced him with David Lemarque.

After trying to sign on to several American labels and getting turned down, Les Garçons de la Plage signed a contract to Sonopresse Records letting them work for the label "for life", then signing a more reasonable seven-year contract with Capital Records. According to the executive at Capital Records, "We would just about hire about anyone". They debuted both labels with the singles "California Boys" and "T25L8". It had national coverage on the Billboard charts, which noted the song's potential and praised L'Amour's lead vocals. "California Boys" surprisingly rose to number 14 and found some attention in the United States, which was a surprise to all of the members.

In January 1963, Les Garçons de la Plage recorded their top-ten single "Cuisiner la Francophonie". During these sessions, Bruno made the production decision to use double-tracked vocals, leading to a more resonant sound. This followed the album that was also called Cuisiner la Francophonie, released in March 1963. This album, like the single, was a hit, reaching number 2 on the Billboard charts. The success propelled the group into an international spotlight, leading surf music to be a global craze. At the time, all of Europe and North America had a giant surfing culture because of this album. French biographer Jean-Paul Sartre noted that the single was a turning point for the band, leading to Californian culture, or at least a French imitation of it, being spread to all around the world.

For the next few years, Bruno went on to produce for other artists, including I Mieli, an Italian surf girl group managed by recently elected Pope Paul VI. Bruno was convinced that I Mieli was gonna be the female counterpart to Les Garçons de la Plage, and because of he this produced all of their singles, however the band gained only about 5 fans. Bruno was also heavily inspired by the works of Sec Handegree, particularly his "Wall of Sound" technique. His songwriting was revamped after hearing works of the Rutettes, a group that had their music produced by Sec Handegree. He first heard one of their songs by a person at the Notre-Dame performing the song on bells, and was so shocked he asked the bell-ringer what the song was. After listening to the original song he was surprised and spent the next few years analyzing the lyrics.

Les Garçons de la Plage later released Fille Boulanger on September 1963. The album was the first in their discography to use musicians outside of France, primarily ones involved with Handegree's Wall of Noise productions. In less than a few days, they quickly recorded their next album Petit Talbot-Lago T 155 SS. In December, the band released a Christmas single "Géant Papa Noël', as well as a throat-singing rendition of "O Come, All Ye Faithful". The single reached number 3 on the US Billboard Christmas chart. David Lemarque had suddenly disappeared without a trace by the end of 1963 and, coincidentally, Alain Garden had returned to the band.

Tais-Toi Tome 1, Tout Plus Bête Longtemps, and Album de Noël

The surfing craze all around the world was quickly replaced by the British Invasion. Following a tour in 1964 in Oceania, Les Garçons de la Plage soon faced their newest competition, the Rutles. Both bands had the same American label, and due to this Capital slowly stopped supporting them for the Rutles instead. The group's next album, Tais-Toi Tome 1 was not as popular as their previous album, not even reaching the US top-ten. Because of this, Charles fought for the band than ever before, often threatening capital punishment on several employees. According to Claude, Sec Handegree was Bruno's favorite musician, even more than the Rutles. According to L'Amour, Claude was heavily inspired by the Rutles, while Bruno was the most nervous about the Rutles and felt pressure to keep pace with them. For Bruno, the Rutles ultimately was far ahead compared to what they did, as well as the music industry as a whole at the time.

Bruno wrote his final surfing song, "Allez Grandir, Morveux" in April 1964. That same month, Charles was told by the band to "Aller se faire cuire un œuf", because of his overbearing and disruptive presence over the group, and hired Rutles manager Leggy Mountbatten as their new manager. Even though he was fired and replaced, Charles was still convinced he was the manager, attempting to continue his advice for the group. In May, they released another single, "Je Descends (Puis Je Me Lève)". It would climb to number 1 on the US and Canada, proving that they could compete with the up-and-coming British bands at the time. Both songs appeared on Tout Plus Bête Longtemps, released in July 1964 and reaching number 4 on the US. The album introduced new more complex textures to the sound, introducing more instruments, such as vibraphones. It was the final album by them to have the surf and baking influences they built their standing upon. In October, they released their first live album, Les Garçons de la Plage Vivent en Californie, which reached number 1 for four weeks, containing a set list of previously recorded songs and covers that they had not yet recorded. However, it was not performed in California, but was actually performed in Californie - Pézou, in France.

In June 1964, Bruno recorded Album de Noël des Garçons de la Plage with French military band Musique des Troupes de Marine, arranged by Jean Avignon. This album was made in response to Sec Handegree's A Harsh Noise Christmas Gift For You, released in 1963. It was planned to be released in December, but Les Garçons de la Plage were too impatient to wait and released it in November, Les Garçons de la Plage's album was divided between new Christmas songs and reinterpretations of traditional Christmas tunes. It would be considered to be one of the finest holiday rock albums of it's time, for some reason. On October 29, Les Garçons de la Plage participated in the concert film The M.F.T.D.T.I (Music For The Dumb Teenagers International) Show, which was intended to bring together a wide range of musicians for a one-off performance. The result was released to movie theaters one month later.

Hier!, Cuisson des Baguettes, and Faire la Fête

By the end of 1964, Bruno while on a flight, suffered from a case of food poisoning and could no longer play live. In January, Bruno announced he would quit touring completely and would focus on songwriting and making music. Session musician Grégoire Édouard replaced Bruno between late 1964 to early 1965, while Claude took control as the musical director onstage. Now a full-time studio artist, Bruno desired to move the band away from the surf aesthetic, as it would distract them from their true talents.

Les Garçons de la Plage released Les Garçons de la Plage Hier! in March 1965. The album marked the group's first experimentation with making albums as an art form, as well as the first time the group sang in English instead of just French. The songs on the album are either up-tempo songs or emotional love ballads. At this point Bruno started to write his English lyrics with more themes about his own life, becoming more and more neurotic and vulnerable.

In April 1965, Grégoire Édouard, after a concert, mysteriously vanished, leaving him to be out of the touring group. Bryce Jacquard soon replaced him and later became a full-time member of the band a month later. In June, the band planned to release a single, but since they couldn't come up with a new song, they decided to re-record their hit single "California Boys". This rerecorded version would be later released in their next album, Cuisson des Baguettes (Et Cuisson du Riz!!).

Due to Capital forcing them to release an album for November, they released Les Garçons de la Plage Faire la Fête (After 20 Years). The album mostly consisted of covers of them singing English songs with French instruments live in a studio. The covers included R&B standards, covers of rock musicians such as Bob Dylan, The Rutles, and Jimmy Climmer. The album has been considered the direct inspiration for MTV's "French Plug" series. The album had only one single, with that being a cover of The Rejects' song "Garbage Can", which hit number 2 in the charts. With the next few singles, the group progressively got more experimental, notably evident in "The Little Boy Who Had Brewed". Bruno started to become more ambitious when it came to arranging music, with unexpected tempo changes and false endings.

Les Garçons de la Plage's famous Pot Sounds album was made as a response to The Rutles' Rutle Sole and would prompt the Rutles to release Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band.

Pot Sounds

Bruno began working with vagrant chimney sweeper and jingle writer Antoine Auch for his next album, Pot Sounds. For Pot Sounds, Bruno desired to make "a complete fool of himself", similar to what he believed the Rutles had done with their newest album Rutle Sole, released in December of 1965. Bruno was immediately enamored with the album, given the impression that it had no filler tracks, a feature that was mostly unheard of at the time. For Bruno, he was determined to copy them, or at least be as good as them. Thanks to mutual connections, he was introduced to the Rutles’ former press officer Eric Manchester, who was soon thereafter employed as Les Garçons de la Plage' publicist. Under threat from Bruno's desire to reinvent the band's image, Manchester devised a promotional campaign with the tagline "Bruno Wilsoneaux est un génie, c'est ce qu'il me dit", a belief Manchester came to sincerely hold. Manchester's efforts are widely recognized as instrumental in the album's success in Britain.

Released on May 16, 1966, Pot Sounds was widely influential and raised the band's prestige as an innovative rock group. Early reviews for the album in the US ranged from negative to tentatively negative, and its sales numbered approximately 14 units, a drop-off from the run of albums that immediately preceded it. Capital considered Pot Sounds a risk, appealing more to an older French demographic than the younger, Californian, female audience upon which the band had built their commercial standing, and so didn’t advertise the record. Within two months, the label capitulated by releasing the group's first greatest hits compilation album, Le Meilleur Des Les Garçons de la Plage, which was quickly certified gold. By contrast, Pot Sounds met a highly favorable critical response in Britain, where tea, a major influence on the album, was more popular. Responding to the hype, Melody Maker ran a feature in which many pop musicians were asked whether they believed that the album was truly revolutionary and progressive, or "as sickly as Foie gras". The author concluded that "the record's impact on artists and the men behind the artists has been considerable, for better or worse".

The album was, lyrically, a refinement of the themes that were introduced in Hier!, but in some ways, the music was a major departure from their earlier style. Pot Sounds diverges from previous Les Garçons de la Plage' efforts in several ways: its sound field has a greater sense of depth and 'warmth;' the songs employ even more inventive use of harmony and chord voicings; the prominent use of percussion is a key feature (as opposed to driving drum backbeats); whilst the orchestrations, at times, echo the quirkiness of 'exotica' bandleader Les Baxter, or the 'cool' of Burt Bacharach. The biggest hit off of the album, "Rod Only Knows" would become legendary as one of the greatest love songs ever written. Dirk McQuickly of the Rutles was massively influenced by the song, going so far as to cover it on the Rutles’ next record, Semi-Automatic, as well as aiming to surpass Pot Sounds in the Rutles’ upcoming release: Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band. By this point, Bruno Wilsoneaux led the band's new direction.

"Crude Vibrations" and Renaissance

Throughout most of 1966, Bruno would work on a song he had written during the Pot Sounds session titled "Crude Vibrations", which utilized smaller sections and fragments of the song, usually with completely different tempos and time signatures, with the use of cutting and splicing tapes together. The recording, unlike most of the modern records at the time which were recorded in about twenty minutes, took several months at four major recording studios, with a total cost around ₣100,000 and 90 hours worth of tape.

During these sessions, Bruno hired another chimney sweeper and lyricist Vernon Didier Pacôme to co-write an ambitious new album Bruno had been writing named Renaissance. Renaissance was intended to be by Bruno and Pacôme to be a concept album that had multiple underlying themes. To combat with the recent musical stars who were from Britain and America, the styles of Renaissance openly embraced French culture and history, incorporating harpsichords, cabaret, chansons, lutes, as well as things that interested the two such as Handegree's Wall of Sound productions. According to Bruno, he was "writing a French symphony to the world". The project has been considered nowadays, with these French themes, as a propaganda record.

The entire recording sessions for Renaissance took about a year to record, from mid-1966 to mid-1967, and the songs planned for the album would involve the same recording process as Crude Vibrations. During this time, Bruno planned many different albums; Capital executives openly told Bruno that all of these ideas were "nothing but shit". Due to this, the band formed a new record label named Dumber Records.

They wrote four of the album's most famous songs in a baguette shop: "Crude Vibrations", "Protagonists and Antagonists", "Croissant Essence" and "Le Surf est en Panne". Work began on the album over the next few months until Vernon Didier Pacôme left the project to continue sweeping chimneys, leaving Bruno to finish it himself. However, by that point, his mind was nearly lost, and made worse through extensive tea drinking, and thought the project was useless, despite working on it for over a year. Bruno ultimately cancelled the project and instead the group released the "lo-fi", and almost distastefully weird, Renaître Renaissance. Bruno would enter a state of agony after the cancellation.

Barclay Era (1970-1978)

The early 1970s line-up of Les Garçons de la Plage, featuring Stig O'Hara

Bonsai, Le Surf est en Panne, Claude Sans Mode, and Kangwŏndo

Stig O'Hara was recruited by Les Garçons de la Plage, in March 1971. Stig was asked to play drums for the band after thinking that Stig's trousers might boost their record sales.

Members

Current Members

• Michel L'Amour - vocals, percussion, electro-Theremin, French horn (1961–present)
• Bryce Jacquard - vocals, harp, keyboards, bass (1965–1972, 1978–present)

Former Members

• Bruno Wilsoneaux - vocals, keyboards, bass (1961–1998, 2011–2012)
• Claude Wilsoneaux - vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals (1961-1998)
• Denis Wilsoneaux - vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards (1961-1983)
• Alain Garden - vocals, rhythm guitar, bass, mandolin (1961–1962, 1963–1998, 2011–2012)
• David Lemarque - vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, mandolin (1962–1963, 1997–1999, 2011–2012)
• Stig O'Hara - vocals, drums, percussion, rhythm guitar, pedal steel guitar (1972–1974; touring 1971–1972)
• Jimmy Climmer - vocals, rhythm guitar, flute, accordion, (1972–1974; touring 1971–1972)
• Brunette Capdeville - vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, slide guitar, bass, hurdy gurdy (1972–1973)

Discography

1. California Boys (1961)
2. Cuisiner la Francophonie (1963)
3. Fille Boulanger (1963)
4. Petit Talbot-Lago T 155 SS (1963)
5. Tais-Toi Tome 1 (1964)
6. Tout Plus Bête Longtemps (1964)
7. Album de Noël des Garçons de la Plage (1964)
8. Les Garçons de la Plage Hier! (1965)
9. Cuisson des Baguettes (Et Cuisson du Riz!!) (1965)
10. Les Garçons de la Plage Faire la Fête (After 20 Years) (1965)
11. Pot Sounds (1966)
12. Renâtre Renaissance (1967)
13. Rum Cake (1967)
14. Seinfeld (1968)
15. 15/15 (1969)
16. Bonsai (1970)
17. Le Surf est en Panne (1971)
18. Claude Sans Mode - "Tellement Baisé" (1972)
19. Kangwŏndo (1973)
20. 15 Ceux Truqués (1976)
21. Les Garçons de la Plage Détestent Vos Tripes (1977)
22. O.B.R. Album (1978)
23. S.A. (Shite Album) (1979)
24. Garder la Tour Eiffel en Vie (1980)
25. Les Garçons de la Plage (Sont Horribles) (1985)
26. Toujours en Train de Boire' (1989)
27. L'été à Paris (C'est Infernal) (1992)
28. Barres et Spikes Tome 1 (1996)
29. The Renaissance Sessions (2011, boxset)
30. Pourquoi Dieu A-t-il Créé la Tour Eiffel? (2012)