What are the highlights of this fall's music season?
The concert that might seem the least important is, for me, the strongest: the Bellrays, Bijou, and Right Ons lineup. The Bellrays are a huge band that will still be talked about even after they break up. They play alternative rock, garage style. They're among the best in rock 'n' roll right now. They'll be with the Right Ons, a Spanish band on the rise who are touring with them. And I've added Bijou, the French rock legend of the 80s, to create a superb rock 'n' roll lineup. So, it's a concert I'm really looking forward to!
It's also a lineup with some big names!
Indeed, the big event is Jacques Higelin. He's a must-see: a truly remarkable story! A great French artist who just finished a tour that blew everyone away on stage. There's also Tété. He's a national star too, but not the same kind; he's a singer still developing. It's going to be a huge crowd, I'm sure of it. It's a mix of new and old acts, up-and-coming artists and legendary ones. Like Vulcain, they're an old French hard rock band. One of the first French hard rock bands, from the Trust era. Every hard rock band was playing Vulcain in the late '80s. They were the band Motörhead insisted on playing on their French tours. We're talking legendary stuff.
With the very young Tarbes band Steel Larsen opening for Vulcain, is it a clash of two generations?
It's totally intentional! Steel Larsen didn't know Vulcain, but they're influenced by Vulcain without even realizing it. A mix of '70s guitar phrasing and today's hardcore sound. I'm convinced that the Vulcain audience will discover Steel Larsen with great pleasure. That's the artistic support work of La Gespe: there's a band to promote, and I'll target them. In this case, I'm targeting Vulcain because the Vulcain audience will love Steel Larsen.
And the year ends with the now-traditional wacky cabaret
. It's a formula we're keeping, programming it once a quarter. It works well, bringing a different audience to La Gespe than other concerts. It also allows us to introduce new artists. In December, it will be 1234, a band that isn't very well-known in the south yet, but they're going to be a hit. They've just released an extraordinary album! They'll be with La Mangeuse d'Accordéon, an artist from the Midi-Pyrénées region whom I discovered at the Pic d'Or festival this year.
