COCO NUT: juin 2019

Berlin
I arrived in Berlin by train (in transit through East Germany) in August 1981.
I had never set foot there and I didn't know anybody there.
I just had accommodation for a week, so I had to hurry to find something.
It was the great time of squats and my goal was Kreuzberg. I quickly gained a foothold and I met Françoise Cactus who helped me find accommodation with friends of her.
At that time Berlin seemed to me "the place to be", located at the heart of the Cold War conflict, I had also noticed that David Bowie and Iggy Pop had settled there.
To keep West Berlin alive, the west german government left a lot of freedoms, rents were low, squats popped out like mushrooms making west Berlin a very favorable to underground culture.
Quickly I was ready to make sound !
I managed to learn 3 chords on guitar wich was the trend by than. There was a movement in Berlin called "Geniale Dilletanten" and the city was talled with "self-proclaimed" artists such as "Tedliche Doris", "Liason Dangereuse" and "Camping Sex", a new wave that electrified Berlins underground scene.
It was also with Françoise Cactus with whom I started a band. We lived under the same roof, I had found a drum kit and we started, the two of us, covers of Elvis, Françoise Hardy or Stooges.

Afterwards we found Valerie Mc Glynn, an expatriate From Ireland,who played the Bass and we named the band "Les Lolitas" after Stanley Kubricks famous movie.

Other members were Tutti Frutti (a.k.a Michele Veleno)on the guitar,who joined Lolitas in 1986, Olga La Basse on the Bass,who came in 1987 and Tex Morton on the guitar who came in 1992.

Unlike most West Berliners, I wanted to know also East Berlin.
It was thanks to a British expat, Mark reeder (who directed the b movie thread, documentary/fiction on the underground scene of West Berlin in the 80s) that I had contacts that allowed me to get to know East Berliners.
This gave us the opportunity to do many clandestine concerts in East Germany, a totally exciting experience with a unique flavour that is hard to describe these days. The concerts were usually held in premises that were located at the Protestant church, the only places that were not managed by the state. The concerts were held with bands from the east who lent us their instruments on site.
Everything had to be done discreetly so as not to be spotted by the STASI, it was a bit risky, but we probably were not aware ot the danger.
The band was moving forward and in 1986 we recorded our first vinyl for a Hamburg label: "What's so Funny About" recorded by the British Nainz Watts.
The trendy german music magazine Spex reviewed our record best album and best band of the year., describing us, by the way, as an all a girl band!
I was at the time a fan of the French label "New Rose Records" which had, among many other bands, in its catalog the Cramps, Gun Club, Johnny Thunders also I went to file our vinyl hope that the label is interested in producing us. It was a hit, the boss of New Rose, Patrick Mathé even said in an interview that we were according to him the best French underground rock band. I think he had a crush on Françoise and that I was more of an Idiot.
His project at the time was to have our next record produced by an artist who was also on his catalogue: Alex Chilton.
Recordings were made august 1988 at Ardent Studio in Memphis,TN.
I was'nt actually so excited to go to the United States.
I saw this country as a bunch of degenerate and dumb. I didn't know anything about Alex chilton and the fact that some people worshipped him discouraged me from wanting to know him.
Once I got there, I realized how thrilling the United States are. After we landed in New York, we drove to Memphis where Alex was waiting for us.
Alex immediately liked me very much. After asking me my date of birth, allways his first question when he got to know somebody, it came out that we were both born under the sign of the tiger and capricorn. That's probably what made me a little "special" to him. Also the fact that I didn't know much about his musical career, I think it bothered him when people talked to him about the Box Tops or Big Star.We remained until his death very good friends.
At the time, Alex was living in New Orleans and after recording our album "Fusée d'amour", Alex invited us to stay there. We even played there, in a blues bar called "Benny's".
It was a revelation for me, I realized that the music that influenced me the most came from there and that I had to come back and live there.