Moody Notes : Two stupid jerks in Reims...

Holy shit ! 10 years ! 10 years have passed since my last punk garage gig's scheduling in Reims ! After that, things went on an other rock'n'roll way : a serious relationship, two kids, a dog, a cat, a parenthood on the shoulders and a huge move to La Reunion island in 2009 for the work and the cool sunny life ... Yet, the desire to get involved in garage/punk stuff has ever been there, the virus has never flown...

I met Boris W. in the pub Le Tigre at a gig in the early 00's. It was a few months after my arrival in Reims. I was kind of a skinhead-looking guy, he was a spiky street-punker involved in some local Oi band & punks' crew. Our first talk was a bit stretched. The atmosphere indeed was a bit nervy in Reims and around Paris at that time.... All those sharp/red/bonehead/skunk skinheads' things... All those stories about punks' crews fights which weren't my cup of tea - I had always lived my punk attitude on a pretty individualistic way...

Step by step, we managed to get to know each other, we met at local gigs, then started to make together occasional jumps to follow French punk bands we both loved (La Dérive des Incontinents (x), Warum Joe (x), Frustration (x), 8°6 Crew (x)..) and we finally stuck together...

Boris was more into oldschool-hardcore, street-punk and anarco-punk music as I had moved on more garage things (60's, garage punk, psyche...). But we had a common punk-listening background and we both deeply met up on many bands from that time : 77-punk bands (the Briefs (x), the Gee Strings (x), Périphérique Est (x), ), garage punk (Anteenagers (x), OhmFacom (x)...) and US-punk waves (the Spits (x), the Epoxies (x)...)

That was also a time Boris started to organise local-bands' gigs. After I moved from a suburb's small flat to a tiny, charming house in the city-center, we actually had the opportunity to welcome bands on fair bases, so we associated, created our organisation, Music For Stupid Jerks and Silly Girls (x), and started to make our favourite bands play in a close neighboor's bar : l'Excalibur. We had an awesome two-years of fantastic shows, wonderful moments, full of fun, rage and rock'n'roll ! A great symbiosis that went through our strong characters and our pervasive lost of money... Thank you for all those moments, dude !

Here’s the list of all the bands that played Reims for us between 2006 and 2008 : 

2006 : Rotten Cunt, J’aurais Voulu, Anteenagers MC, Périphérique Est, la Dérive des Incontinents, Frustration, les Cavaliers, the Marked Men, the Mean Things, the Pneumonias, the Poseurs, Hidden Charms, Blutt, the Rippers, the Normals, the Intellectuals, les Terribles, the Spits, les Volfonis, the Hipshakes, Cri d'Alerte, Police On TV.

2007 : Tu Seras Terriblement Gentille, OhmFacom, Périphérique Est, Holy Ghost Revival, Clorox Girls, Aido Music System, Illegal Process, Ned, Passe-Montagne, Cactus, Motorama, Zebarges, Lutèce Borgia, Garage Lopez, OhmFacom, the Shocks, Punition Anale, Opération S, the Kidnappers, the Hipshakes, the Four Slicks, Live Fast Die, Komptoir Chaos, Riot Company, the Bloody Hollies, Sherif Perkins, Lover !.

2008 : Turpentine Brothers, the Gee Strings, the Norvins, Headache City, Cococoma, Illegal Process, Zampano, the Crusaders of Love, Brimstone Howl, the Last Rape of Mr Teach, the Manikins, Casköboll, Serious Shit, Los Dolares, OhmFacom, the Royal Pendletons, the Dusties, the Aversions, M.O.T.O.

Boris has kept on going this way since I left the ship, but he finally took off the gloves last year.

Below, I put down all the flyers of the gigs we settled up together. There are a few captures of live performances at l'Excalibur here.