Louis Bertignac is told in a funny and moving book, between the adventure Telephone, a flagship group of French rock, and other
"crazy" moments,
such as his birthday with Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) or a helping hand given to Ron Wood ( Rolling Stones).
A look back with the guitarist on a few key passages from
Jolie petite histoire
, a reference to the piece
Cendrillon
by Telephone, released this week (ed. Le Cherche midi).
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“Compo”
for Higelin
Before Telephone took off, Bertignac played for Jacques Higelin, the dynamitor of French song.
One day, the latter asks him if he has
“a music ready”
.
"I've never done a 'compo', I chatter:
'I've got plenty'
and I improvise,"
recalls the 68-year-old guitarist.
Higelin returns an hour later with the text of
An Eye on the Fight
.
"It's the story of a concert 15 days before, in a shed in the countryside, with a fight and a guy had pulled out a gun (laughs)",
he told her.
Read also"My grandfather was my star": actress Kim Higelin looks back on her relationship with Jacques Higelin
“Dope”
with Kalfon
In the Higelin group, there is Jean-Pierre Kalfon, an actor with an XXL filmography in France, but also a guitarist.
During a trip, Kalfon tells Bertignac that he is going shopping.
"It's dope, a joint of weed to relax at the hotel, a joint of weed to start playing the guitar, hero' to fall asleep and, the next day, how we turned around because of the noise, a line of coke to pack”
.
No apologies for drugs in the book.
Bertignac insists: the day he quits heroin is a salutary turning point.
“Guitar Advisor”
for Ron Wood
One day, Telephone occupies a studio close to that of the Rolling Stones in France.
Bertignac approaches the band at Mick Jagger.
"
Ron Wood
comes to see me, he has a little solo to do, he's tense:
'Do you have a line?'
(they snort
heroin so as not to inject it, the book describes).
"I'm at his side, he starts his solo again, panics, Mick in the cabin says:
'Keith will do it if you can't do it'
"
.
“I dare to tell him how to start”
.
The beginning pleases Jagger.
"Ron says to me,
'What do we do next?
I had become his guitar adviser that day (laughs)
.
The song is
When the whip comes down
.
“Not a word with Jimmy Page, we were playing”
While Telephone is recording in England, producer Glyn Johns, a figure in the business, opens his address book for Bertignac's 30th birthday.
"He had worked with all these people, who come to the party,
Eric Clapton
,
Charlie Watts
,
Ringo Starr
with Barbara Bach - a James Bond Girl!
-
Jimmy Page
,
Cat Stevens
,
Jeff Beck
, it was crazy.
Bertignac jams with Page.
"We didn't say a word with Jimmy, we were playing, like the first time I met
Jean-Louis
(Aubert)"
.
“After two hours, we both go out for a walk, we talk about lots of stuff, I can't tell you how proud I was”
.
"Say goodbye" to the fans with the Insus
Returns in the book the regret of having let down the fans of Telephone by separating (1986).
"We had a bit of a fight, I didn't want to go to the studio, I wanted to work on my album, we said goodbye but we didn't say goodbye to the fans, they found out about it on the news"
.
The Insus tour (launched in 2015), three out of four members of Telephone, without Corine Marienneau, the bassist angry with Aubert, was the occasion for this goodbye.
Will there be a sequel?
“I don't know, we didn't know three months before that we would do that”
.
Read alsoCorine, ex-Telephone: "The Insus don't want me to come"
And a reconciliation of the four, with Corine Marienneau?
"The relations between Corine and Jean-Louis, we could possibly manage, but since Corine's book, Richard (Kolinka, drummer) said to me:
'This girl, I will never play with her again'".
"It seems difficult...",
concludes Bertignac who, at the moment, is putting the finishing touches to a solo album.
