He was one of the most amazing rockers of his generation.
François Hadji-Lazaro died on Saturday, his record company announced on Sunday.
His former stage mate, saxophonist Stef Gotkovski paid tribute, in a brief message posted on Facebook, to this pioneer of popular rock.
A few words were enough.
It was enough to invoke the similar style embodied by François Hadji-Lazaro: beyond the nails.
"As the former head of Propaganda for Label Boucherie Productions, and incidentally a fake
Nietzsche saxophone
from the groups Garçons bouchers and Pigalle, and above all as a longtime friend of the gentleman who was called Gros François, I must to announce with this post (it is Faith) the death a little before midnight of François Hadji Lazaro or Attilazaro according to the mood”
, declared Stef Gotkovski, with this sense of the self-derisive sidestep of which Les Garçons bouchers had the secret.
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Born in 1956, François Hadji-Lazaro has been around for a long time in small formations.
The best known was called Pigalle, which he formed with bassist Daniel Hennion.
The alternative rock band sings about the tobacco bars of rue des Martyrs;
it's peopled with drunks sliding along the counters and night girls waiting for daylight.
He meets on stage the friends of the Wampas and Ludwig von 88, then crosses swords with the fascists of the streets.
Renaud, next door?
"Not so committed as that
," he said in 2006 to
Guitare Live
magazine .
Rocked by the ballads and hymns of Bob Dylan, he composes.
Some songs from that time are veritable city poems, sometimes dedicated to little paradises or eternal bastards.
Parisian of anarchist obedience, this patented multi-instrumentalist, this imperturbable man-orchestra founded his Boys butchers in 1985. This talent for jacking up everything - - guitar, accordion, banjo, lute, flute, keyboards... - will be useful to him: the group of punk and ska Boys soon shrinks from four to two.
François Hadji-Lazaro will give the musical reply to the vocal cords of Éric Blitz.
The arrangement only lasts for a while, but it's not that bad.
"It allows you to keep this intimate, warm atmosphere, on the edge of cabaret rock"
, slips this serene demiurge in 1988, in an interview he gives to "Coda", the musical program of France Culture.
Then it's schoolboy success.
The rap of Les Garçons bouchers
and
La lambada, we don't like that
.
In November 1989, François Hadji-Lazaro was surrounded by four Boys when Thierry Ardisson received him and immediately bombarded him with formulas smelling of holy oil.
“You have become the most media of the alternative, the most showbiz of all the indies”
.
Confused silence from the chef, more crafty than ribald in the face of journalists.
“You are the most official of the marginalized
,” continues the host, already a bit annoyed by this herd of punks without dogs.
The "Big François", as Stef Gotkovsk nicknamed him, shrugs his shoulders.
“Yes, we are happy.
We have beer and light”
.
The light has dimmed a little with the entry into the 21st century.
The sparkle of the scene continued to stir up his audience until his last concerts.