Hot, dirty and humid… a nod to the title of the French rockers' second album (1988), these are the qualifiers we will remember from the private concert of the Wampas historic canal, gathered on February 23 for Ben Sam's sixtieth birthday. Ben Sam, alias Nick Man, alias Kanto, alias Greenfeuj, or Nicolas Kantorowicz, the group's former bassist from 1987 to 2000, treacherously converted to electro music during the passage of the millennium within the Sporto Kantès duo, had resumed his instrument for a historic set where the Wampas, or rather the "early" Wampas (Didier, Nicolas, Ben Sam, Philippe) rolled out at 100 an hour a dozen anthology titles in psycho-twist-yéyé mode, for their greatest happiness and that of the 200 happy few of the public.
The freezing night fell on the Station-Gare des Mines, a former disused SNCF terminal, dedicated in the 1950s to supplying the capital with coal.
A rough concrete cube covered with blackened bricks, planted at the entrance to an industrial wasteland, along the ring road, Porte d'Aubervilliers.
The MU collective, which occupies the premises, has been programming various cultural and festive events there since 2016 while organizing the day care of unaccompanied minors (MNA), in great precariousness.
Read alsoDidier Wampas, rocker and suburbanite
In 2019, during a previous Wampas performance at the same place – a concert in support of migrants – the evening ended badly.
Coming as neighbors, some – the MU collective prefers the term “exiles” – had chosen this day and this place to settle a dark interethnic quarrel, requisitioning the mobile phones of some members of the public in passing.
This time, a dissuasive order service had been put in place.
From the entrance to the building, a thick vapor escapes like the breath of a punk in winter, a purplish fog diffused by a smoke generator, in which the public rushes in to take communion in an atmosphere that promises to be overheated.
He will not be disappointed.
In great shape, Didier Wampas, tireless showman, happy retired from the RATP for ten years, did not hide his joy at plunging back into these rich hours of the 1980s and 1990s. The opportunity to pay tribute to Marc Police "King of surf-guitar” (RIP), which helped bring the Wampas into the limelight.
The young Effello, current holder of the post manages to brilliantly render his characteristic guitar playing.
Improbable hits follow one another without downtime:
Snuff, Vautours, Yeah Yeah, Rien à foutre, Shalala, Noël, Puta, Petit fille, Revanche, Taratata, Quelle joie, Voyou, My girlfriend or even
Wampas
,
one of the first tracks recorded by the eponymous band in 1985. A historic moment, since Philippe Wampas, guitarist-dinosaur joined the group at the time of the encore, armed with his vintage Mustang to play the song, immortalized on the first 45 rpm a few decades earlier.
Full throttle for 40 years
Hymn psychobilly, it is this nervous title, drawn from one of the prehistoric adventures of Rahan, which will give its name to the group.
The son of the fierce ages, a blond comic book character created in
Pif Gadget
by Lecureux and Cheret, is struggling with the Wampas, a terrifying tribe of batmen who drink human blood.
Thanks to the crypto-communist weekly of the 1970s: before finally choosing this name, the young suburban punks were still called Les Gros Dégueulasses…
From the start of the show, Didier, always teasing, had torn off Ben Sam's cap, with his freshly shaved head.
"
No hat, no hat"
he yells into the microphone.
It is bare-chested, dripping with sweat that Didier finishes the set, immediately joined by the filiform Effello and by Ben Sam, who extricates himself from his tight Fred Perry polo shirt to show off his curves without complex.
From stage to stage, from the most confidential, like that evening, to the most prestigious (Hellfest, Fête de l'Huma, Bataclan, Stade de France or the Olympia) it has been forty years since the Wampas, according to the various formations , give their all... On tour to promote their fourteenth album
Tempête Tempête
(Verycords), the second album produced by Lionel Liminanas, Ies Wampas will celebrate this anniversary on March 4 on the stage of the Elysée-Montmartre.
In this former temple of wrestling in the 18th arrondissement, they will share the ring with the young Landais from the Diggers, in the first part, who claim to be the putative heirs of this vitaminized French rock'n'roll.
The Wampas and the Diggers in concert at Elysée-Montmartre. 72, boulevard Marguerite-de-Rochechouart, Paris 18th.
Storm Storm
Album
, (Verycords)