A Landmark Day in Music History for France
Brace yourselves, yes. Last Saturday, for the first time ever, or at least in twenty years, Uzerche held its first Electro dance music night at the Brasserie de la Vezere! Woo-hoo!
When I first heard it was going on, I have to admit, I had my reservations. I’d never been to a dance music event in France. It seemed to me they were particularly non-existent in this part of the country. Mmm, Electro. I quite like the genre, but would it translate to being the same thing over here as what I know it to be in the UK? The last time I clubbed to electro was at the Revolver in Melbourne on a Sunday morning — a loooong time ago. There were some fucked up cards down there, but it made the place nice and quirky, and the music was absolute quality. Could I expect anything remotely as special?
Visions of the notorious ‘bals’ that almost every village in France throws for teenagers sprang up in my mind. Notorious, yes, for playing the shittiest commercial music they can possibly find, and for attracting not only teenagers but forty+ year old pissheads with nowhere else to go until the early hours — not so different from suburban and country towns in the UK, then! Lol. And hey, I’m hardly a spring chicken myself any longer...
But a friend of mine assured me that this would be proper. This was THE event of the year. There was no way I wasn’t going. Aside from my intense curiosity, this kind of shindig needed as much support as possible. And so, we booked ourselves a babysitter.
I won’t detail the panic when the babysitter cancelled and we had to find a replacement last minute (huge thanks to those that stepped in, though xxxx), but, not only did we make it to the event, it was a massive and pleasant surprise.
All this year people had been talking about this new brasserie that sometimes hosted gigs, but I’d never made it down there in person. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect: probably some eating involved somewhere! Oh, how wrong can a person be? For this area, this was as close as I’d get to warehouse party.
We pulled up outside in the dark to a small industrial unit tucked into the hillside. Light spilled from the wide windows and silhouettes of smokers lurking outside greeted us, along with a low hum of bass from within. Looking good so far. When we got to the door the pay ‘cabin’ consisted of an upright log and a dice. The idea being that you rolled the dice to find out how much you paid to get in (1 dot = €1, and so on) — roll a six and you get another roll, try again. A nice touch that tickled me and a few others, but caused a bit of a problem by clogging up the only exit between people arriving and others going for a chuff (smoke).
I loved the way they decked the place out — it reminded me of nights long past at Megadog in the Rocket club in North London where they draped sheets of old parachutes and army netting across the ceilings and down the walls making it seem more like a festival tent than a characterless box. Another tick on the check list. This wasn’t quite on the same scale, but it still evoked that tingle of excitement mixed with a certain homeliness, setting off a relaxed friendly mood from the start. Behind the bar a projector screen covered the wall with all kinds of crazy images thrumming to the beat. But the music played in the background with dub reggae and some Arabian styles chucked in for ‘ambiance’. Uh-oh, I thought. Not that I didn’t like it, but if this was Correze’s idea of a dance night, I couldn’t see it getting the crowd going. Maybe I’d misunderstood. Maybe this was supposed to be more of a kick back for a chat and a few beers with some friends? Surely not! This idea seemed to solidify in my mind when I noticed the DJs had been tucked out of the way in a white draped ‘tent’ housing the decks.
Once the place began to fill up there was a noticeable difference in the style of music — more upbeat, and housey. Yes, I’ll say it again — housey!! When I’ve tried to explain the genre, most of my French friends look bewildered. They seem to translate dance music as tekno and trance. Outside of those two sub-genres, the only other type of dance music is rancid commercial tripe reserved for les beauf (chavs/rednecks). But here — proof that in France stylish house music does exist! YAY!
Oh yes. This was more like it. As good as anything any of my mates in the UK would play, I was suitably impressed.
A bit of a shame the DJs were stuffed down in the rear corner. People usually like to dance near to the DJ box, but the positioning made the area very narrow (and the real tree, of which I accidently snapped off a piece because I assumed it wasn’t real and tried to slap it out the way, kept whacking me in the face). I’m sure there were logistical reasons for the layout; and as if a little thing like a tree was going to get in anyone’s way. But had the DJs been a little more au milieu they would have been more tied in with what the crowd were doing, which is so important for this kind of night, imo, because the rave scene has always been about inclusion rather than exclusion. The interaction between the crowd and the DJs is intrinsic to the whole experience. But call me old fashioned if you like.
On the plus side, there was no hassle from the law. Baring in mind when we first moved over here the punk and reggae festival they used to host in our village got cancelled after several years of harassment by the police towards party goers making their way to the venue. One friend also told me that if they had advertised this Elector evening with the word ‘tekno’ on the flyer, it would likely be a similar story. So much for Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Doesn’t that equate to discrimination? If you look at it face value, it’s just a bunch of people drinking beer and listening to music until the early hours, just like any one of the village bals. The only difference is the music genre.
Having taken note of what was developing in the UK all those years ago, French law makers were swift to outlaw raves too. That is how much the scene shot fear into those in power. Of course, with the global media campaign of the Regan/Thatcher dictum during the eighties and all the decades afterwards, it was easy to tout the anti-drugs card in order to divide what might have been a global movement of unity — exactly the opposite of what the rich elite envisioned for us proletarians of the future. Divide and rule is the only way forward.
But rave will never die. It may only survive in small pockets for now, but that’s what happened with Christianity for the first few hundred years and look what happened there! A new religion? In as much as Buddhism can be called a religion, maybe.
But I digress. All in all I think we can safely call the evening a storming success. Everyone had a good time. There were a few dopplegangers hanging about, which was slightly embarrassing when I started asking after them and their wives/girlfriends and they wondered just who the hell I was, but it made a great ice breaker.
So roll (or rave) on the next one. I hope it is the start of something beautiful in the Limousin. In fact, Flyers were being handed out for Tekno Island on 20th December. If you think you can handle it.
But for those without a taste for rave, the next gig at the Brasserie — and truly, traditionally, French by the looks of it -- is on 29th November. Go to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Brasserie.Vezere for more info.
