Je hais le jour je déteste Ia nuit
Qui ne veut pas finir
Je me tourne me tourne dans mon lit
Je ne peux pas dormir
Tout ça me donne des envies de meurtre
De suicide de terreur
De tout casser de foutre le feu
De me tirer une balle dans le coeur
Envie de tout casser
De tout démolir
Envie de tout casser
D’en finir
Je ne supporte plus ce film
Je change de cinéma
Je dis salut et je me tire
Je t’écrirai de Nulle-Part
Ca me donne des envies de meurtre
De suicide de terreur
De tout casser de foutre le feu
De me tirer une balle dans le coeur
Envie de tout casser
De tout démolir
Envie de tout casser
De tout détruire
Et chaque jour et chaque nuit
Je me débats contre l’ennui
Parfois il perd parfois il gagne
C’est une lutte sans merci
Tout ça me donne des envies de meurtre
De suicide de terreur
De tout casser de foutre le feu
De me tirer une balle dans le coeur
Envie de tout casser
De tout démolir
Envie de tout casser
Envie d’en tinir
[from the lyrics of "
Hara Kiri"]
Lolitas were a French-German rock band influenced by
Punk,
Rockabilly,
U.S. Garage,
French 60s Ye-Ye Music and
Pop. Founded by
Françoise Cactus and
Coco Neubauer, they were active since the mid 80s for about eight years.
Their name was inspired by the famous
Stanley Kubrick's movie "
Lolita". The group mainly used the French language in their own music, reserving English mostly for covers of famous songs they regularly included on their albums.
Françoise Van Hove was born in Villeneuve-l'Archevêque, a small village in Burgundy, France. She earned the nickname "
Cactus" for her habit of spending her spare time hanging around in the greenhouse behind her parents' house.
During the first half of the 80s she started writing songs and moved to West Berlin; here she joined the
Geniale Dilettanten (
Ingenious Dilettantes) movement, a merger of the
New Wave and
Post-Punk scene. During those days she used to make a living by giving French lessons.
Guitarist
Coco Neubauer, also known as
Coco Nut, was born in southwest France and then used to live in Paris for many years. At age 9 he was fascinated by an early
Rolling Stones record played for him by his cousin and fell in love with the
Rhythm & Blues genre.
Françoise and
Coco met in Berlin, they soon became friends and decided to form a band. Their common interest were focused on American music, from
Gospel to
Hardcore via
Rock'nRoll,
Country, etc. Morevoer, having spent her youth listening to the radio,
Françoise has always had a soft spot for
la Chanson Française, some of her idols were
Sylvie Vartan,
Christophe,
Antoine,
Françoise Hardy,
Jacques Dutronc,
Johnny Halliday...
In early 1986, with the complicity of an
unnamed Irish girl on the bass, they founded
Lolitas and began to play live in Berlin. Since the original bassist soon returned to Ireland, Italian guitarist/bassist
Michele "Tutti Frutti" Bordini (...described as "a mixture of
Adriano Celentano and
Sid Vicious"...) was chosen as a replacement.
With this new and more stable line-up,
Lolitas expanded their sphere of activity playing in other venues across Germany. Despite their French lyrics (...or perhaps exactly
because of them...) the band fascinated the audience exuding a naïve atmosphere, sexy, kitsch and slightly perverse.
In October 1986,
What's So Funny About.. - an independent label from Hamburg - released their homonymus first album which was highly welcomed by the German press. "
Lolitas" (...available
here...) catched the attention of
New Rose who re-released it with a completely different cover in early 1987 for the French market: althought they have never played live in France, the band has made a mark with the
Rock'n'Roll aficionados.
New Rose was THE french indie label of the 80s. Created by
Patrick Mathé and
Louis Thevenon, the label knew ten years (1981/1992) of magnificence and fame; during its existence it was one of the most important independent labels worldwide.
At that point the trio expanded with bassist
Olga La Basse - a German girl from the
Black Forest region - allowing
Tutti Frutti to dedicate himself to the guitar, his preferred instrument.
Françoise Cactus as she appears on the back cover of "Hara Kiri", 1989
"
Séries Américaines", the second
Lolitas album (...available
here...), was mostly recorded during Summer 1987 at
Vielklang Studio in Berlin with the help of acclaimed Australian record producer and sound engineer
Tony Cohen, best known for his work with
The Birthday Party and
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The album was released later the same year by
What's So Funny About.. in Germany and in 1988 by
New Rose in France, once again with two completely different sleeves.
As their relation with
New Rose intensified,
Alex Chilton - who was already collaborating with the label and was a fan of the band - accepted to produce their third album.
Chilton was a famous American songwriter, guitarist and singer known for his work with the
Box Tops in the late 60s.
"
Fusée d'amour" was recorded in Memphis in August 1988.
Lolitas discovered the U.S. and had a very good time: not only they lived the big adventure of recording with the legendary
Chilton (...who also produced
The Cramps and
Tav Falco's Panther Burns...) in the city of
Sun Studios and
Stax, and with the participation of
Jim Dickinson at the piano in a few songs, but also made the most of their trip playing some shows in New York, Baltimore, Memphis and down to New Orleans.
The album was released in early 1989 by
Vielklang in Germany and by
New Rose in France and... Can you guess it? Yes, the two editions featured a completely different artwork! This was also the first
Lolitas release available in CD format. Once, again, the album was well received by the press.
Tutti Frutti as he appears on the back cover of "Hara Kiri", 1989
New songs were recorded under the supervision of German producer
Andy Young in May 1989, and five of them appeared later the same year on the 12" EP entitled "
Hara Kiri", which is the subject of this post, released by
Vielklang in Germany and by
New Rose in France and... Can you guess it again? No, you're wrong, this time the cover artwork was exactly the same...
Compared to the band's previous output, the five cuts on the EP were unusually melancholic... What could be the reason for this? Maybe it is just pure coincidence, but exactly at this time
Tutti Frutti decided to quit the band and returned in Italy to devote himself to a more traditional form of
Rockabilly music with his new band, the
A-Bombers; sadly I wasn't able to find traces of this activity of him...
Tex Morton - born
Peter Hajunga - former guitarist of the German
Psychobilly band
Mad Sin and the
Hard-Rockers Lüde & Die Astros, joined
Lolitas in late 1989. According to
Coco, he was the only one who could replace
Tutti Frutti.
During the previous years
Lolitas had already released a few singles, but most of them contained tracks from the albums with no exclusive material. In 1990
Vielklang published a very special item: a gatefold 7" double single which, althought credited to
Lolitas, featured four tracks by the individual members (...plus guests...) recorded in late 1988 (
Tutti Frutti) and 1989 (all the others).
But let's go back to 1989: in October
Lolitas shared the stage with
Chris Spedding at a
New Rose party during the
Berlin Independent Days festival.
Spedding is one of the UK's most versatile session guitarists, and has had a long career that saw him tackle nearly every style of
Rock'n'Roll as well as sporadically attempting a solo career. Charmed by the freshness of their
Rock sung in French, which for once didn't sound at all like a bad copy of
American Rock,
Chris confirmed he was ready to produce their fourth album in his adopted new hometown of New York.
Coco as he appears on the back cover of "Hara Kiri", 1989
In April 1990
Lolitas made their second trip to the USA, excited by the collaboration with
Spedding, who gifted them with his warmth, charisma and immense creativity producing the songs and also playing piano, organ, cello, squeeze box (accordion) and backing vocals for them. In May the group toured across the U.S. for the second - and last - time.
"
Bouche-baiser", the result of the sessions at
Baby Monster Studio in N.Y.C., was released in September by
Vielklang in Germany and
New Rose in France, it was highly praised by the French and German rock medias.
During Autumn 1990
Lolitas extensively toured across Europe and recorded their performances directly to DAT; the best of these recordings were released in 1991 by
Vielklang on "
La fiancée du pirate", a sort of
official bootleg whose audio quality sits somewhere in between an
audience tape and a
soundboard recording.
A new album was recorded in July 1991 at the group's rehearsal room in Berlin. "
My English Sucks" was released by
Vielklang in 1992. All the songs on this release are sung in English, it includes brand new songs and new versions of old songs that already apparead on
Lolitas' previous albums.
In 1992
New Rose was sold to
Fnac and quickly disappeared.
Coco moved away to
Guadeloupe to start a new life and the group disbanded. In 1995
Françoise Cactus met
Brezel Göring at a local supermarket and founded
Stereo Total, but this is a completely different story...
A selection of tracks taken from "
Fusée d'amour" and "
Bouche-baiser" was released in 1998 as "
New York - Memphis" by
Last Call Records, a label created in 1994 by
Patrick Mathé, one of the original founders of
New Rose.
Olga as she appears on the back cover of "Hara Kiri", 1989
"
Hara Kiri" contains the following tracks:
01.
Hara Kiri (3:53)
02.
Julie (3:12)
03.
Dans le train (3:23)
04.
Johnny Guitar (2:50)
05.
D'Yer Mak'er (4:41)
All tracks were remastered from the original vinyl in June 2014 and are available in
FLAC lossless format or
high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files; both formats include scans of the complete original artwork.
Please have a look at the comments for the download links.
Side A opens with the title-track, a slow number about suicide and destruction, which features excruciating guitar solos and desperate lyrics.
The melancholiac "
Julie" seems to deal with the point of view of someone who is forced to stay at home because of a disability, or with someone who is, once again, about to commit suicide...
"
Dans le train" is about a long journey by train where the protagonist (...
Françoise?) sees her whole life passing by just like the trees and the landscape out of the window; the song ends with a positive aim for the future...
On Side B we find two covers. The first one is "
Johnny Guitar", the famous song written by
Peggy Lee (lyrics) and
Victor Young (music) which was the title track of the 1954 movie of the same name directed
by Nicholas Ray and starring
Joan Crawford. The original
Peggy Lee version is available
here;
Lolitas' version features effective accordion parts in its arrangement.
The second cover, and last song of this 12" EP, is "
D'yer Mak'er", a
Led Zeppelin original that was featured on "
Houses of the Holy", their fifth album. The song is quite unusual in their repertoire because is mainly a
Reggae number... The whole story of this song is available
here, you can listen to the original version
here.
Lolitas' version is pretty faithful and it flows quickly without leaving a big impression on the listener...
Here's the credits list of "
Hara Kiri":
Françoise Cactus: vocals, drums, percussion
Olga: bass, vocals
Tutti Frutti: eletric guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar
Coco: eletric guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, percussion
Karin Jung: accordion
All songs written by
Lolitas except "
Johnny Guitar" by
Victor Young and
Peggy Lee, and "
D'Yer Mak'er" by
John Bonham,
John Paul Jones,
Jimmy Page and
Robert Plant (
Led Zeppelin).
Recorded and mixed at
Vielklang Studio,
Berlin, 26-31 May 1989.
Produced by
Andy Jung.
Front cover painting by
Sabina Van der Linden (S.M.V.D.L.).
Lolitas as they appear on the CD booklet of "Fusée d'amour" (Vielklang edition), 1989
The following videos offer a preview of the remastered EP, here's my favourite tracks: "
Hara Kiri", "
Julie", and "
Johnny Guitar", enjoy!
A few more information about
Lolitas is available here:
http://www.lastcallrecords.com/frenchbiogs/lolitaf.html
http://pirate.family.free.fr/pages/Lolitas.html
http://www.myspace.com/leslolitas/
http://www.45toursderockfrancais.net/rockfrancais/lolitas45t.htm
http://www.rockmadeinfrance.com/encyclo/lolitas/
http://euthanasie.records.free.fr/discographie/Zgroupe-L/Lolitas.htm
http://namaste-baba.blogspot.com/2011/04/des-lolitas-stereo-total-mettez-une.html
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Lolitas
If you have any other useful information about
Lolitas and "
Hara Kiri" - especially corrections and improvements to this post - or if you spot any dead links, please get in touch with me at
stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
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