-Do you remember the first time you heard about Les Calamités?

-It was about the Snapshot compilation. I guess "big selling" magazines like Rock&Folk or Best talked a little bit of them. But they were mostly part of the "Set the dogs" selection of the best young garage bands in France, published by the fanzine Nineteen from Toulouse, together with other groups like Gamine, Fixed Up, etc etc... They would give news about them in every issue: records, gigs...

-What kind of music did you listen to at that time?

-The original audience for Les Calamités (including myself) came from the "garage" faction which was (relatively) successful from 1982 to 1986, with the Dogs as the leading French band, as well as the Cramps, the Fleshtones, Gun club,... More generally there was the label "New Rose"'s whole audience. It lead to the wider (though rather specialized) New Wave public who did not sneeze at Dutronc and therefore logically not at the Calamités.Their future producer Daniel Chenevez, of Niagara, was quite typical of the latter trend.

-How did you happen to organize a double gig with the Calamités ?

-As they were almost never touring, the only way to see them was "Do it Yourself!" - to make them come to my own concert. They say it's the way Etienne Daho met the Stinky Toys (later Elli & Jacno) as he was their fan. We took the opportunity to reconcile the Calamités' "rock" audience with the "new wave" one, for which we invited the "Fils de Joie" (from Toulouse, slightly Indochine style but covering the Ramones and Johnny Thunders). Add to that a lot of flyers distributed through Paris and the ever winning "Rock Night" stamp to attract students... It was so successful that the concert was sold out quite early. We had to change to a larger hall. Then we planned a second gig the same night - and half the tickets to the second concert were sold in one day at the FNAC stores...

-Let's talk about the essentials: how were they "for real"?

-Well, they were... real. First of all, they were four girls (in addition to equally genuine Mike). Their manager Marcelle was fully part of the group. Then their natural cheerfulness, added to their lilting accent, inevitably made them the students' and rockers' darlings.
Picking two out of the bunch? The most talkative ones: Odile and Marcelle. One would call them the "PRs" of the band.

-Do you remember how people reacted at that time, both within and outside the rock circles?

-The public adored them, and so did the "garage" bands whom they were pals with. Sometimes other people tried to despise them. You would occasionally hear comments such as: "they sing out of tune on stage", "they're not professional", which was quite understandable as the young misses were irresistibly getting more and more popular among the audience. But they knew how to quickly turn round the ones they met, thanks to their kindness.
On the other hand show business people didn't feel them. A musical tour organiser even advised me to book the Forbans instead of the Calamités...

-Where would you put Les Calamités among your huge collection of records and in the history of Rock at the same time?

-I've got long shelves but my heart is not that big: they clearly belong there in the warmth. To me there is also La Souris Déglinguée and all the other ones far behind these two... That's very personal of course.
As far as looking and singing are concerned, I would automatically quote the Shangri Las. For the sound, hem, the Who (laughter...). No, let's say the Troggs. But both those bands did have big sound systems and rehearsed a lot, unlike the Calamités (to say the least).
In France they have a special status as a girl band. But they were linked in many ways to the Snipers and the Dogs. A little bit later the Lolitas (girls) and the Soucoupes violentes (mainly guys) enlarged the repertoire of what one could call "the French garage scene of the 80's". That scene, with its "no show business" attitude, contributed to preparing the public to groups such as La Mano Negra, or even Bérurier Noir. But if those sober and clean bands were "punk", it was rather in the sense of the 60's (Music Machine, Sonics, question Mark, Remains) than of the Sex Pistols.

-You provided most of the unpublished material to be found on this site. Did you do it having in mind that time's veterans or the young ones who didn't know it?

-Simply because otherwise it would have remained in my drawers. And as another famous Burgundian would say: "You must not waste!".

-Do you think that the time has come to rehabilitate the Calamités, or am I just a monomaniac?

-To be rehabilitated, they should have been burnt...
I find your site, which is a wealth of accuracy, complements re-issues on CD. Just like in the 70's articles by Yves Adrien, fanzines by Lizzy Mercier Descloux, did with Zermati's Open Market or Nuggets compilations.
But whether it will inspire a new wave... Honestly I don't really believe it. But why not. One would remember that Johnny Thunders inordinately loved the Shangri Las and the Shirelles...
But if you want to make a comparison with that - time presses...

-And what would you like to say to the increasing number of people visiting this site?

-"Do it yourself!" Especially the girls: stop playing the surfer's girlfriends, don't be impressed by the guitar players solos or the deejays' technique.
They criticize politicians, but it's about time that rock'n'roll becomes more gender equal too...