- The research project "Punk is not dead" stops in Marseille on Saturday at the Alcazar library. The goal: to collect testimonies and archives to write a history of punk in France.
- From 1978, the punk movement was present in Marseille, where it continued to live thanks to a lively scene.
- The Marseille city is also a chapel of garage punk music.
Marseille is hosting a summit meeting between the academic world and the world of rock and roll on Saturday. The place: the reasonable Alcazar library, on the Cours Belsunce, more used to meetings around jazz. The object: a no less serious "study day" on the punk scene in Marseille, organized under the leadership of the CNRS. "It makes me laugh, it's an experience", smiles Pascal Escobar, one of the guests of the day, for his double cap of musician and specialist (his History of rock in Marseille , at Le Mot and Le Reste, is to read).
"But it does a little bit of visibility," he adds. That Marseille has a rap image is a reality, it is not a question of denying it. But, perhaps more importantly, it is also a rock city. This is the music that is experienced daily in Marseille. The wild aspect of the city still allows the opening of small clubs, while in Lyon, Paris or Bordeaux it is no longer possible. "
An eclectic and lively scene
L'Embobineuse à la Belle de Mai, la Sale Gueule à la Préfecture, le Molotov in Notre-Dame-du-Mont and even Makeda bear witness to a lively rock scene, not to mention Asile 404, Data, la Maison Haunted, the Lolipop Music Store (and the Sewing Machine, closed since the collapse of the buildings on rue d'Aubagne). From the Friche, Le Dernier Cri also feeds its punk aesthetic with its famous serigraphs. "In 1978, Marseille opened up to punk with the first groups like Nitrate or Cops and Robbers", explains Marine Schütz, art historian and co-organizer of this meeting, called "Punk is our dead ".
To hear it, the city knows the successive currents of punk but it is distinguished above all by one of them: "Marseille is a chapel of garage punk music," she says. It is linked to the rock anchoring of the city, undoubtedly carried by the workers, social question, very important in Marseille. " And today ? "There is a real disconnect between the dynamism of this local scene, of its actors, and their recognition by the institutions," says Marine Schütz. In general in Marseille, popular music is not often in the spotlight. "
A stopover soon in Corsica?
"Here, when you want to rock, you have to believe in what you do, it gives convinced people, authentic personalities", echoes Pascal Escobar, who still remembers to clash with his punk look in the Marseille of his youth: “Colored hair, studded belts, people are not used to seeing that here. With the Marseillais, it can quickly leave! »Professor at the University of Bordeaux, and musician in his spare time, Luc Robène made these testimonies the heart of the research project he has been carrying out for five years with Solveig Serre to establish“ a history of the punk scene in France ” . "There is no punk archive, but you can't make history without an archive," he explains.
The duo has already scoured many cities before Marseille, and has taken the habit of organizing these study days outside the framework of the university. History is enriched by these meetings in situ . "In Brittany, punk is more hybrid, like a Loran Béru, formerly of the Bérurier Noir, who incorporates Celtic instruments into his group Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs," says Luc Robène. In Toulouse, the groups have a more anarchic discourse, in line with its history with Spain. With Saturday, Marseille will soon make its contribution to this collective memory of punk. Also before and soon… Corsica. "It is also a blind spot in punk," says Luc Robène. Punk is not limited there to guitarist Henry Padovani joining Sting and Police! "
Check out the full program of the Punk is dead event this weekend in Marseille here.
Culture
Soprano: "I play politics with my music, and that's humanism"
Society
Marseille for dummies (6/10): Why is the Marseille night so poor?
- Music
- Culture
- Marseilles
- Rock
- Punk