The first hit of the rock group Indochine, L'Aventurier was written in just four hours, drawing inspiration from the titles of adventure books from the Belgian series Bob Morane. This song, which sold more than 500,000 copies, really launched the group's career.
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A group born from the split of another formation
To better understand, let's go back. The history of the Indochine group began with an ad published in Rock'n'Folk magazine in September 1980. A Parisian group called Les Espions was looking for a bassist and a singer. Nicola Sirkis and Dominique Nicolas responded to this ad and have been recruited. However, after some time, differences appeared with the other members of this group. Nicola and Dominique then decide to leave Les Espions and to create on May 10, 1981, their own group which they name Indochine.
A few months later, on September 28, they gave their first concert in a Parisian club at the Rose Bonbon located in the basements of the Olympia. And that day, they were spotted and signed their first contract with the Clémence Mélody Label created by singer Gérard Lenorman.
"Bob Morane" from the library
After a first single Dizzidence Politik recorded in November 1981, the group is preparing their first album. In December 1981, Nicola Sirkis had the idea of a song while remembering the adventure books of Belgian novelist Henri Vernes released by Marabout Junior. Nicola Sirkis had discovered these books in the early 1970s, at the age of 12, when he was in boarding school in Uccle, Belgium. He adored this invincible hero character who was a role model for the rebellious young boy he was. Also, a few years later, when in December 1981 he wrote the lyrics to L'Aventurier, he brought out from his library all the Bob Moranes he had brought back from Belgium and from all the titles of the books, La Vallée Infernale. , The Yellow Shadow, Trafficking in the Caribbean, The Sultan of Jarawak, The Mysterious Doctor Xhatan, and names of certain characters like Bill Ballantine, Miss Ylang-Ylang…
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He creates a story and imagines the song. And as at the time, Nicola Sirkis adores another adventurer, Indiana Jones, in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark released in theaters that year, he simply titled his song The Adventurer ! This piece was recorded in September 1982 at the Aguesseau studio in Boulogne-Billancourt. Initially, this studio was only booked by the production to record a new version of their first song Dizzidence Politik . But as the group had five new models ready, including L'Aventurier, Nicola and Dominique, took the opportunity to record them secretly!
Sales of books and comics revived by the song
Later, by playing their new songs to their producer, the latter agrees to release the album which is mixed at the famous Red Bus studio in London. The Adventurer became one of the big hits of the summer of 1983. In July, they were number 1 on RMC and RTL and on Europe 1 in August. They have articles as well in the Rock press like Best or in the young press like Salut, Ok or Number 1 . The 45 rpm sells more than 500,000 copies and the group is a guest in all television shows including Champs-Élysées on September 17, 1983.
For the record, in 2015, the novelist Henri Vernes confides that he was very touched by this song which took up the titles of several of his novels and that it had especially allowed to put the character of Bob Morane back in fashion and to boost sales of books and comics.