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0==Noir Désir stuff==

Noir Désir is a French rock band founded in the early 1980s in Bordeaux. They have had two albums certified by SNEP as double platinum, both of which sold over one million copies, and three certified gold. Numerous French musicians have acknowledged the band as an influence, including Cali, Louise Attaque and Miossec.

They were initially influenced by the punk movement...

The band currently consists of Bertrand Cantat (vocals, guitar,harmonica), Serge Teyssot-Gay (guitar), Jean-Paul Roy (bass guitar) and Denis Barthe (drums).

Formation: 1980–1985
Bertrand Cantat and Serge Teyssot-Gay met in 1980 at secondary school after Cantat moved to Bordeaux from his hometown in Normandy; Teyssot-Gay was 17 and Cantat was 16 at the time. The two teenagers shared a love of music, particularly Led Zeppelin, The Who, and AC/DC and so they decided to form a band. Tesyssot had a strong musical background and a decade's worth of training in classical guitar, whereas Cantat could not play any instrument at the time and so became the singer for their band. They met Denis Barthe during the summer vacation, he shared a similar passion for music and so agreed to play drums for the band, though he had never played them before.

They went through a series of temporary bassists, eventually settling on Vincent Leriche. The band originally called themselves "Psychoz", then "6.35", "Station Désir" and finally "Noirs Désirs". In 1982 Teyssot-Gay and Leriche left the group to form a band they calledBAM (Boîte A Musique). The remaining band members, Barthe and Cantat, went in search for a replacement guitarist and bassist. For the bass they found Frèdèric Vidalenc, who had played in the well reputed local group Dernier Métro, and went through a series of temporary guitarists, eventually settling on Luc Robène. The next year Cantat also left the band for CHECK months and was replaced by Emmanuel Ory-Weil, who would later become the band's manager. When Robène quit in 1985 Cantat was eager to get their original guitarist, Teyssot-Gay, back into the band and succeeded. The new lineup of Cantat on vocals, Teyssot-Gay on guitar, Vidalenc on bass and Barthe on drums continued for 11 more years.

Early albums: 1985–1991
With a now steady lineup the band decided to attempt to gain a recording contract. They created a demo which was heard by Théo Hakola of the American band Passion Fodder. Hakola urged the French label Barclay Records to sign the band, and so the artistic director of the label agreed to see the band in concert. The artistic director was impressed by their performance and so discussions began to take place. The label wanted to produce a single whereas the band were eager to record a whole album. After two months of negotiations it was agreed that a mini-album would be made as a compromise between the two parties. The label did not expect much success from the group though, with the director of Barclay commenting "If we sell 1,500 copies of your CD then it will already be a success" (Si on vend 1 500 exemplaires de votre disque, ce sera déjà très bien). The label disliked the name Noirs Désirs, feeling it to be old fasioned, so the band agreed to alter two letters, unpluralising the name to Noir Désir. In 1987 they released the mini-album, Où veux tu qu'je r'garde?. After two months it had sold 5,000 copies, far exceeding the expectations of Barclay, who consequently signed the band for another three albums.

Their first critical and popular success came two years later, in 1989, with their next album, Veuillez rendre l'âme (à qui elle appartient). The album won Noir Désir the Bus d'Acier for 1989, an award given by the press to their favourite French rock group of the year and was certified gold, selling over 150,000 copies. It produced the hit single: "Aux sombres héros de l'amer", a sea-shanty-like harmonica-driven ballad that uses the concept of sailors lost at sea as a metaphor for life. Despite the new found success the group were dismayed that many people had missed the double meaning of the song, interpreting it as a meaningless sea shanty. They were also disappointed at people judging them based on the one song, without listening to the rest of the album. In their next two albums the band would return to the harder sound of Où veux-tu qu'je r'garde ? and develop it even further. This development was largely a reaction to their worries about the success of Aux sombres héros de l'amer.

Post breakthrough: 1991–2001
With a harder and more aggressive sound and little promotion, the third album Du ciment sous les plaines (1991) received lack luster success compared to Veuillez rendre l'âme (à qui elle appartient). Due to their negative feelings about the popularity of "Aux sombres hero de l'amer" the band chose to release no singles for this album. They also refused their record label's request to participate in prime time chat shows to promote the album and only gave interviews to publications they viewed as respectable. In May 1991 a concert in Besançon was cut short after four songs when Bertrand Cantat collapsed on stage, resulting in the band taking a break from touring until the release of their next album, Tostaky.

Tostaky was produced in London, a city the group admired for its musical output. The album's name, is derived from the Spanish expression "todo está aquí"(everything is here). Unlike Du ciment sous les plaines, Tostaky was released to critical acclaim and popular success and was certified gold days after its release.

In January 1994 the live album Dies Irae was released, showcasing the frenzy of the band's performances. However the intensity of the performances and touring again took its toll on Cantat, who ended up in hospital for an operation on his vocal cords. On  DATE, after finishing the gruelling Tostaky tour the band decided to take a year's break, both from playing and from each other. During the break Bertrand Cantat received professional singing training to help him cope with future tours. Serge Teyssot-Gay used his spare time during the break to record his debut solo album, Silence Radio, which was released in 1996. When the band got back together to start work on their next album tensions began to emerge between bass-player Frédéric Vidalenc and the rest of the group, causing him to quit and pursue his own projects. Within weeks of his departure Vidalenc was replaced by long-time friend of the band, Jean-Paul Roy.

In December, 1996 the success of Tostaky was continued with the release of 666.667 Club, which was certified double platinum a year after its release. In 1998, after receiving a remix of their song "Septembre, en attendant" in the mail, they decided to produce the album One Trip, One Noise which comprised a collection of their songs remixed by young musicians.

Des visages des figures: 2001–2003
Their most recent studio album, 2001's Des visages des figures was much quieter than any of their previous albums, but was very well received, selling over 1 million copies. The group received five Victoires de la Musique award nominations for 2001, winning both Best Rock Album of the Year and Music Video of the Year for "Le vent nous portera" in collaboration with the French/Spanish artist Manu Chao. During the awards ceremony Cantat read out a speech on behalf of the band, addressed to Jean-Marie Messier, the CEO of Vivendi, the group which owns Noir Désir's record company, Universal. Messier was a controversial figure in France at the time, due to the perception that he was abandoning his French roots in favour of Americanization. In their speech, Noir Désir accused Vivendi of exploiting their band’s name in order to rebut criticism of Messier's treatment of French culture. The band played few concerts for their Des visages des figures tour, however all were held in large stadium like venues, except those of the Middle East tour, which allowed the band to go back to their roots playing in small clubs. They were invited to perform a one off concert at the “Montpellier Radio-France” festival in 2002. For the 55 minute performance, titled "Nous n'avons fait que fuir", Cantat recited a long-form poem he'd written over musical improvisations played by the rest of the band. The text of the poem along with a recording of the performance on CD was released by French book publisher Éditions Verticales.

Incarceration of Bertrand Cantat: 2003–2007
In 2003, following an argument about infidelity, Bertrand Cantat, drunk at the time, hit his girlfriend Marie Trintignant, also drunk, multiple times in a hotel room in Vilnius, Lithuania. The following morning Marie Trintignant was found in a coma in her bed and died a few days later. A post mortem examination showed that she had suffered multiple head injuries. Cantat admitted to hitting her 4 times, however prosecutors argued that it was in fact 19 times in all. He later alleged she had fallen and hit her head on a radiator, becoming unconscious from this impact, not his blows directly. On 29 March 2004, a Lithuanian court sentenced Cantat to eight years in prison after he was found guilty of causing the death of Marie Trintignant, but without intending to do so. . After a year spent in Lukiškės prison of Vilnius, he was moved to a prison near Toulouse, France.

September 2005 brought two new releases of Noir Désir's work. The album, Noir Désir en public, which had been started before the incident in Vilnius, contained highlights of their last tour, during which every concert had been recorded. The DVD set, Noir Désir en images, contained various live performances footage and videos. Special permission was obtained for the imprisoned Cantat to participate in the development of both the CD and the DVD.

A discreet return: 2007–present
Cantat was freed on parole on October 16, 2007. A condition of his release was that he must receive regular psychological counseling and refrain from public reference to his crime in interviews or in music.

In November 2008 the band released two free tracks on their website, performed by the whole band. The songs are "Gagnants/Perdants" and a cover of "Le temps des cerises". The group is in the process of composing and recording a new album, which Teyssot-Gey had predicted would be completed in 2009. However according to a May 14, 2009 article in Le Parisien the album will not be ready until January 2010.

Possible Sources

 * http://www.rfimusique.com/musiquefr/articles/060/article_15243.asp
 * http://www.rfimusique.com/musiquefr/articles/069/article_15748.asp
 * http://www.rfimusique.com/musiquefr/articles/060/article_13096.asp
 * http://www.rfimusique.com/musiquefr/articles/060/article_13488.asp
 * http://www.lesinrocks.com/musique/musique-article/article/noir-desir-noir-comme-le-souvenir/

A Bunch of transcribed magazine articles: http://destination-noirdesir.perso.sfr.fr/presse.html