Soldat Louis are a

French rock French rock is a form of rock music produced in France, primarily with lyrics in the French language. French rock was born as early as mid-1950s, when writer, songwriter and jazz player Boris Vian wrote parody rock songs for Magali Noël or Hen ...

group originally from

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...

, who mix the

traditional music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

with typical

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

instruments -

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and acoustic guitar,

drum kit A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

, etc. - as well as the traditional bagpipes ( ''biniou braz'' in Breton) and

bombard __NOTOC__ Bombard may refer to the act of carrying out a bombardment. It may also refer to: Individuals *Alain Bombard (1924–2005), French biologist, physician and politician; known for crossing the Atlantic on a small boat with no water or food ...

. The two founding members, who are still playing in the group today, are Renaud Detressan (alias Gary Wicknam) and Serge Danet (alias Soldat Louis, “Soldier Louis”).

History

Soldat Louis's first

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

, ''Première bordée'' appeared in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

. The band played as support to the solo singer-songwriter

Renaud Renaud Pierre Manuel Séchan (), known as Renaud (), born 11 May 1952, is a French singer, songwriter and actor. His characteristically 'broken' voice makes for a very distinctive vocal style. Several of his songs are popular classics in F ...

, in his series of concerts at the Zénith in Paris the following year. The first single from that album, “Du rhum des femmes”, projected them to national exposure, with the single selling 750,000 copies, and the album went double gold. During the "golden age" of the French

Top 50 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...

, '' chansons de comptoir'' (bar songs) were à la mode (''"Allez viens boire un p'tit coup à la maison"'' etc.) and Soldat Louis found themselves associated with this musical style. Their second album was released two years after their first: ''"Pavillon Noir"'', however, did not achieve the same success, and nor did any of the albums that followed. Despite disappearing from the mainstream media, Soldat Louis continued, having changed their line-up (except for the two founding members), to tour concert halls around France, also releasing several more original albums, best-ofs and live albums.

Song themes

Although the

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...

"Du Rhum des femmes" saw the group labelled by the French public as composers of '' chansons à boire'' (drinking songs), the rest of their repertoire, which achieved less success, consists of more delicate songs ("Pavillon Noir"), nostalgic ("Encore un rhum"), humorous ("Martiniquaise"), or even weary ("''T'es mon secret''"). Other lyrics equally reveal the group to be politically engaged, such as the pamphlet-like “C'est un pays”, celebrating the Breton identity, as well as "Bobby Sands", about the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...

member

Bobby Sands Robert Gerard Sands ( ga, Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh; 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) was a member (and leader in the Maze prison) of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison M ...

, who died in prison on Hunger Strike.

Personnel

* Anthony Masselin (bagpipes/ uilleann pipes/ flute) * Christophe Sonnic ( drums) * Gary Wicknam (Renaud Detressan) (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

) * Hervé Le Guillou ( bass) * Jean-Paul Barrière (

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

) * Michel Banuls (guitar/vocals) * Soldat Louis (Serge Danet)(lead guitar/ banjo/lead singer)

Discography

: ''Première Bordée'' ( Déclic -

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainme ...

} *

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

: ''Pavillon Noir'' ( Déclic -

) *

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

: ''Auprès de ma Bande'' ( Déclic -

) *

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

: ''Le Meilleur de Soldat Louis : C'est un pays'' ( Déclic -

) *

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

: ''En Vrai'' ( Déclic -

) *

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

: ''Bienvenue à Bord'' ( Déclic -

) * 2002 : ''En vrai 2 vrai'' ( Créon Music - EMI Music) * 2003 : ''Escale sur la Planète'' ( Créon Music - EMI Music) * 2006 : ''Sales Gosses'' ( Atlantik - Aztec Music) * 2007 : ''Itinéraire'' (best-of Aztec Music) * 2009 : ''Happy... Bordée 20 ans'' (

Coop Breizh Coop Breizh is a Breton cultural company founded in 1957 by Kendalc'h confederation, based in Spézet, Brittany, France. Specialized in the production, the publishing and the literary and musical distribution, it propose articles related to Breton ...

) * 2011 : ''V.I.P. : Very Intimes Poteaux'' (

) *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

: ''Kingdom Tavern'' (

)

External links

Official site
( French) {{Authority control Breton musical groups French rock music groups