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LETSLIVAPPY!
(WHILE WE AWAIT OUR DEATH)

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VIVONZEUREUX! VIRTUAL LABEL

march 24th 2005
I want to go home
Version française
back home
version française

JC BROUCHARD with BIFF, BANG, POW !

"Someone stole my wheels" video single

To release, two years after its original «release», a video single off the «Me and Alan McGee» album, a virtual J.C. Brouchard record, this seems to go sufficiently againts all the principles of a record industry that we pride ourselves not to be part of to convince us to seize the opportunity !
But, beyond the acommercial paradox, what really made us decide to release this video single today is that we are now sufficiently well-equipped technically to supply you with a free download of the unseen video for «Someone stole my wheels» by JC Brouchard & Biff, Bang, Pow !, made in 1987, accompanied by two audio B sides from the same year, also previously unreleased.
Our thanks to J.C. Brouchard who agreed to share his memories about the making of this video.

Pol Dodu, august 2004.

JC BROUCHARD with BIFF, BANG, POW ! "Someone stole my wheels", Vivonzeureux! Records, 2004

Underlined songs can be downloaded with just one click

Cover photo : still from the "Someone stole my wheels" video, shot by Marie Camus

This single is taken from J.C. Brouchard's "Me and Alan McGee" album

Some pictures from Biff, Bang, Pow ! 's concert at The M.J.C. Claudel in Reims on October 25 th 1986 can be found here

BIFF, BANG, POW !, Reims, 25/10/1986 : Andrew Innes
BIFF, BANG, POW !, Reims, 25/10/1986 : Christine Wanless
BIFF, BANG, POW !, Reims, 25/10/1986 : Alan McGee
BIFF, BANG, POW !, Reims, 25/10/1986 : Dick Green & Andrew Innes
La Radio Primitive, Rock Comptines, 1986 : Pol Dodu, Phil Sex & Raoul Ketchup
Someone stole my wheels : André Paillet
Someone stole my wheels : Amélie Hatté

Someone stole my wheels : J.C. Brouchard

JC BROUCHARD with BIFF, BANG, POW ! : Someone stole my wheels
series : "Available"
ref : available 004

release date: august 22nd 2004

1 Someone stole my wheels (video, Quicktime, 4 Mb)

(Christine Wanless)
performed by JC Brouchard with Biff, Bang, Pow !


vidéo directed by Marie Camus with JC Brouchard, Reims, january 1987
a Camuscope & lES rEDDITIONS pREMATUREES production
camera : Marie Camus et Francis Sellier
editing : Marie Camus
titles : Francis Sellier on an Apple IIe
digital transfer : Fabienne Mazay

with, in order of appearance (with or without their consent !) :
Biff, Bang, Pow ! filmed live at the M.J.C. Claudel in Reims, october 25th 1986 :
Andrew Innes : guitar, bass, vocals
Alan McGee : guitar, vocals
Dick Green : bass, guitar
Ken Popple : drums
Christine Wanless : vocals
and :
André Paillet
The postwoman
Amélie Hatté
3 young
bike riders
Gérald Aubépart's puppet
Raoul Ketchup, Phil Sex & Pol Dodu

audio available originally on :
single A side (Creation Records, CRE 034 & CRE 034 T, 1986)
album track ("The girl who runs the beat hotel", Creation Records, CRE LP 015, 1987)

 

2 Bébé Tchernobyl (MP3, 3,5 Mb)

(The Love Children / Saulfinger, adapted into French by JC Brouchard)
performed by JC Brouchard with The Love Children

recorded at The Acid Factory, Isle of Dogs, London
, april 29th 1987
produced by The Revolving Paint Dream

JC Brouchard, vocals
Andrew Innes, instruments
Luke "Puke" Hayes, bass
Dick Green, guitar
Christine Wanless & unknown female vocalist, backing vocals

 

3 La bulle jaune (MP3, 2,1 Mb)

(The Revolving Paint Dream, adapted into French by JC Brouchard)
performed by JC Brouchard with The Formica Tops

vocals recorded at The Acid Factory, Isle of Dogs, London
, april 27th 1987
produced by The Revolving Paint Dream
instrumantal track taken from "Yellow ball", on the "Off to heaven" album by Revolving Paint Dream


JC Brouchard, vocals

Philippe Roger, spoken voice

Andrew Innes, instruments
Luke "Puke" Hayes, bass

1986. Alan McGee has this idea to release a Creation single under my name (I've been his «spiritual advisor» for some time). The song is called «Someone stole my wheels», written, sung and recorded by Andrew Innes and which, according to certain sources, had at one point been scheduled to be the second Revolving Paint Dream single under the title «Wheels on my scooter».


The record is released in october 1986, credited to J.C. Brouchard with Biff, Bang, Pow ! I won't tell you anything about the recording because I played absolutely no part in it, my sole contribution consisting in posing in front of Luke Hayes' camera, by the Thames, on the Isle of Dogs, for the photos that are on the labels of the 7" and the 12" single (both photos are slightly different from one another).
At the time, Marie Camus, one of my many friends from the Radio Primitive crew in Reims, had just founded the Camuscope organization to develop activities around the use of 8 mm video, which she had recently taken a shine to. So the idea came quickly to us to make a video for "Someone stole my wheels", to compensate for my absence on the record, and most of all for a laugh.


On october 25th 1986, we took the opportunity of the second Biff, Bang, Pow ! concert in Reims at the M.J.C. Claudel to film the band, especially when they played "Someone stole my wheels". Like for the whole film, these shots were made without professional equipment, especially without lighting, which explains why the images of Biff, Bang, Pow ! on stage are so dark !

For the rest of the shots, we elaborated on a few idiot ideas (show record covers, turn the camera sideways, use the record sleeve as a guitar,...) and we took the opportunity to make a gallery of portraits of our friends in Reims, from the one year old baby, at whose home the Creation bands used to sleep when they came to Reims, to my 92 year old neighbour, Monsieur Paillet (who died a year later, in february 1988, right in the middle of a Biff, Bang, Pow ! French tour), including some of the Radio Primitive's top DJs !


The making of the video ended on a heroic feat : we managed to synchronise the sound track with the images at the first atttempt, in the most primitive way, by recording the vinyl record (no CD at the time...) so that the music would start at the right time !
Taking into account the technical parameters (several generations of 8 mm cassettes, transfered onto a VHS, a format that no TV would touch with a pole), it's no surprise that this video has never been publicly broadcasted, except for one night in a café in Tours, on February 3rd 1988, on the night of a cancelled Biff, Bang, Pow ! concert. Still, I hope that you'll enjoy this document, a witness to the French adventures of Creation Records and its improvised guru.


The two audio tracks that accompany this video were recorded for an intended JC Brouchard solo single, which never came out. Alan hadmade one of his greatest stunts by releasing "Chernobyl baby", a single by Baby Amphetamine, a band made up for the occasion, and as I had explained to him that I spent my time in class at university singing a French version of the song, he set up a recording session with Revolving Paint Dream on one of my trips to London. The instrumental track for "La bulle jaune" is that from the song "Yellow ball" on "Off to heaven", the first Revolving Paint Dream album...

J.C. Brouchard, août 2004.

What they wrote about it (click to enlarge)

"Someone stole my wheels" is the 43rd review of Bertrand Loutte's lockdown 7"s (april 2020)

Alan McGee interview and October 26th 1986 gig review in Libération dated 11/11/1986 Alan McGee interview and October 26th 1986 gig review in Libération dated 11/11/1986 (part 2) Melody Maker, 15 novembre 1986 New Musical Express, 29 novembre 1986 N° 1, 1er novembre 1986

Creation press release from early 1987 Album review from Caff Fanzine issue 3, 1987

L'Union de Reims, 22 avril 1987 L'Equerre, vers 1987 L'Union, octobre 1986 Mea Culpa, vers 1987

Photos promotionnelles (cliquer pour agrandir)

JC Brouchard, par Luke Hayes, 1987 JC Brouchard, par Philippe Roger, 1987 JC Brouchard, par Marie Camus, 1987