Mano Solo

Biography

Born April 24 , 1963 in Châlons-sur-Marne , Mano Solo is the son of the designer Cabu (1938-2015) and Isabelle Monin (1937-2012), editor in chief of the newspaper Ecologist La Gueule open . At the age of 17, Mano Solo played in a punk band , the Chihuahua , in which he was a guitarist . In 1986 , he learned of his HIV status . In the early 1990s ² , he passes behind the microphone and interprets his lyrics. He sings frequently at the Tourtour theater with Marousseand Little Louis. The first album, the nude Marmaille comes out in 1993 and sells 100,000 copies the first year. In 1995 released the second album, The Dark Years , which is, as its title suggests, a dark album (gold record also from the first months). The same year, he announced during a concert at Bataclan that he contracted AIDS ² . He also said a year earlier that “getting high is a waste of time” ^{[ ref.  desired]} .

He found the following year, in 1996 , part of the Chihuahuas for the album Frères Misère . The rhythms are sometimes close to the punk and the texts tackle more engaged themes than for the previous solo albums. Low profile, this album will not meet immediate success.

In addition to his singing career, Mano Solo develops other talents. He draws and paints, especially the covers of his albums. He also writes and, with the money earned through music, he sets up his own publishing company (La Marmaille nude) and publishes two books: in 1995 , a collection of poems, I’m here , and in 1996 , a novel, Joseph in the rain . These two works are collected in a book, Joseph in the rain, novel, poems and drawings , published by Le Seuil in January 2012 and augmented with texts and unpublished drawings. Finally, he will play the role of the king in Sodomites , a short film by Gaspar Noéreleased in 1998 .

In 1997 released a new solo album: I do not know ( gold record) recorded live, to the melodies and sounds once again original.

Two years later, Mano Solo recorded the international double album Shalala live at Tourtour, a small theater where he has been performing regularly since his debut. He plays alone on guitar, accompanied (also by guitar) by Jean-Louis Solans. The songs are excerpts from previous solo albums, with the exception of Shalala , a hymn of “inner revolution” that the artist sings with his audience at the end of each concert. His message is positive and dynamic.

His second live album, La Marche , was released in 2002 , and most of it was released from the album Dehors , released in August 2000 . The concert is recorded at the Coopérative de Mai in Clermont-Ferrand and La Halle aux Grains in Toulouse . The album is accompanied by a DVD where the artist includes, alongside photos and excerpts of concerts, animations in computer generated images of his own imagination. Since 2001 , Mano Solo has been interested in the InternetHe creates and develops his own site around his political, social and artistic interests, encouraging his visitors to be creative themselves. It is in this spirit that the Cyber ​​Octopus will be born in 2002: initiated by Fred Sauton and Editions Baleine , this novel telling a story of the famous Octopus will be written for a year in the manner of an exquisite corpse by the members of the Mano Solo forum.

In 2004 released Les Animals . As in each album, the sound is new and the texts always release the same energy served by a mastered language of a great poetry. Some titles are new recordings of old songs. There is also the title Botzaris , recorded with The Straight Heads .

In 2004 , he also made two appearances on the album Dans le pebble of Karpatt in the songs Olympics and Leon .

In 2006 , Mano Solo did not renew its contract with Warner , his record company. It is self-produced with a new album, In the Garden, released in March 2007. It offers Internet users to help in its self-production by a subscription to pay promotional costs once the album is made. What no one will want to understand and the press will relay everywhere he relies on his public to finance the album, while he borrowed from his bank, putting his house as collateral, 130 000 euros with which he will pay the production and the manufacture of the disc. The subscription will be launched on September 18th. Every month, the subscriber has access to new content (songs or films) and at the exit, he receives the album. The money raised will be used to promote the album. With this approach, the artist wishes to stand out from the

Through this experience and the few Internet subscribers (2,800), Mano Solo tries to show that if he can self-produce today it is only on a name and a career already established. It is not for a novice artist that a bank would lend such a sum. The 35,000 copies of In the Garden sold in the bins will reimburse the bank, without offering the artist the means to produce the next album.

In an interview with the Belgian daily Le Soir in April 2008, Mano Solo explains:

“Self-production can not work. I sold 2,800 per subscription and the distributor of the CD did not do his job. I am living proof that we can not do without majors. I’m tired of these media that do not stop spitting on them. Without Warner, Mano Solo would not exist. These firms are not patrons, they are there to make wheat. It’s normal that these people throw you if you’re no longer competent in their eyes. Why should they keep those who do not sell anymore? Those who do not meet their audience must clear, that’s all. There are tired of these considerations. The press is complicit in that. We must stop deceiving ourselves: yes, hacking is harmful to diversity and Myspace is pathetic, it’s scary, it’s not where we find it avant-garde. And nobody in France was revealed thanks to that. MP3 is not about revolution, it’s about making unemployed people.⁴ »

Mano Solo remains above all a very committed artist. In March 2006, he organized a concert at Bataclan with the ” Collectif Je Suis Là ” , the funds of which were donated to the Fazasoma association, which helps the Malagasy population. He also hosts, since January 2007, a radio show on Aligre FM (93.1), Le Clou de la Soirée , every last Saturday of the month, from midnight to no time, where he gives the floor to those who do not have not. Not to mention his many appearances in rallies aimed at restoring equality.

He won three gold records.

From the 1 ^st October 2007, Mano Solo hosts another radio show, Smoke City , to the detriment of the Clou de la Soirée , still on Aligre FM , Mondays from 6:30 to 7:30 pm It welcomes the world of associations and activists, whistleblowers , in a partisan and unbridled show. Many artists also came to play live. The broadcast of June 7, 2008 was the subject of a video recording whose images constitute the documentary De portbord à tri ⁵ . Smoke City stops in January 2009.

His last album was released on September 28 , 2009, Enter the port , licensed at Wagram.

Mano Solo died on January 10 , 2010at the age of 46, following several aneurysm ruptures ⁶ . He had been hospitalized after his last concert in Paris on November 12 , 2009, after more than twenty years of fighting AIDS .

He is buried in the Parisian cemetery of Père-Lachaise ( 10 ^th Division), between the tombs of Claude Chabrol and Sophie de Condorcet and in front of Frédéric Chopin . In November 2011, the recording of the last Mano concert at the Olympia took place in November 2009. The publication of this recording was requested by the singer’s musicians and accepted by the family. A collection of librettos of all Mano Solo’s songs for piano , vocals and guitar was released in 2012 by Éditions Sauvagette.

Censorship

On January 11 , 2010 , a listener of Là-bas, if I am informed that the song Du vent , in which he rhymed “Work Family Sarkozy” (reference to the slogan Vichy Work, Family, Homeland ) with “It’s the compassion for the rich “was amputated his words during a broadcast on french radio public service ⁷ . It also appears that this song is replaced by another ( Paris advance ) on the online streaming sites (type deezer, jiwa) and on the iTunes ⁸ store .

After a small advertising campaign, the title reappeared in March 2010 on Deezer .

Discography

Studio Albums

Public Albums

External links

• Authority Notices : Virtual International Authority File • International Standard Name Identifier • National Library of France ( Data ) •University Documentation System • Library of Congress • Gemeinsame Normdatei • WorldCat
• Official website  [ archive ]
• Biography of the artist on the site of RFI  [ archive ]
• Archive (audio) of the radio show Smoke City hosted by Mano Solo on AligreFm (2007-2009)  [ archive ]
• Video archive (programs, animations, concerts, interviews, etc) of Mano Solo  [ archive ]
• Site of the collective “Je S Là Là” – set to music of poems published by Mano Solo in 1996  [ archive ]
• Website of the association Fazasoma (Aide aux enfant malgache) sponsored by Mano Solo  [ archive ]
• “Port to Sort” documentary broadcast site on Smoke City, June 7, 2008  [ archive ]

Notes and references