STOCKS

Stocks is a bit like our own ZZ Top, a super-powered trio of southern hard blues boogie from Lille. A trio that graced us with a formidable live set from the ‘corons’, a classic played tirelessly as an encore (‘Suzy’) and even an almost unforgettable hit (‘Elle Me Voit Pas’). However, nothing was easy for Christophe Marquilly, the leader of the pack (composer, singer and guitarist), a statement that can also be made in the present tense, as, with or without Stocks (the group stopped in 1986, reunited sporadically, such as for Molly Hatchet's first concert at the Elysée Montmartre in 1990, then reformed for a longer period at the start of the 2000s for the release of his final album (Trois, 3, Troisième) in 2002, our man had to fight hard (in France at least, Stocks having completed two fine US tours) to make our country his home, albeit a very temporary one. All those who saw Stocks as an alternative to Téléphone (too teenage) and/or Trust (too hard) had to come to terms with the fact that, yes, Stocks could have been their French band, provided they built a career and a discography worthy of the name. ll that remains are the memories of incredibly hot concerts, the 1982 Live ‘commissioned’ by WEA (one of the very best live rock recordings produced in France), the excellent Eclats de Rock (1984, co-produced by Benoit Blue Boy, again for WEA) and the comeback album, Trois, produced by an independent but with a sound reminiscent of ZZ Top in the second half of the 80s.