I love 60s French pop music – the freakbeat stylings of
Jacques Dutronc, the genius pop of France Gall’s Poupee du Cire and the nutso pairing of Brigitte Bardot and Serge
Gainsbourg for example – but why on earth would the world need a French
Screaming Lord Sutch (or Screaming Jay Hawkins for that matter)?
Yet that’s exactly what it got in 1963 when Jean-Pierre
Kalfon, better known under his stage name Hector, released a handful of records
via Philips France.
Not to be confused with the French actor of the same birth
name (that particular Monsieur Kalfon is eight years older than our Hector and
would launch his own singing career later) our Jean-Pierre was born in 1946 and
was only 15 years’ old when he became Hector, the flamboyant singer of the beat
combo Les Mediators (which translates as The Picks). Stealing liberally from
both Hawkins and Sutch – he used to emerge on stage from a coffin just as
Hawkins (and later Sutch) had done – Hector would appear in white tie, tails
and cape (as Sutch often did) accompanied (in a nod to James Brown) by his
faithful valet Jerome. He was also known to emulate Sutch’s caveman look from
time to time. His incredibly (for the time) long, bushy hair earned him the
nickname The Chopin of Twist.
Hector et Les Mediators released one 45 single and two EPs (the preferred medium in France at the
time) in 1963, including covers of such rock ‘n roll standards as Peggy Sue, Whole Lotta Shaking Going On and Something Else alongside material written specifically for him,
including the diabolically awful Hawkins rip-off Je Vous Déteste (I Hate You). During his wild stage show, when he
wasn’t imitating Sutch (who would later be photographed with Hector, holding
his famous fake axe to the Frenchman’s neck) he would take off other stars of
the day… including the Singing Nun! Like Sutch he was publicity-hungry, even
going so far as to try and fry an egg on the flame at the tomb of the Unknown
Soldier.
After a heated disagreement with Philips over the reissue of
a brace of his old 50s covers on a then-current EP he left the company, and Les
Mediators - Marc Schleck (lead guitar), Serge Mosiniak (bass), Gilbert Krantz
(rhythm guitar) and William ‘Atomic Bill’ Roudil (drums) - behind him. Hector
continued as a solo act for a couple of years, issuing EPs in 1964 for Ducaret
Thompson (via Pathé Marconi) - Alligator/Mon
Copain Johny//La Femme De Ma Vie/Hong Kong - and Polydor (Abab L’Arab
[a cover of the Ray Stevens/Jimmy Savile novelty hit Ahab the Arab]/Il
Faut Seulement Une Petite Fille//Le
Gamin Couché [a cover of the
Monkees-related US hit The Gamma Goochee]/A La Fin De La Semelle [a dire French language version of Otis Redding’s
I've Been Loving You Too Long]).
After recording an (unreleased) cover of Screamin’ Jay
Hawkins’ The Whammy he left France in
1967 and moved to Canada, where he dabbled in artist management and rubbed
shoulders with Tony Roman, the man behind Mme St Onge, before returning to
Paris and re-emerging in 1970 as part of the trio Hector, Tom et Jerry with the
one-off 45 Un P’tit Beaujolais/La Societie. Tom et Jerry had previously recorded as a duo for
RCA.
And that was that. No more releases. He became artistic
director at Barclay Records and at Pathé Marconi before becoming an actor,
appearing in Gomina (1973) and Marriage
(The Wedding) (1975) with Jeane Manson. In
1983 Hector bought a packaging machine manufacturing plant in Seine-et-Marne,
which he sold on four years later; the following year Philips issued Je
Vous Déteste, a mini-album compilation of
the six sides he recorded for the company. In more recent years he has made a
living out of touring the French r’n’r revival scene.
Last year (2014) Hector resurfaced with several members of
Les Mediators at the unveiling of a plaque to mark the Golf Drouot – a club
where many of France’s top performers (including Hector et les Mediators)
performed between 1955 and 1981.
Anyway, here’s a handful of Hector’s finest. Enjoy!
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