Mixing up English and French was de rigueur in early 80s Belgium Wave. Just think of Arno and his band TC Matic, think also of the influential chanteuse Jo Lemaire, who released an album named Concorde in 1983 with a French and an English side (these were pre-cd times). Thanks to the Belgium Wave and its neighbouring Neue Deutsche Welle a generation of music fans (including the writer of this) broadened its perspective into new territories and discovered non-Anglosaxon influences such as Brel, Gainsbourg and others.
And then there were the Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel. Or were they called the The Honeymoon Killers? In fact both; we’re talking about a groundbreaking collective from Brussels, built around the hugely talented (and sadly deceased) Yvon Vromman. Their Fille Sourire (although smiling was not something that any artist would do in public in those days) was Véronique Vincent, their landmark song is Histoire à suivre/Wait and See, released in 1983.
True to style and to great effect, Véronique Vincent sings Histoire à suivre/Wait and See partially in English and partially in French. Chillingly and irresistingly Véronique informs us that "there is a hole in my body where my heart should be", before breaking into a breathy chorus in French. Rarely did the juxtaposition of languages (and everything that comes with language) work quite so well. Histoire à suivre is all you want from a song: the perfect unity of music, atmosphere, subject matter and a Fille Sourire vocal delivery. If people would listen more often to Histoire à suivre the world would be a better place. Then again, with ‘if’, you could put Paris inside a bouteille…
Honeymoon Killers - Histoire á suivre/Wait and See (megaupload)
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