Friday 10 September 2010
Club 8, Admiraal de Ruijterweg 56 B, Amsterdam
How to get there

From 11 pm to 4 am: € 5
*Entrance € 1 before midnight*
*Beer € 1 from 11 pm to midnight*

DJs:
Natashka (me!)
La Formule du Baron
Laurent Chambon (Cherry Juice Recordings)
VJ: Merel Das

Join the Eurodisco Facebook group.

Oh La La Newsletter No. 27 – 31 August 2010.

Oh La La Newsletter No. 26 – 16 August 2010.

Yes! French funk and soul does exists and not all of it is a watered down version of some Motown hit. The proof is in Podcast No. 39, compiled by yours truly with some extra spice added in by Guuzbourg over at Girls and Giggles (Filles Sourires).

Some of the songs here may have been featured before, that is a first, but some things are definitely worth repeating. As well, some of the songs here are more recent, but their soulfulness is unquestionable.

Playlist
Gil Now – Dis-le moi
Eddy Mitchell – Vieille fille
Sévérine – Je suis la même
Claude François – Un homme libre
Ben L’Oncle Soul – Demain j’arrête
Nino Ferrer – Je veux être noir

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Oh La La Newsletter No. 25 – 27 July 2010.

Disco from Europe and beyond! This is the second edition of the disco monthly affair at Amsterdam’s Club 8. Next edition: Friday 10 September 2010!

Saturday, 10 July 2010
Club 8, Admiraal de Ruijterweg 56 B, Amsterdam
Map: http://tinyurl.com/3a3jt6e

From 11 pm to 4 am: € 5
*Entrance € 1 before midnight*
*Beer € 1 from 11 pm to midnight*

DJs:
Lupe Lambers (Italo Disco)
Natashka (me!)
La Formule du Baron
Visuals by: Disco à gogo

Join the Eurodisco Facebook group.

Oh La La Newsletter No. 24 – 12 July 2010.

Oh La La Newsletter No. 23 – 28 June 2010.

Disco from Europe and beyond! This is the first edition of what should become a monthly affair at Amsterdam’s Club 8. Next edition: 14 August 2010!

Saturday, 10 July 2010
Club 8, Admiraal de Ruijterweg 56 B, Amsterdam
Map: http://tinyurl.com/3a3jt6e

From 11 pm to 4 am: € 5
*Entrance € 1 before midnight*
*Beer € 1 from 11 pm to midnight*

DJs:
Lupe Lambers (Italo Disco)
Natashka (me!)
La Formule du Baron
VJ Blackbird Badger

Join the Eurodisco Facebook group!

Oh La La Newsletter No. 22 – 14 June 2010.

The Surpat’ No. 4 at the Bizz’art in Paris last Saturday, 4 June with the theme ‘Rio’ was a huge success! And it was so hot indoors, having had 29 degrees during the day. Shown here are Juan and Guillaume, two wild and crazy guys who spun some fierce vinyl together with me and party leader Adrien.

I played quite a bit myself and had records the others didn’t, all while keeping it a strictly French affair, minus one kicking Italian yéyé number. Sadly, I didn’t stay until the end because I had an early bus to catch back to Amsterdam. I didn’t want to leave!

It was the first time I DJed in Paris, although two days before I joined the very nice folks at the small bar Le Gast for a funky Afrobeat set. A big thanks to my Dutch friends who spontaneously showed up, too.

Tons more Surpat’ No. 4 pics here.

Oh La La Newsletter No. 21 – 26 May 2010.

DJ Thomas Bohnet of Munich was spinning his Tour de France compilation tunes and I was happy to join ihim on the main stage. We had champagne, too! It was great fun. Les Princes Chameaux from France really got the live show going, while local duo Tuo opened the evening for all their fans. By the time I got to hear DJs Jean-Yves Diss and Mikael Bourdon in the Ampère room and their mash-ups and remixes, I noticed we had the same taste in music. They kept the party going past 4:30 am.

The food catering was done by a local French restaurant brought to the Muffathalle and after eating their food twice (last year as well), I can tell you that Toby, organiser from Club Zwei is very well connected.

A big hello to all the new people I met, French and German. It was great to see my German friends and I was lucky enough to have some Dutch friends join me as well!

Oh La La Newsletter No. 20 – 4 May 2010.

Oh La La Newsletter No. 19 – 19 April 2010.

On Friday 23 April, I’ll be spinning lotsa French music at Club 8 in Amsterdam. It will be a Frenchy night with Frenchy things, including me, Laurent Chambon (Cherry Juice Recordings) and La Formule du Baron (Nijmegen). VJ Blackbird Badger has also been recruited.

Oh La La Newsletter No. 18 – 2 April 2010.

With many thanks going out to Ingeborg and film company Cinéart who convinced Joann Sfar’s to come to Amsterdam for the first time and for the première of his own film a few weeks ago, here is Podcast No. 38 featuring a unique interview I managed to get with the ‘puppet master’ himself.

More thanks to Francois Pieneman who recorded the interview and took pics.

Find out more about the release of the film in English on Gainsbourg, le fim, le blog.

Playlist
Eric Elmosnino & Anna Mouglalis – La javanaise
Eric Elmosnino & Laetitia Casta – Comic strip
Eric Elmosnino – Parce que
Eric Elmosnino – Aux armes, etc.
Eric Elmosnino & Lucy Gordon – Le canari est sur le balcon

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(Photo: Francois Pieneman)

On Friday 2 April, I’ll be spinning lotsa French music at Café Zondag, Maastricht. Looking forward to playing a new place.

I am currently getting over a week’s worth of Serge Gainsbourg related activities and it’s time to remind you of the 1980s. And because Serge is Serge, he’ll crop up again surely as well!

Laurent Chambon of Cherry Juice Recordings wil be joining us!

It’s been that busy around here. There will be pics and film clips coming up this month!

Oh La La Newsletter No. 17 – 9 March 2010.

Webradio, podcast and gig news for you all!

Oh La La Newsletter No. 16 – 2 February 2010.

Oh La La Newsletter No. 15 – 2 February 2010.

The 1980s are very popular with the younger crowd in the same way that the 1960s is popular with me: we weren’t around back then and the mystique intrigues us.

I guess it’s time to see what I can spin for people who didn’t get to go through the 1980s never mind that the French made music back then too (laugh). It will be great, I can’t wait!

Joann Sfar’s film debut about Serge Gainsbourg, the grandfather of French pop music, should be a delight for any fan or soon to be convinced fan. You’ll nod and smile when you recognise the subtle references to certain albums or the obvious foreshadowing of events to come. You’ll marvel at your knowledge of Gainsbourg or you’ll put some pieces together you hadn’t quite figured out. And if you’re like me, you’ll sing along to most of the songs.

Any real Gainsbourg fan has to see this film. You need to be reminded of him, of Jane Birkin, Brigitte Bardot, Bambou and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and you need someone to tell you the story of Serge’s youth, his Russian Jewish background, his parents and siblings, and how a young boy goes from painting and drawing naked ladies to becoming the national French sex and rock & roll ‘enfant terrible’. Notice I didn’t say drugs because Serge was totally against them.

What I really liked: Eric Elmosnino is the perfect incarnation of Gainsbourg, right down to his manerisms. He didn’t underplay or overplay, he was great, as was the amusingly insolent young Gainsbourg played by Kacey Mottet Klein. I loved the opening credits with their animations, I got lost in all the plush decors and I adored all the new versions of Gainsbourg’s music in the film.

What I didn’t really like: You’ll be reading this comment in other critiques, but the puppet-like alter ego ‘La Gueule’, an exaggerated ‘doppelgänger’ of Gainsbourg, like a devil-on-the-shoulder conscience thing was too prominent. Ironically, Gainsbourg’s alter ego ‘Gainsbarre’, a persona he took on in his later days, was in the film, but never even mentioned.

Mini-spoilers: Jane’s daughter Kate and Serge and Jane’s daughter Charlotte are played by the same actresses that play Serge’s sisters Liliane and Jacqueline. Also, Russian actress Dinara Drukarova who plays Olga Ginsburg, Serge’s mother, spoke some Russian in the film. To my personal delight, as I still speak Russian sometimes, it was left untranslated, while Razvan Vasilescu, a Romanian actor who played Serge’s father, Joseph Ginsburg, was never on screen when he spoke Russian, which probably means it wasn’t him.

And for the untranslated quote in the film’s closing credits about Sfar’s on his film:

“Ce ne sont pas les vérités de Gainsbourg qui m’intéresse, mais ses mensonges.”

(”I am not interested in Gainsbourg’s truths, I’m interested in his lies.”)

(Photo: Picture of 5 bis, Rue de Verneuil, Paris, Gainsbourg’s house with Joann Sfar’s graffiti, taken by yours truly on 25 December 2009.)

Oh La La Newsletter No. 14 – 19 January 2010.

“It’s like an enormous library falling down whevener you talk about Serge. There’s so many references.” – Guuz Hoogaerts.

Special guest star on this podcast is journalist, blogger and huge Dutch Gainsbourg fan Guuz Hoogaerts, aka DJ Guuzbourg.

In honour and anticipation of the release of the film Serge Gainsbourg – Vie Héroïque (Serge Gainsbourg – A heroic life), Podcast No. 37 features an all Serge affair, with music from the film and a selection of special songs you don’t hear very often.

Playlist
Eric Elmosnino & Philippe Katerine – Je bois vs. Intoxicated man
Emily Loizeau & Jeanne Cherhal – Qui est ‘in’, qui est ‘out’
Alain Chamfort – En relisant ta lettre
Serge Gainsbourg – La noyée
Serge Gainsbourg – Evgénie Sokolov
Serge Gainsbourg & Eddy Mitchell – Vieille canaille

If you want more exciting up-todate info about the film in English, be sure to check out Gainsbourg, le fim, le blog.

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Oh La La Newsletter No. 13 – 4 January 2010.

Here at Oh la la we are eagerly waiting the première of the biopic Gainsbourg – Vie Héroïque (see trailer), which cannot be shown in the Netherlands before it gets subtitles, which could mean months of waiting. Of course, this is perfectly normal and if it doesn’t get here soon enough, we will find ways of watching it, like the Internet and driving down to Antwerp for the weekend.

Anyone to this day, many of you who are more tuned in to the Anglo-Saxon world who has never really understood why we wax lyrical about Gainsbourg could finally see the light with this film. That’s why the fans can’t wait for it to come out, to be able to share with you.

So Podcast No. 37 will be a Serge Gainsbourg special, with some anedotes about the man when he visited my native Québec back in, oh, 1990.

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année ! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanks everybody for your support and help this year!

And here it is, the last podcast of the year and it’s all yours right in time for Christmas! Podcast No. 36 has some jingling bells sung by Québec bands, a French band and an Englishwoman who made France her home. I’m off to cook and bake now!

Playlist
Tony Massarelli – Cette nuit les clochent sonnent
Ginette Reno – Vive le vent
Les Chaussettes Noires – Noël de France
Les Classels – Le sentier de neige
Petula Clark – Mon beau sapin
Danièle et Michèle – La neige sous mes pas

If you want more French Christmas songs or funky, dirty, sexy, odd, funny ones sung in all kinds of ways, check out Christmas a gogo, where I’ve contributed this year along with many cool bloggers from around the world.

Subscribe to the Radio Oh la la podcast at Feedburner or using iTunes. Radio Oh la la also has a MySpace page.

Come and join the Radio Oh la la group on Facebook and follow Oh la la on Twitter.