PUNK 45: Les Punks - The French Connection

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 release documents the first radical underground punk bands to come out of France including Metal Urbain (the first group ever to be signed to Rough Trade Records), Marie et Les Garçons, Asphalt Jungle, through to the earliest experimental cold wave/minimal wave electronic groups such as Kas Product, Charles de Goal and A3 Dans le WC who emerged at the start of the 1980s.

The accompanying large 44-page outsize booklet shows how punk in France emerged out of the country’s history of rebellion and revolution (from Serge Gainsbourg to the Paris ‘68 riots) as well as a love for American punk and proto bands like The New York Dolls and The Stooges, and was kick-started by witnessing the first UK punk bands (including the Sex Pistols who played in Paris in Sep 1976).

It also explains how French revolutionary, artistic and intellectual ideas influenced the birth of punk in both New York (Dadaism and Surrealism, Rimbaud and Voltaire) and in Britain (Situationism), how Paris based art collective Bazooka influenced the work of Jamie Reid and The Sex Pistols, and more besides. 

The booklet features extensive text, exclusive photography as well as interviews with key French figures in the movement including Marc Zermati (Skydog Records), Patrick Eudeline (Asphalt Jungle), Michel Esteban (Ze Records) and Eric Debris (Metal Urbain).

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 album comes as a heavyweight double vinyl LP with gatefold sleeve, inserts, full sleeve notes + download code and also as a deluxe CD pack + 50-page outsize booklet and as a digital album.

This is the latest in Soul Jazz Records’ Punk 45 series which documents punk around the world, following on from earlier releases Punk 45: Kill The Hippies (USA punk), Punk 45: There Is No Such Thing As Society (UK punk and post-punk), Punk 45: Sick on You (proto-punk), Punk 45: Burn, Rubber City Punk (Akron), Punk 45: Extermination Nights in The Sixth City (Cleveland) and Punk 45: Chaos in the City of Angels and Devils (Los Angeles) as well as the book Punk 45: Singles Cover Art of Punk with Jon Savage

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