Jean-Louis AubertLife in rock !

His songs ? Anthems! For 45 years, the ex-leader of Téléphone has been making the soundtrack to our lives. Here is his portrait.

In the beginning was the telephone. Then came the Minitel, the GSM and the Internet. Neither nostalgic nor technophobic, Jean-Louis Aubert has known how to tell the story of his eras while always moving forward.

January 2022, while he was crisscrossing France (Rennes, Dijon, Bordeaux, Nice …), Covid interrupts the festivities, erasing the end of the tour scheduled at the Accor Arena in Paris. « What a sadness! To revenge myself, I’m thinking of surprises to offer you », indicated the Facebook account of this known and recognized artist, entered in his lifetime in our national musical pantheon. It has been two years already that he was traveling the roads with his show entitled « Olo » : a show with unprecedented technology, where the former singer of Téléphone appeared on stage surrounded by holograms that he piloted live throughout the concert. As a worthy builder of rock history, this man-orchestra is no longer satisfied with writing and composing songs, he is committed beyond his comfort zone. At 67, after 9 solo albums and 5 with Téléphone, this darling of the French remains a tireless success maker.

Telephone quartet

Atypical sub-prefect in Nantua, Senlis…, Jean-Louis’ father is a repressed artist. Humanist, poet and musician, he hangs his guitar in his son’s room. When his parents move to Paris, the future interpreter of Crache ton venin raises his voice and collects punishments. As a student at the Pasteur high school in Neuilly, he was subjected to the wrath of
« Attila », a pawn with a severe moustache who was none other than Gérard Jugnot! Looking for his way, Jean-Louis Aubert heads for the United States at 17, with a guitar under his arm. Dad’s guitar. For several months, he will beg to survive by singing Rolling Stones’ hits. 1976, return to Paris. And it is the beginning of the musical adventure with Richard Kolinka, Louis Bertignac (met at Pasteur High School), and Corine Marienneau. Four young people of good family who will quickly become known with the first titles of a group which they will name « Téléphone ». On the day of Jimmy Carter’s election, Louis Bertignac called France 3 to tell them that the US embassy had organized a concert at the American Center. Admirable bluff and communication coup, the room is full! With his pronounced facial bones, square chin and large, thin, laughing lips, Jean-Louis Aubert has always had a rocker’s face. Like his English counterpart Mick Jagger, whom he worships. These two leaders followed parallel paths, but this did not prevent them from meeting in 1976 in the same recording studio in 1982 at the Auteuil racecourse.

Téléphone, which opened for the Stones, was a hit: 40,000 spectators sang along to the song, Ça (c’est vraiment toi !). Between 1976 and 1986, the rock quartet will write one of the greatest pages of French musical history and offer to posterity eternal songs: La bombe humaine, Ça (c’est vraiment toi !), Argent trop cher, New York avec toi… Titles with resolutely modern texts. Téléphone is to France what the Clash is to England: a musical and identity reference of the youth’s state of mind of the time that deconstructs the established codes. Ten years after May 68, Téléphone imposes a woman in the front line of a rock band, at the same level as the boys. In the France of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the group stands out. Ten years of success, tours, intimate and tumultuous relationships between Corine, Jean-Louis and Louis. The whole sprinkled with an abuse of hard drugs. The phones are worn out by sex, ego and money. Jean-Louis Aubert, who writes all the songs, moves away from the pure and hard rock of the first years. The line is out of order.