Maxime le Forestier was born in Paris on February 10th 1949. His father, an Englishman, was of Norman origin. His mother, Geneviève, known as Lili, who did French adaptations of Anglo-Saxon TV series, was a great music lover and passed this on to her children. Maxime's two sisters, Anne and Catherine, were six and three years older than him. The three children received a classical music education and from an early age Maxime learnt violin, continuing this until he was ten.

He was educated in a Catholic college until the Third class, after which he went to the Lycée Condorcet in Paris. He did not excel at studies and at the end of the First Class he was expelled for indiscipline.

His mother had given him a record by Georges Brassens which, for Maxime came as a breath of fresh air after the classical music he had always been steeped in. At fifteen, he bought a guitar, learnt the rudiments and began to sing from time to time in a café, "Chez Louisette", in the flea market at Saint-Ouen in the Paris suburbs.

His sister Catherine joined him and the pair formed the duo Cat et Maxime. Until 1969 they played in cabarets on Paris's Left Bank, playing songs by Peter, Paul and Mary. During this period they met Georges Moustaki, with whom they struck up a friendship. They were among the very first to do cover versions of Moustaki songs such as "Ma liberté and Ma solitude".

The family duo recorded two singles for the Barclay label before Catherine joined Moustaki as a backing singer. Maxime, began to write songs and offered "Ballade pour un traître" to Serge Reggiani.

But in 69, Maxime Le Forestier was called up for military service, in a parachute regiment, where he led a double life: soldier by day, singer in his spare time. He recorded two solo singles, "Coeur de pierre, face de lune" and "Concerto sans frontières" for the Festival label.

When he finished his military service in September 70, he left for Marseille with Catherine to play in a musical comedy, "Oh! America", directed by Antoine Bourseiller, and for which he had composed the music. After this experience, at the height of the hippie era, he and Catherine travelled in America and lived for a while in a community in San Francisco.

On returning form America, he recorded a single on the Polydor label, "Mon frère" and "l'Education sentimentale", followed a few months later by "San Francisco" and "Ça sert à quoi". With his blend of Brassens and Dylan, Le Forestier laid the foundations of the French protest song in the seventies.

But public recognition and success didn't really come until a year later, with the release of the album of the same name, which included the tracks on the single and songs such as "Parachutiste". For three weeks in October, he did the first half of George Brassens' show at Bobino in Paris, where his triumph heralded a whole new generation of anti-conformist singers, heirs to the revolt of 68.

1973 saw the release of his second album, which included "le Steak ou la complainte de ceux qui ont le ventre vide, considérée comme une gaudriole par ceux qui ont le ventre plein", "Février de cette année-là" and "Entre quatorze et quarante ans". The disc was as well received as the previous one, and he triumphed at Olympia in two Musicoramas (a live radio programme broadcast from the Parisian theatre). A live recording was released in 1974.

He had been playing frequently in the provinces and was now well known nation-wide, to the extent that he was now firmly established in the French musical landscape. At the end of 1974, his rise to fame was consecrated by a series of concerts at the Théâtre de la Ville and at the Palais des Sports. His fans was almost entirely young, and songs like "L'Education Sentimentale", which have since become standards, were applauded by workers and students alike.

He went on tour with two musicians, Alain Le Douarin and Patrice Caratini, and a technician, and put his humanist principles into practice by insisting on a very low entry price (10F) for his concerts - which some people in the music business protested to, saying that it was unfair competition.

In 1975, he brought out "Saltimbanque". Written during his previous tour, the new album was his way of reminding the public that he was merely a singer, thereby replying to the accusations of demagogy coming at him from all sides. Radio and television stations, put off by the political content of his songs, were often reticent to programme them - with Léo Ferre, he had given a benefit concert for Chilean political prisoners in 1974.

So the general public mainly knew Maxime Le Forestier from his records and live performances, always sold out: for three weeks in March 1975, 4.000 people came to see him daily at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.

In January 1976, he embarked on a special, fourteen venue tour of the Soviet Union. He took Russian lessons beforehand, which enabled him to announce his songs in Russian. Despite a tendency to idealise life behind the Iron Curtain, he returned perplexed and with mixed feelings. But his meeting with the singer Vladimir Vissotski, whose songs he later adapted, left him one warm memory.

Despite his continual tours in France, Switzerland and Belgium, his fourth album, recorded in the summer of 76, did not sell as well as expected. The label of politically committed singer was beginning to weigh on Maxime Le Forestier. He began to distance himself from his habitual subject matter, and in doing so puzzled his audiences somewhat. In "Fantôme de Pierrot", a saga of a song, and "Blues blanc pour un crayon noir", the lyrics are much more pessimist and full of disillusion.

Following the release of the album at the end of September, he embarked on a unique venture. Throughout October, backed by ten musicians and a juggler, he played at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris in a show directed by actor Philippe Avron. After this success, he left for Canada and spent the rest of the year on the other side of the Atlantic.

After travelling in the United States for the whole of the following year, he returned in 1978 with a new album, "n°5".

Recorded in Quebec and the South of France, it was the fruit of his travels and his collaboration with musician François Cousineau, who wrote for Diane Dufresne and with whom he made the change from acoustic to electric. The public no longer recognised the familiar post-hippie bard, and the album got a lukewarm reception. Nevertheless Maxime Le Forestier played to full houses at Olympia from November 14th to 26th 1978.

Strangely, the following year, he returned to his roots, bringing out a live album, recorded on April 23rd and 24th at the Gaîté Montparnasse in Paris, in which he sang Brassens songs accompanied old-time cronies, Caratini and Douarin. At the end of 79, he took this show on tour in France and Belgium.  

At the beginning of 1980, with his sister Catherine and French speaking New Zealander Graham Allwright, he gave two benefit concerts for the charity Partage avec les enfants du Tiers-Monde. He also brought out a new album, "Les Rendez-vous manqués". Guitarist Gérard Kawczynski, known as Crapou, and drummer Jean Schultheis contributed artistically, giving Maxime the chance to develop his talent in a slightly different musical milieu, although still quite "noir". Also on the album was Le Forestier's friend Kernoa, with whom he had not worked for five years.  

In February and March 81, Maxime Le Forestier went on tour for two months in France and Belgium. In October and November, having recorded the album "Dans ces histoires...", he played at Bobino in Paris for six weeks.  

Very at ease on stage, he toured a lot, and in 82, he played in Algeria, New Caledonia, the Lebanon and of course France and Belgium. The tour lasted until October 83, when he returned to Bobino for a very different, almost avant-garde show, accompanied by four young musicians and a computer engineer with six synthesisers. The show's experimental nature was not unanimously appreciated by audiences.  

The gulf between artist and audience widened, and the album "Des jours meilleurs", appeased nobody, even though the title song was very beautiful. A cover version of it, sung by several artists at a benefit concert for the Sol en Si (Solidarité Enfant Sida) charity, was a huge success.  

Having sold thousands of records (including one and a half million of the first album), Maxime was no longer the star he was in the seventies. 84 and 85 were even difficult for him and he was reduced to performing with only a single guitarist, Jean-Felix Lalanne most of the time, on a tour all over Europe and in Africa.  

It was not until 1986 that he brought out a new album, "Aftershave", which went almost unnoticed.

Having been written off by the music business world as a has-been, Maxime Le Forestier made a spectacular come-back in 88 with the single "Né quelque part", a hymn to equality and tolerance co-written written with Jean-Perre Sabar. For the song's chorus phrase, translated into Zulu, Le Forestier was backed by the South African singer, Aura. The disc was a huge hit.

In France the World Music scene was beginning to take off. The public were increasingly receptive to its blends of sounds, rhythms and different languages. The single's enthusiastic reception prompted the release of an album in October 88. The single's flip side, "Ambalaba", was written by Mauritian Claude Verraerago. The album sold 600.000 copies.

From January 24th 89, for three weeks, he gave a series of triumphal concerts at the Bataclan in Paris (a live album was subsequently released). He followed this up with a tour of the provinces.

The album had brought renewed success, and with came a new Le Forestier image, that of a mature artist, of a man who had been around and had distanced himself from the world of show business.

His next album, "Sagesse du fou", released in November 91, did not repeat the success of its predecessor, but expressed another aspect of the artist's vision of life. It included the magnificent duo with Miche Rivard, "Bille de verre", and the darker "Avant la tornade". The promotional concerts, however, were a big success, especially the concert at Olympia in Paris in 92.

After a period of comparative rest with only a few live performances, Maxime brought out a new album "Passer ma route" in June 95. The album's title song was awarded the Octave de la Chanson Française by Radio France Internationale. The album, recorded in Paris, was an invitation to discover the world, and featured several other artists: Zouk Machine, Vanessa Paradis (who did the backing vocals on the single, "Chienne d'idée" ), the gypsy group Bratsch and jazz musicians Didier Lockwood and Richard Galliano. The lyrics were written by Le Forestier and the famous lyric writer Boris Bergman. A new version of "La Petite fugue", which his sister Catherine used to sing, is an absolute jewel. Maxime sang ten of the twelve songs on the disc in his show at Olympia in Paris in January and February 96. But it was still "San Francisco" and "l'Education sentimentale", which received the loudest applause, no doubt due to a certain nostalgia for the values of a bygone hippy era.

Georges Brassens, a strong influence in Maxime Le Forestier's music, remained a constant source of inspiration. In September 96, the disciple brought out a second album of the master's songs which, despite the sober format - only voice and guitar - had a warm sound. Fifteen years after Brassens' death, Maxime did cover versions of songs he had never really had the time to perform. This tribute was followed up by a series of concerts in small venues such as the Sentier des Halles in Paris. Throughout the whole of 97 and the spring of 98 Le Forestier continued his Brassens tribute tour, scoring a huge hit with audiences up and down the country. Following the phenomenal success of his Brassens concerts, Le Forestier released a special boxed set of 4 CDs (in April 98) which featured his own versions of the French chanson star's greatest hits.Then in June of this year Le Forestier turned his attention to his live career once more, performing two concerts at the Casino de Paris (12 and 13 June 98). The singer then embarked upon an extensive new tour - which, judging by the number of dates it includes, looks set to run forever!

In the autumn of '99 Le Forestier teamed up with French guitarist Jean-Félix Lalanne and set off on a new tour which lasted several months. After bringing the house down on his "Tour de Chauffe", the singer got involved in charity work at the beginning of 2000, setting off on tour with Les Enfoirés - a celebrity collective of singers who perform fund-raising concerts for the French Help the Homeless charity "Restaurants du cœur".

Maxime Le Forestier went through a rather bleak period in the eighties (as the press has often remarked). But in the nineties he became the "nice guy" singer ready to lend his services to humanitarian causes, such as his numerous appearances in the Sol en Si concerts (AIDS) and the Restos du Coeur (aid to the poor and homeless). His subject matter, although now less radical than in the seventies, remains just as praiseworthy and today, Maxime Le Forestier, a family man, has achieved respectability far beyond the world of music.

After devoting nearly five years of his career to performing Georges Brassens's work, Le Forestier turned his attention to his own songwriting career once again in November 2000, releasing a new album entitled "l'Echo des Etoiles" (The Echo from the Stars). The album featured 12 songs, the majority of which were written by Boris Bergman, but also included several tracks penned by Le Forestier himself in the course of his travels. One of the highlights of "l'Echo des Etoiles" was a song written for the Kabyle singer Lounès Matoub by French author and politician Jean-François Deniau. The Algerian singing star was assassinated before he had the chance to sing Deniau's song, however, so Le Forestier recorded his own version as a sort of personal tribute to Matoub.

In 2001 Le Forestier embarked upon a new tour with guitarist Jean-Félix Lalanne. The tour, originally called "Sans tambour ni trompette", was later renamed "Plutôt Guitare". Le Forestier and Lalanne (who were sometimes joined by fellow guitarists Manu Galvin, François Ovide and Michel Haumont) performed a reworking of old favourites from the Lalanne repertoire which went down a storm with the public. Bowing to popular demand, Lalanne continued his tour until the summer of 2002.

Maxime Le Forestier returned to the French music news in 2004 with a new project. After performing a number of international tours which took him as far as Africa, the singer branched out in a new direction, writing the score for the musical "Gladiateur.” Elie Chouraqui, already renowned for a string of hit musicals including "Les Dix commandements", wrote the lyrics for this sword-and-sandals spectacular which premièred in Paris in October 2004.

October 2004