The story of Aston Villa began when Frédéric Franchitti met another budding young musician by the name of Hocine Hallef in the early 80s. Hocine, who was born in 1964 and is better known to friends and family as Hoss, was at university at the time studying economics (which he actually went on to teach for a while). Frédéric, born on 31 August 1969 and better known to friends and family as Fred, had already launched a music career of sorts, concentrating on songwriting and singing as his handicapped arm prevented him from playing an instrument.

Fred had served his musical apprenticeship working with the group Dagstaff. But after meeting Hoss, the pair got down to songwriting and composing together and went on to form their own group for which they quickly recruited three new members: bass-player Jean-Baptiste Mory, aka Djib (born on 25 January 1970), guitarist Franck Pilant and drummer Laurent Muller, aka Doc Muller (born on 26 July 1969). The group, all of whom are major football fans, named themselves after British football team Aston Villa. The fivesome also appreciated the fact that their name was an amalgamation of "Aston Martin" (the James Bond sports car) and "Pancho Villa" (which added a certain revolutionary tinge to things!)

Aston Villa launched their professional career in January '94 playing at Le Plan (a small, low-key venue in the suburbs south of Paris). Aston Villa supported The Silencers on this occasion, but the group's vibrant upbeat rock went down a storm with the crowd at Le Plan who cheered them on almost as loudly as the main group. At the end of that same year Aston Villa went on to bring the house down at the "Transmusicales" festival in Rennes where they made an instant impact with their original sound.

Following their success at "Les Transmusicales", Aston Villa landed themselves a record deal with BMG and brought out their debut eponymous album in April 1996. The album spawned four singles - "Bonne nouvelle", "On verra demain", "Raisonne" and "Si les anges". And the group's fame even spread across the Channel thanks to one young teenager who picked up on the Aston Villa album and played it to her father – who just happened to be the editor of "Claret and Blue", the official Aston Villa football magazine. The group ended up with a full five pages in the magazine and seasonal guest tickets to all the club's matches!

Meanwhile, Aston Villa were busy on the road promoting their new album. After playing countless gigs up and down the country, they went on to support a host of big-name stars including ZZ Top (spring/summer '96), Deep Purple (autumn '96) and Bryan Adams (at Bercy Stadium in Paris in June '97). In fact, between January 1996 and October 1997 Aston Villa performed an almost non-stop tour, playing to audiences across France, Belgium, Switzerland and Québec. They also flitted off on a quick trip to Argentina for a one-off edition of the "Francofolies" in 1997.

However, despite the long hours they put in on the road, Aston Villa's debut album proved to be a flop in terms of record sales, clocking up a mere 15,000 copies. Disappointed in the group's first sales figures, BMG ended up dropping Aston Villa from their books.

Aston Villa devoted considerably less time to touring in 1998, playing just a handful of gigs in small venues in Paris and the surrounding region. In fact, most of the group's time was taken up in the studio where they were already hard at work preparing their second album. Released in April 1999 on Double T (an off-shoot of Sony), Aston Villa's second album "Extraversion" was produced by Renaud Létang (of Manu Chao fame) and Franck Pilant, the group's guitarist. Mixing the group's powerful rock sound with jaunty melodies and catchy lyrics, the album featured twelve songs (all written and composed by the group with the exception of a cover of the Patrick Coutin hit "J'aime regarder les filles").

The main single release from the album, "J'en rêve", proved a popular hit on the French airwaves. But Aston Villa's second album fared little better than the first in terms of record sales, clocking up a mere 20,000 copies. Given the harsh sell-or-fail laws of the record industry, Aston Villa soon found themselves without a record label once again when Sony closed Double T.

Aston Villa remained a popular fixture on the live circuit, however, continuing to attract a strong following of fans to their concerts. The group spent most of '99 on the road again, playing gigs up and down the country and appearing at a number of small music festivals such as "La Voie du Gahou" in Marseilles and "Rock au fort" in Albertville. On 18 November 1999 Aston Villa brought the house down at L'Elysée-Montmartre in Paris then headed off for a tour of Québec at the beginning of 2000.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa underwent a few major changes in their line-up. The first to leave the group in 1999 was Franck Pilant, who quit to go off and work with Alain Souchon. Pilant was promptly replaced on guitar by Doc's brother, Nicolas Muller. The following year, Hoss, one of the group's founders, also left the group to pursue his own projects. The four surviving members regrouped forces and went on to record their first live album at La Scène, a rock venue in Bastille. They were joined on stage on this occasion by three guest musicians: Eduardo Tomassi (on percussion), Wayne Jowandi Barker (on the boomerang!) and Morteza Esmaili (on didjeridu and the Jew's harp).

Recorded at the end of January 2001 and mixed by Dominique Blanc-Francard, "Live Acoustique" was released three months later in April. The album featured the group's habitual upbeat style of rock and two excellent cover versions including cult Nirvana classic "All Apologies".

For the first time in Aston Villa's career their album made it into the charts, climbing to no.107 in October 2001. Meanwhile, the single "Raisonne" got to no. 90 in the Top 100 singles chart. Following this chart success, Aston Villa began to receive more extensive airplay on French radio. On 17 May the group returned to the live circuit, playing at the Café de la Danse in Paris and a few months later at Le Bataclan (8 December). By this stage of things, "Live Acoustique" had already sold over 20,000 copies.

In the autumn of 2001 Aston Villa embarked upon an extensive tour which kept them on the road right through until the start of 2002. Remaining firmly committed to their political and social principles the group played a fund-raising gig on 12 January at Le Bataclan, donating all the proceeds to Survival. (Doc Muller is an active member of this association which seeks to protect indigenous peoples around the world). A week later Aston Villa took to the stage at Le Zénith to raise funds on behalf of Attac (the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to provide Citizen Aid).

Aston Villa triumphed at the "Victoires de la Musique" awards on 9 March 2002, carrying off the award for Best New Act of the Year. The award was all the more valuable to the band as it had been voted for not by a panel of professionals, but by the public. And Astonvilla's fanbase, who had turned out in force to see them in concert over the years were, after all, the ones who had catapulted them to media attention.

Following this award and the success of the live album, Astonvilla confirmed their reputation as first-class performers. All that was needed now was to cement that reputation with a studio album. Later in 2002, came the release of the album "Strange" on the Naïve label. The album, produced by Franck Pillant (who had officially quit the band, but nevertheless remained within the Astonvilla circuit), won rave reviews from the critics. Lead singer Fred's songwriting talent was brought to the fore on "Strange", which also featured a contribution by renowned French songwriter Jean Fauque (who penned "Madame rêve" and "Osez Joséphine" for Bashung) in the form of the song "Prière."

As the album title suggests, musically speaking "Strange" created a weird, unsettling atmosphere, bordering on the surreal. Lyrically speaking, songs described a world spinning out of control and losing sight of its values. Interestingly enough, the album ended with a track called "Slowfood", an ode to cuisine on which various celebrities recited imaginary menus against a backdrop of Astonvilla's music.

Once the recording of "Strange" was completed, Astonvilla withdrew into a period of media silence following the departure of the Muller brothers.

Astonvilla returned to the forefront of the French music scene with a new line-up in 2005, recruiting Manu Baroux on guitar and Greg Baudrier on drums. And it was this new-look Astonvilla that went into the studio to record "De jour comme de nuit." This album, produced by the American Daniel Presley, featured a rawer, more electric-driven sound, but was also more laidback and relaxed than the group's previous work. Lead singer Fred honed his writing talent to perfection, his songs providing a central thread for a band that in its ten-year history had undergone almost constant upheavals and change.

Astonvilla hit the road in November 2005 on a tour which included a memorable date at L'Elysée-Montmartre, in Paris (29 November).

December 2005