The group burst into the limelight on a single day: the twelfth of November, 1976. 

Jean-Louis Aubert, 21, was a singer, songwriter and guitarist. The son of a sous-préfet (regional government official), he disliked school and very soon became immersed in music. His real début was with Richard Kolinka, 22, a drummer. With the latter's group, Semolina, they recorded a single "Et j'y vais déjà", which was quickly given up for dead by the recording company, WEA. This was not followed by further contracts and they were very disappointed. It was at a Who concert in 1970 that, by chance, they met Louis Bertignac, a talented guitarist who had played with Jacques Higelin as early as 1975, and Corine Marienneau, 24, who had become a bass guitarist by accident, and they all turned up for the famous, virtually improvised concert at the American Centre in Paris on November 12th, 1976. 

A few songs from Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin formed their repertoire, along with the makings of original songs. There were a few hundred listeners in the audience who witnessed the explosion of their boundless energy in a sort of juvenile rock. The group was ready for the off. 

A sound engineer and a manager were recruited from among their mates, and the nameless foursome became known as the group Téléphone. 

After a concert in the Paris Metro in March 1977, causing crowd scenes in the corridors, they went on tour as the first half in the Eddie & the Hot Rods show. They ended up stealing the limelight. Some weeks later, as a last-minute replacement for Blondie in the first half of the Television group's concert, they sang at the Olympia in Paris. 

A concert at the Bus Paladium in Paris on June 8th 1977 gave them their first single recording opportunity, albeit self-produced. The two titles were "Hygiaphone" and "Métro, c'est trop". At first this single was distributed after their concerts, then in August they were signed by Pathé-Marconi for three albums. 

The first album was recorded in London at the Eden Studio in Autumn 1977, with the producer of the Sex Pistols, Mike Thorne. Called "Telephone", it came out at the end of November. Almost all the songs were by Aubert, and were sung in French, one of the reasons for their success in France. The first real tour was organised in December, with, among others, a free concert for 6,000 at the Pantin racecourse in Paris. 

"Hygiaphone" was the first Téléphone song to enter the French charts. The group performed in the very big French rock festival in Lyons in July 1978. They shared the spot with the Bijou and Starshooter groups. After this hectic few months, the four musicians were to record their second album only in early 1979. 

"Crache ton venin" was recorded in London. The record cover was created by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, a talented photographer much appreciated in the rock world for his original ideas. Thus, his packaging idea had the group in their birthday suits. This sort of provocation makes us smile now, but it was at the time part of the media image Téléphone was cultivating. 

The nine songs on "Crache ton venin" were about adolescent revolt and rejection of an unjust society. They were tales about, for example, leaving home ("J'suis parti de chez mes parents"), or petty crime ("Fait divers"). But it was "La Bombe humaine" that was to become the generation's battle hymn and was to be the group's greatest hit. Over 600,000 albums were sold. 

In May and June, the foursome went on tour, with a memorable concert at the Palais des Sports, Paris, on June 7th 1979. But it was in fact at the Fête de l'Humanité (the French Communist Party's annual festival) at La Courneuve on the outskirts of Paris, that their true consecration took place, before an audience of over 100,000 people. 

The emergence of Téléphone can be considered as a true sea change in French society. At the start of 1980, they went on tour in Italy, Spain and Portugal. From 15th to 30th March they toured North America, visiting Toronto and even New York, where their performance at the Mudd Club was poor, due to collective drunkenness. 

They returned from the States for the opening of the film "Téléphone Public" directed by Jean-Marie Périer, the in-house photographer for the pop magazine "Salut les Copains" in the sixties. There were almost two hours of interviews and music with Aubert, Bertignac, Kolinka and Corine Marienneau. The film was even presented at the Cannes Film Festival. 

At the dawn of the eighties, the group was immensely popular. In summer 1980 they concocted a third album, "Au coeur de la nuit". This was recorded half in Paris, half in New York. The subjects of the thirteen titles were broadened to include topics such as night and solitude, but the hit song of the album was without doubt "Argent trop cher", a single which also came out in England and was translated as "Money too dear". 

In early 81, Aubert and his gang toured France with an incredible caravanserai: 300 projectors, two trailers, a bus, a mini-bus, 30 people and 14,000 Watts of sound equipment! They even participated in the free concert given on June 10th at the Place de la République, Paris, to celebrate François Mitterrand's victory in the French Presidential elections that had taken place in May. During their tour, worthy of all the biggest English and American groups, Jean-Louis Aubert composed "Ce soir est ce soir", which was recorded on the subsequent album "Dure limite". 

In June 82, this came out under the Virgin label. Once their contract with Pathé had ended, Téléphone sought a new recording label. Even on advance orders, the record won a gold record. The beautiful song "Cendrillon" was written and sung by Louis Bertignac, "Le Chat" by Corine Marienneau, and the rest was by Aubert, as usual. "Ca, c'est vraiment toi" came out as a single and was again a huge hit, with a video clip in addition. The total sales of the album came to 700,000. 

The world-famous English group, the Rolling Stones, invited Téléphone to perform in the first half of their concert at the Paris racecourse in Auteuil on June 14th, 1982. The Parisian foursome made a highly creditable job of it despite technical problems, in front of 80,000 spectators. At the end of the year they left on tour, during which Louis Bertignac broke a collarbone in an unexpected fall. This obliged them to change some dates, but they nevertheless gave three performances at the Paris Hippodrome on November 4, 5 and 6. In all, over 145,000 people saw Téléphone on stage during the 1982 tour. 

Despite growing popularity and enormous success, the group began to fall apart. Ego, pressure from the media and fans, or simply job fatigue? At any rate, the group members seemed to be losing their way. Rumours of separation began to spread. 

In the spring, they returned to the States on tour, but the Americans showed absolutely no interest in the "Frogs". The Canadians gave them a better welcome but overall, the English speaking world remained uncomprehending of the French lyrics, and as for the songs translated into English, they did not have the same impact as the French. 

The album "Un autre monde" came out in 1984. Téléphone seemed to have got back its balance and equanimity. However, "New York avec toi" and "Electric city", which came out on the single, were a little too facile: they were not rock music but aimed to please the market. The group again went on a huge tour in France. 1985 saw the arrival of the new single "Le jour s'est levé". The lyrics were by Jean-Louis Aubert and the music by Téléphone. 

After nine years of working together, the members of the group began to seek solo projects: Corine wrote lyrics for the film music to "Subway" directed by Luc Besson, Richard started the Kod label and Jean-Louis contributed to the record for Ethiopia by Chanteurs sans Frontières. 

In April 1986, Jean-Louis Aubert announced that the group was disbanding. In December of that year, Virgin brought out a double album of a live concert, which reveals the pure energy the musicians generated. Their rapport with their audience is palpable. 

In 1991 a compilation of Telephone tracks, "Rappel I" sold almost a million copies, showing the domination of the group over the French rock scene. 

The rumours of the group re-forming continue to circulate, but are always denied. Yet we all secretly hope that, one day, perhaps...

May 1998