Claude Sicre - better known to friends and French music fans as Docteur Cachou - was born in Toulouse, in the South of France. Claude was a passionate music fan from an early age. Indeed, he discovered Bill Haley and American rock'n'roll at the tender age of 7, then swiftly moved on to the blues. Claude's other great passion in life was reading thrillers so, after graduating from university with a philosophy degree, he went on to work for the Paris publishing house Gallimard, where he looked after "La Série Noire" (a collection of famous detective novels!) At this stage in his career, Claude's musical tastes began to veer towards the traditional.

While living in Paris Claude became involved with the 'Occitan movement' - a group of people seeking to revive the culture and traditional dialects of the ancient region of Oc (in the South of France). Claude became passionately interested in traditional Occitan culture and when he returned to Toulouse in 1977 he set about forming his own group, Riga-Riga. Later that year Claude and Riga-Riga would go into the studio to record an album inspired by traditional Occitan folk songs.

Claude became particularly interested in the history of the troubadours (wandering minstrels/lyric poets who flourished in Provence from the 11^th to the 13^th centuries). It was in the work of the troubadours that Claude discovered the ancient art of tenson - which he describes as "a kind of lyric jousting match or poetic verbal exchange played out between two singers/musicians". (Tenson would later go on to form the basis of the Fabulous Trobadors' innovative style). Then in 1982 Claude discovered another major new source of inspiration, the embaladores - singers from the North East of Brazil who accompanied their poetic vocal improvisations on the tambourin (a kind of drum).

Claude Sicre continued to devote most of his time and energy to writing and composing. But he also became actively involved in a wide range of cultural activities in his region. (Claude was a prominent member of the committee which organised the annual Toulouse Carnival). Then in 1986 Claude turned his attention to his recording work once again, teaming up with his friend Daniel Loddo and making a new album ("Batestas e cantarias") in his makeshift home studio. It was while working on this album that Claude met up with another local musician, Jean-Philippe a.k.a. Ange B.

Ange B, who was considerably younger than Claude Sicre and whose own musical tastes veered more towards rap and hip hop, earned his living working as a radio presenter. But Ange was also renowned on the local music scene for his amazing ability to reproduce the sound of a whole range of instruments by contorting his mouth into a number of mysterious positions. Ange B had already made a name for himself playing with various local jazz groups, but his encounter with Claude Sicre proved to be the turning-point of his musical career. For Claude and Ange discovered that their individual musical skills were, in fact, perfectly complementary, so they decided to team up as a double act - and thus the Fabulous Trobadors were born.

In the early days of their career, the Trobadors made a name for themselves playing at local community events in neighbourhoods such as Arnaud-Bernard in Toulouse (a neighbourhood in which Claude had been closely involved in community projects for the past twenty years). The duo also went on to perform at a variety of carnivals, festivals and street theatre events all over the country. In the early days of their career the Trobadors insisted on writing all their material in traditional Occitan dialect, but the duo soon decided to begin writing in French - which was a good career move, as this opened their music up to a much wider audience.

The Fabulous Trobadors soon became acquainted with Massilia Sound System, a group of rappers from Marseilles who, like the Trobadors, were trying to wrench attention away from the music scene in Paris and prove there was another thriving music scene in the South of France. The Trobadors' encounter with Massilia Sound System proved to be an important turning-point in their career, for shortly after their meeting, the Marseilles rap posse offered to release the Fabulous Trobadors' début album on their own label.

"Era pas de faire" - the album's Occitan title means "We Shouldn't Have Done It" - was released on Massilia Sound System's label, Roker Promocion, in April '92. The Trobadors' album fused elements of rap and ragga with some extremely witty lyrics (written in both French and Occitan). Songs such as "Cachous Lajaunie" and "Félix Castan" were filled with hilarious wordplay and the track "Come on every Baudis" (which poked fun at the Toulouse mayor Dominique Baudis) proved a particular hit with music fans in the South of France.

The release of the first single from the album, "Pas de ci" (a song which featured the famous lyrics "Pas de ça / Pas de fumée sans feu / Pas d'idée sans être deux" - "No This" "No that/ No smoke without fire/ No idea unless you're two") - caused the Trobadors' fame to spread far beyond the South. And the duo were soon invited to appear at a host of famous music festivals up and down the country. In 1993 the Fabulous Trobadors brought the house down at "La Route de Rock" festival in Saint-Malo, then headed off to La Rochelle where they proved a huge hit with audiences at the famous "Francofolies". Following their success on the festival circuit, the Trobadors then embarked upon a major concert tour, playing dates in Switzerland, Belgium and Italy.

But The Trobadors remained wary of their new-found fame, and worried that their commercial success might strip them of their role of 'agents provocateurs'. Claude and Ange B needn't have worried, however - the Trobadors' lyrics lost none of their caustic sting ! Indeed the group's new album, ironically entitled "Ma ville est le plus beau park" (My Town Is The Most Lovely Theme Park), did not fail to cause a major stir on the French music scene. Released on the major record label Mercury in 1995, the Trobadors' new album contained several hard-hitting tracks including the heavily sarcastic "Quel sera notre futur" (What About Our Future?). Claude and Ange B. had originally wanted to call the song "Y'a bon Balladur" (making an ironic pun on the name of the former French prime minister Edouard Balladur). But the CSA (the French broadcasting authority) stepped in at the last minute to censor the title.

This act of censorship did nothing to take away the irony of the Trobadors' caustic lyrics on the rest of the album however. "Ma ville est le plus beau park / Elle est pleine d'attractions / Ta ville sera ce park si telle est ta décision", rapped Claude and Ange B, their voices filled with tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. ("My town is the most lovely theme park/ Filled with the most wonderful attractions/ And if you follow our example you can turn your town into a theme park too!")

Besides expressing their social and political commitment in their songs, the Trobadors also continued their involvement with local community projects in Toulouse, organising street parties and open-air festivals. Claude and Ange B. still found time to promote their new album, however, setting off on a major tour of France and performing gigs in London, Lisbon, Dublin and Montreal (where they performed at the Canadian version of Francofolies).

The Fabulous Trobadors are now back in the media spotlight with a brand new album entitled "On the Linha imaginot". The title, explains Claude Sicre, is a reference to an imaginary line linking groups of like-minded people, towns and villages. In other words, "a symbol of a movement towards greater cultural democracy". For this new album the Fabulous Trobadors enlisted the aid of several French artists including Serge Faubert and Jean-Pierre Mader. (The hip English band Asian Dub Foundation also took charge of the musical arrangements on the track "Fais de la politique"). DJ Ange B. wrote several of the instrumental tracks for the album "On the Linha imaginot", and Felix Castan contributed an interesting monologue entitled "Castan Blues". All in all, the new album included 11 tracks in French and 2 tracks recorded in Occitan dialect. The song "L'accent" was chosen as the first single.

Tying the Fabulous Trobadors down to any fixed musical category is a completely impossible task - we have to admit that this talented duo from Toulouse are, quite simply, unique. Let's just sum the Trobadors up by saying that without this fabulous pair of socially and politically committed musicians the modern Occitan revival might never have happened!

While going on with their political activism, the band released a new album in 2003. Entitled "Duels de tchatche et autres trucs du folklore toulousain...", the album was penned by Sodi (who also worked with Manu Chao and Fela). Apart from the tambourin, the flute and the accordion on a few tracks, the album hardly bore any instrumentation. As usual the lyrics were vindicatory and called for social awareness and action. The band also ventured to release a single -"Demain, Demain" - which nevertheless remained faithful to their sense of humour and gift of the gab.

August 2003