Jipé, who was born in Paris in 1963, was a passionate music fan from an early age. In the late 70’s the talented young musician discovered the thriving punk rock scene in Paris and went on to form his own group, Les Privés. After several changes of name and a dramatic reshuffling of the original line-up, this group would finally go on to become Les Innocents.

Made up of Jipé on lead vocals, musicians Pierre and Tramber and bassist Rico (who quit the group in 1995), Les Innocents performed their very first concert at a legendary squat in the Rue des Cascades in Paris in 1982. The foursome went on to play at the renowned Parisian concert venue, Le Gibus, and then embarked upon a minor tour of the French provinces. By this point the group were beginning to make a name for themselves on the French music scene, and they were soon invited to support American groups such as REM and The Fleshtones on their French tours.

Les Innocents went into the studio in 1985 with producer Patrice Fabien (renowned for his work with the French group The Blessed Virgins) to record their début single "Pamela". Released on the New Rose label later that year, the single did extremely well, considering that only a limited number of copies were pressed. "Pamela" - a record which is totally impossible to track down today - proved a great hit with the critics and generated favourable reviews in several French rock magazines.

Although "Pamela" received favourable reviews, the group’s career did not take off immediately. Unperturbed by this slow start, Les Innocents concentrated on their songwriting in 1986, occasionally playing a local gig before falling back into oblivion again. The group’s busy songwriting period produced six new songs including the excellent "Jodie", which was to give Les Innocents their first major break. For it was after listening to "Jodie" that the French singer Jay Alanski offered to become Les Innocents’ producer. The group immediately returned to the studio with Alanski and, after an intensive recording session, they came up with a demo tape which was to prove a great success when it landed on the desk of a company director at Virgin. The British label, recognising the new French group’s talent, would offer Les Innocents a recording deal in November 1986.

Thus in January 1987 "Jodie" was released in France on the Virgin label. The single, which proved to be one of the greatest pop hits of the 80’s, sold over 150,000 copies and shot to the n°34 slot in the French Top 50 - where it stayed for an incredible 15 weeks. Les Innocents were suddenly catapulted to the forefront of the French music scene and, during the following six months, the group were caught up in a hectic promotional schedule which involved countless interviews and record signings - but performed no actual concerts!

Unfortunately, Les Innocents' next single "Et le temps n'attend pas" (released in January 1988) would not live up to the phenomenal success of "Jodie", so the group returned to playing live shows, going back to the concert circuit after a 2-year absence.

The first of the major shake-ups in Les Innocents line-up occurred in June 1988 when Tramber quit the group. Tramber was instantly replaced by Jean Christophe Urbain (aka Jean-Chri), a talented pianist and guitarist who was a fervent Beatles fan. During the summer of 88 the new line-up of Les Innocents concentrated on their songwriting activities, coming up with twenty new tracks. In December 1988 the group flew out to Brussels with the English producer Paul Hardiman to record ten of these new songs on their début.

Les Innocents’ début album, "Cent mètres au Paradis", arrived in record stores in May 1989, and was closely followed by a new single (the album’s title track). It was at this point that Les Innocents were joined by a new member, an English drummer and percussion-player called Michael. The group spent the rest of 1989 on tour, performing 120 acoustic concerts across France (many of which were in local schools).

At the start of 1990 Les Innocents began working on their second album. However, as the group’s début album "Cent mètres au paradis" had failed to prove as successful as everyone had expected (selling a mere 16,000 copies), Les Innocents were under close surveillance from their record company. The group were to spend over a year honing the 11 tracks on their new album to perfection. Finally, in August 91, Les Innocents went into the studio with musical arranger Philippe and producer Patrice Blanc-Francard.

Les Innocents' second album "Fous à lier" finally hit the record shops in March 1992. The first single release, "Mon dernier soldat", failed to make any major impact on the French charts but the second single, "L'autre Finistère", was to prove phenomenally successful. By the end of the spring of 92 Les Innocents were firmly established at the forefront of the French music scene. Indeed, in April of that year the group found themselves the proud owners of the coveted "Bus d'Acier" award (presented to the Best Pop/Rock Group of the Year).

In November Les Innocents embarked upon another series of live concerts, performing at the Bataclan in Paris with a string ensemble and a vibrant brass section.

The year of triumph came in 1993 however when Les Innocents released a whole string of hit singles. Dominating the nation’s airwaves, the group became one of the most prominent names on the pop/rock scene. Meanwhile the group's album "Fous à lier" went rocketing up the charts, selling over 500,000 copies.

In 1994 Les Innocents devoted all their time and energy to their recording work, locking themselves away in various Paris studios (including Le Studio Plus and Jean-Chri’s home studio) until September 95. This intensive recording session resulted in a new 11-track album (Les Innocents actually recorded 13 new songs, but what actually happened to the missing tracks 12 and 13 remains one of French music history’s great unsolved mysteries!) When the recording session finally came to an end Les Innocents’s original bass-player Rico decided it was time to quit the group.

Thus it was a reduced line-up of Les Innocents who went on to promote the group’s third album "Post Partum", released in February 1996. After the success of the first single "Un monde parfait" and four immensely popular concerts at La Cigale in Paris, sales of the third album rapidly topped the 100,000 mark. If any doubt remained as to whether Les Innocents were now an integral part of the French music scene, this doubt was instantly dispelled by the incredible success of the follow-up singles "Colore" and "Dentelle".

Les Innocents scooped the award for Best French Group of the Year at the 1996 edition of the "Victoires de la Musique" awards. Fans had to wait a while for the next album, however, which did not come out until 1999. Reinforced by the arrival of Bernard Viguié (on bass) and Christopher Board (on keyboards), the group headed off to the Uk to record their eponymous new album in Peter Gabriel's Realworld studios in Bath. This time round vocals were provided by Jipé, but also Jean-Chri and the pair's voices perfectly suited the group's new Brit Pop-influenced style. The first single release from the album was a track entitled "le Cygne".

Unfortunately, despite several excellent reviews in which music critics hailed it as their best album yet, Les Innocents did not go down as well with the record-buying public as had been expected. And, in 2000, the group’s fortunes went further downhill when Jean-Chri made a shock announcement that he was leaving the band. Les Innocents were forced to cancel their autumn tour and, after acknowledging that they had come to the end of the road, the group went their separate ways.

In 2003, fans rushed to buy a copy of Les Innocents’ Greatest Hits album which featured all the old favourites from the band’s illustrious career spanning almost two decades.

In 2004, Jipé Nataf re-emerged on the French music scene with a solo album entitled "Plus de sucre".

July 2004