The group of four friends, Xavier Plumas (lyrics and vocals/ acoustic guitar), Thierry Plouze (electric guitar), Stéphane Gosnet (bass) et Romain Allanot (drums), officially became Tue-Loup at the end of 1995. The friends, aged between 20 and 30, had spent a lot of time together listening to music as students and then on the dole and over time they slowly realised that they had nothing to loose by trying to play together as a group.
They decided to combine their talents and experience, however limited. Stéphane was learning bass guitar and had to buy himself an instrument to play in the group. Romain had been playing drums for ten years, was a huge jazz fan, but barely had a drum set. Xavier, Romain’s cousin, had been writing a few songs here and there for about ten years and Thierry had some solid training from being in the family band who played at local balls. Based on a couple of really successful jam sessions and the fact that they all shared a similar outlook on life, they all felt they should team up seriously as a band and get something going. They felt something magic was happening and promised each other that they would make a record in the following 3 months. Just for the fun of it!

The early years

The group took their name from a small group of farms known as Tue-Loup (literally wolf killer) situated 30km from Le Mans in the Sarthe region of Western France. According to a few elderly locals, it was here that the last wolf in the region was sacrificed (others say the group invented the story). This is where Thierry lives and where, surrounded by fields and cows and few neighbours to make complaints about noise, the group decided to record their first album after a couple of warm up jam sessions. This first album is only available for sale at their concerts. It was a self financed project and they raised money on a subscription basis, borrowing the instruments and the recording gear. The album was finalised on tapes in two days and 600 copies were released in April 1996. Xavier took a spur-of-the-moment initiative and, without even consulting the others, sent one demo to French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles and another one to the record company PIAS.

When asked, Xavier says he chose PIAS because he knew the label had done some amazing work with independent American rock, importing such groups as Palace, Swell, Smoke… he reckoned they had to be decent people. But he sent off the tapes in such a hurry that none of the group’s details appeared on the demo. The label had to place an ad to find out who they were! During the six months they were raising money for the first album, they had been writing tracks which would make up their second album, recorded under the same circumstances as the first.

The real turning point for the group occurred when they met the sound engineer Robin Dallier who had already worked with Papa Wemba and Ismaël Lô. He became the fifth member of the band, tightening up their sound giving it the compact edgy energetic feel which truly reflects the personality of the group. He brought them all the sophistication of his mobile studio which he set up immediately at the farm. They finalised the album in 5 days. And as they recorded the last track everything began to fall into place at once. The first record was reviewed in Les Inrockuptibles and PIAS records proposed to produce this second album La Bancale. PIAS, who were at the time enjoying the success of Miossec, another group signed with them, granted Tue-Loup a budget of FF150,000 (about €25,000). Tue-Loup decided to sign for 3 records.

When "La Bancale" was released on 31 March 1998 they started a 20 date tour of France. Playing live on stage proved to be a bit of an ordeal for them at the beginning. Having released an album without much experience playing live, they found themselves in an unusual situation compared to most new groups who have usually built up a reputation and recognition from their live gigs before releasing an album. Tue-Loup’s first real concert had been in a bar during the 1996 Le Mans 24 hour car race, while the second (the following day) was to celebrate the 75th birthday of …. Xavier’s grandmother! Their abrasive version of the old French classic "Mon amant de Saint-Jean", a waltz written in 1942 by the legendary Lucienne Delyle, became part of their repertoire in her honour. It was also to become their first single. Jean-Michel Bensoussan shooting the video for the song at Sainte-Jamme-sur-Sarthe.

Musical Identity

"La Bancale" received good reviews on its release and the live tour pushed sales to 12,000 copies. The group members could finally consider themselves professional musicians. Their careers also received a boost when they were chosen for an award by FAIR (Le Fonds d’Aide et d’Initiative Rock) in January 1999. Other awards went to Alexandre Varlet, LT. NO, Tahiti 80 among others. FAIR was set up by the French ministry for culture in 1989 with the aim of promoting French music and supporting new French groups financially and helping them to launch a career in the music business. As winners, Tue-Loup received free promotion connected with being featured on the FAIR compilation album, a grant worth between €4,500 and €6,000, training and management advice. Tue-Loup feature alongside the other artists who received awards on the FAIR 99 compilation.

With the arrival of the summer in 1999 change was in the air. Tue-Loup continued to refuse to record in a professional studio but felt they needed a change of scenery to get their creative juices bubbling and eventually decided to head for Morocco to record their third album "La Belle Inutile". They had considered Spain or Portugal but finally chose Morocco because it was an attractive destination which suited their modest budget… and an opportunity had arisen for them to make a visit to Morocco into a working holiday. As soon as PIAS advanced them money for the making of their third album, the group headed off to Morocco along with their music gear and their sound engineer.

They installed themselves in a traditional open-air riad in Marrakech’s medina lent to them for the duration of their stay by Sapho (the famous singer of Moroccan origin based in France). The first sound of Morocco to be included in the album was its birds. They set up microphones all over the riad to capture the atmosphere of the place. The multitude of birds nesting around the house made a fair amount of noise, but the group found the sound far from disturbing and it was included to lend atmosphere to the album.

They first wanted to call the album Merlin but eventually settled on "La Belle Inutile", the name of a place they always pass on the road from Paris to Le Mans on their way to …. Tue-Loup. The album came out on 9 November 1999 and Tue-Loup started touring seriously soon after. It was their longest tour to date: a full 2 years criss-crossing French speaking countries. The following year was dedicated to making their third album.

Bad boys

Tue-Loup label-hopped in 2002, leaving PIAS for Le Village Vert. Le Village Vert released their next album "Penya" (meaning "bad boy" in local Sarthe dialect) in October 2002 after a final mix at the family farm. New members joined the group at this point, Eric Doboka arriving as bass-player and Christian d’Asfeld signing up on keyboards. The album, which included a cover of the Reunionese artist Alain Peters' song "Rest’là Maloya", drew on diverse musical influences ranging from Bill Evans' piano style and lounge music moods to literary-rap, with Rom Liteau contributing on the mike. After the release of "Penya", Tue-Loup embarked upon a hectic tour schedule which lasted through until May 2004. 

Tue-Loup's next album, "Tout nu", came out on Le Village Vert in 2004 and fans were treated to Xavier Plumas, Thierry Plouze and backing singer Babeth Contet reworking old songs from the Tue-Loup back catalogue acoustic-style. In April 2005, Tue-Loup's lead singer Xavier Plumas branched out on his own to record a solo album, "Les Anges à la sieste", under the pseudonym Fulbert.

2005: "Rachel au rocher"

Plumas returned to the Tue-Loup fold shortly after this release to begin work on the group's sixth album, recorded - just as Tue-Loup's previous albums had been - in an isolated country house in the Sarthe region. Tue-Loup's new album, entitled "Rachel au rocher" and released on the label Naïve, gave a much more prominent role to the piano than earlier albums. And, out of the eleven tracks on the album, at least half were a direct result of improvisations during rehearsals, the idea being to keep as much spontaneity and 'live-style' action as possible. "Rachel au rocher" proved to be a musically eclectic melting-pot of an album, including everything from simple folk ballads ("Corps de bête", "Je n'ai pas soupé"), jazzy tracks ("Je m'aplatis") and cabaret-style songs ("Elias") to raw guitars ("le Martin pêcheur") and instrumental rock ("Pas d'chant, pas d'krumar.")

On 2 December 2005, Tue-Loup presented songs from this new album to fans at a memorable live gig at La Maroquinerie, in Paris. The group then went on to put in an appearance at the "Transmusicales" festival in Rennes. In mid-January of the following year, Tue-Loup kicked off an extensive tour. The tour included a detour to Reunion in March 2006 so that Tue-Loup could perform at a tribute festival to the local poet-musician Alain Peters.

2007: "Le lac de Fish"

Tue-Loup re-emerged on the recording front on 15 October 2007 with a new album entitled "Le lac de Fish". The twelve-track album found the group swapping labels yet again, this time to work with T-Rec (a small independent label set up by their former tour manager, Cyril Bilbeaud). Critics showered "Le lac de Fish" with rave reviews, praising its subtle melancholy edge and its successful mix of folk, pop and bossa influences. Tue-Loup played a few gigs after the album release but, much to fans' disappointment, failed to embark on any kind of serious tour.

April 2008