VIVE LA FÊTE

Duet of sexy French lyrics and eighties-style wave and electropop.

Vive la Fête is one of the projects of dEUS-bass-player Danny Mommens (others are Sexmachines - rock'n roll - Jesus Christ - heavy rock), who teams up in the band with his girlfriend Els Pynoo.
Usually also Piet Jorens (Arno, Pieter-Jan De Smet, Charles et les Lulus ...) and Aldo Struyf (Nemo) are on the stage with them. The combination of Danny's love for eighties wave music and the Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin-fixation of Els blend together in Vive La Fête.

The debut of the band is being told by the couple as a coincidence : "I have always played keyboards at home. Els came humming her little french verses along from time to time. We thought that is was much more sexy to sing in French than in English, and it's easier to sing in French than in Dutch. There's no strategy behind it, although you get noticed for it".

The first release of the band was a 7-track CD "Je Ne Veux Pas" on the label Kinky Star (which was founded by Danny Mommens btw, together with co-Sexmachines Luc Waegeman en ex-Manifesto Mark Vandebos) in 1998. Filled with lo-fi home-recorded electropop, it was the titlesong that was picked up by the radio and stayed there for some time. Although no reviewer was jubilant about the mini-cd, the reception was good.

The song "Je Ne Veux Pas" was picked up also in the fashion world, a fact that caused the establishment of a live-version of the group : when they were asked to play at a Paris fashion show for Walter Van Beirendonck, they were offered such a sum of money they couldn't refuse. Vive La Fête also played at a number of aftershows to dEUS' live-gigs.

In 1999 (with dEUS touring heavily with "the Ideal Crash"), the couple/band did find time to do a number of home-recordings. These were released in 2000 on their first full-cd "Attaque Surprise". Less lo-fi, but with the same ingredients, the album also included a surprise collaboration with the band Ween. Danny on "On s'amuse" : "We know that group well through a common friend: René Godeville. I like Ween and there are some similarities : they also sing songs in French at times, although they don't know the language. And they have the same playful attitude towards music. They have sent us a recording with bass/guitar/drums, and we have recorded the vocals on top of that. Even though I don't like the blues very much, because it was Ween we thought it funny to put it on the record".

The album appeared on a new sublabel of Lowlands instead of Kinky Star, and the group changed to the dEUS-management Musickness instead of Tout Partout, which was explained by Danny as "When we wanted to go to France for the first time, they said that if we went outside Belgium, we had to take the Kinky Star catalogue with us. But I don't like all the groups that are on the label and stylistically we are very different. Or can you picture us touring in Germany, with on our bus the albums of De Bossen? The business-aspect of music isn't exactly our forte. We only want to look after the nice part : working on new ideas, playing live."

In 2001 Vive la fête did a small promo trip through Spain (aqui se habla de "Eviva El Fiesta" en español) and recorded a track written by Serge Gainsbourg "69, Année Erotique", which is included on the tribute album "Lucien Forever" (label: Pussycats).

In June 2001, the band released its second album "République Populaire", preceded by a vinyl only maxi with some remixes of the song "Tokyo". The Gainsbourg fixation was also enhanced, through a cover of "Lemon Incest". As the bio said : "the band still digs in their memories of an innocent popsound of 20 years ago, but gets its inspiration without embarrassment from the eighties electro sound. Echo's of Visage, The Cure, Kraftwerk e.a. give the unmistakeable VLF-touch a nice retro-feel ...". The album was recorded in a home-studio at the house of the couple, but by this time the band set-up had changed: Jeroen Swinnen, Jules de Borgher (also a dEUS-member looking for something to do as that band got ever so quiet in 2000 & beyond) & Dirk Cant (Mumasan Oyster) joined in the fun.

Band members :
- Els Pynoo (vocals, synthesizers)
- Danny Mommens (guitar, bass, synthesizers, vocals)
with
- Jules de Borgher (drums)
- Jeroen Swinnen
- Dirk Cant
in the first set-up with :
- Piet Jorens (percussion, synthesizers)
- Aldo Struyf (guitar)

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Je ne veux pas (Kinky Star, 1998)
- Attaque Surprise (Surprise/Lowlands, 2000)
- République Populaire (Surprise / Lowlands, 2001)

Websites :
- My review of Attaque Surprise
- Vive La Fête with their former label Kinky Star
- Vive La Fête in real-audio at Atrecordings - here + here
- a Vive la Fête fansite by tim & eef.
- Vive La Fête in the Antwerp Music Pages
- Interview met Danny Mommens bij Surf-Inn
- Video interview with "Serge Mommens & Els Birkin" at Fun2Go
- Els Pynoo in the nude on photo by Filip Naudts
- "Je suis Là" live and in streaming video at Club Lek