BACKSLIDERS - Rock'n'roll Heretics

BACKSLIDERS Rock'n'roll Heretic cd 1993 Spliff records

Overture / Glamorize me / Utopia Airways / Crucial days / Waitin' to be served / Logical nonsense / You drag me down / Somebody save me / As it stands / Struck dumb / Rock'n'roll heretic / My own free will.

Produced by B. Michel & the Backsliders.

The Backsliders :
F. Lebas : guitar, lead vocal /E. Vaubourg : drums, vocals / E. Goument : bass,vocals.

The Backsliders (Le Havre) , fronted by Francois Lebas, who also headed up the late 80s group Fixed Up, is a tough rock'n'roll trio influenced by Detroit and australian rock .They have recorded five albums : two for Spliff records (Clermont-Fd) "Impose the worst" (1991) & "Rock'n'roll Heretic" (1993) , three for RATC records : "Rock against the clock" (1997), "Bend or stand" (1998) and "No way" (2001).

"...Prior to this formal introduction, my knowledge of the Backsliders was limited to their cover of the Fun Things' "Savage" on "Storming the Citadel" tribute and "Sex My Soul On Fire" on Steve Gardner's excellent "The Violence Inherent In The System" compilation of European bands on NKVD Records (which track, by the way, is from the aforementioned, unobtainable "Impose The Worst").
Subsequently I was able to get the other two albums direct from the band. When those two albums arrived in the mail, their manager had included a couple of press releases which, being in French, weren't as much use to me as they might otherwise have been, but the accompanying photos did show that the band's appearance is as hard as its sound. The band consists of the core of Francois Lebas (guitar and vocals) and Eric Goument (drums) with a different bass player on each album (?? Vaubourg, Laury Picard and Christophe Paillette respectively). In the words of a bloke I used to work with years ago, they're a bunch of real tough lookin' eggs.
Of the three albums, it's probably not surprising that I'm most taken with "Bend Or Stand'. After all, it's the one I heard first; it's the one with the most mature song writing; and it's the one with the most polished sound. However, the other two are certainly far from being devoid of interest.
"...Taking them in chronological order makes "Rock 'n' Roll Heretic" the first cab off the rank. After the short instrumental "Overture" (no don't panic, this isn't going to turn out to be one of them there self-indulgent concept albums), comes one of the standout tracks: the morose, belligerent "Glamorize Me", after which "Utopia Airways" picks up the pace and from there the album rarely lets up. A few of the songs which follow are a little lightweight or not fully realised, but there are also some gritty proto-classics like "You Gotta Love Me", "You Drag Me Down", "Somebody Save Me" and the closing "My Own Free Will". I don't think it's any accident that these statements are all in the first person...
Although this is a guitar band (and the guitar work doesn't ever let up), Monsieur Lebas doesn't take much in the way of actual solos so most of the songs come across more as ensemble pieces than as singer/guitar star with rhythm section in the background, which gives the whole album a more coherent feel than many comparable power trio efforts..." J. McPharlin I-94 Bar