Ange: Friday 15th February 1974, The Penthouse, Scarborough

The ‘Au-Delà Du Délire’ tour

Christian Décamps (vocals) / Francis Décamps (keyboards, vocals) / Jean-Michel Brézovar (guitars) / Daniel Haas (bass) / Gérard Jelsch (drums, percussion)

This was my very first Penthouse gig, a red letter day in both my youth and my musical appreciation education. Everything was new to me that night – the entry to the venue, from the renowned Ruby checking passes and taking cash, the stairs winding up to the bar/dancefloor/stage, to the toilets – oh, the bogs! Back then I didn’t really care about the state of the floor in there (and I was definitely sober, always) and it never occurred to me that what I was standing in there I would subsequently be sitting in (and putting my hands on! 😮 ) on the dancefloor as we enjoyed the bands! My memory of that night is quite hazy now but I do remember being absolutely thrilled with my surroundings and careful about what I said within earshot of others because I was underage at only 16 and a half.

As for the music, well this was exactly the kind of thing that I was into – prog, heavy and classic rock (without the “‘n’roll” suffix) and no Motown or easy listening crap, although my tastes have mellowed somewhat since then, of course! 😉 On this night I was introduced to the air guitar and to “doin’ my thang” to ‘One of These Days’ by Floyd, ‘Do It Again’ by Steely Dan, ‘Silver Machine’ by Hawkwind, and numerous Quo tunes. What an introduction!

Anyway, Ange… They were quite simply an outstanding French symphonic prog-rock band. The front man was the seemingly deranged Christian Décamps, while his brother Francis played keyboards. They both appeared as nutty as fruitcakes with their scruffy clothing, wild-eyed grimaces and long, straggly hair in much the same style as Jethro Tull’s ‘Aqualung‘ character. Their gigs were very theatrical – as you can probably tell from my description of les frères Décamps – and they won many plaudits touring Europe although the rock press of the day felt that their French lyrics held them back. The music itself was very, very progressive in style with extended pieces featuring soft acoustic elements and lush keyboard passages. I have always likened them to early Genesis because they seemed to be painting pictures and telling little stories. My friend Steve Toal recalls the band “waving lanterns about and carrying daggers with Christian Déscamps leaving the stage and wandering around the room waving his lantern – excellent entertainment.”

I have categorised this as the ‘Au-Delà…‘ tour only because that was the album that they had out at the time and, although there is no confirmed setlist from this gig, I have dug out a possibly very similar one (see below) which includes several tracks from it together with some older material (‘Au-Delà…’ was their third – and breakthrough – album).

I remember sitting enraptured by the performance, with an almost perpetual smile on my face as I soaked it all in. It didn’t even help that I was studying French at ‘O’- and ‘A’-level back then because the lyrics were still a mystery to me. Nowadays I just sit back and read album insert and understand most of it (I’ve always been much better are reading and translating than trying to understand rushed/garbled foreign languages). There are many videos on YouTube of the band performing the tracks from ‘Au-Delà…’ and I am guessing that my entertainment that evening was much the same, but it is only a guess. There’s also an effusive review of the album here.

In closing I know that I enjoyed a wonderful night, one that set me up for life at a venue to which I would return again and again. Happy days! 🙂

Possible setlist: Exode; Aujourd’hui c’est la Fête chez l’Apprenti-Sorcier; Le Soir du Diable; Dignité; Ces Gens-là; La Route aux Cyprès; Bivouac; Les Longues Nuits d’Isaac; Le cimetière des arlequins; Le Vieux de la Montagne (from the Paris Théâtre de la Mutualité a few weeks earlier on 10th January)

And, an amusing footnote with which to finish… Many, many years later, in the early 2000s I think, I taught Claire, a very intelligent French girl, in my junior school class in Nottingham. Towards the end of the school year, probably early July, she and a friend were at a loose end having finished all of their work; did I have any extra jobs that they might help with, she asked? Well, yes – I had the CD of ‘Au-Delà…’ in my coat pocket (no, I have no idea why, either!) so I said that if she wanted, she and her friend could translate the lyrics for me. Half an hour later she came back with a wry smile on her face, saying that she really didn’t think that they ought to be doing this as the words were… err… a bit naughty. I really should have known better! 😂😂

In 2023 I found this small – 85mm x 100mm – cutting from a music news paper on eBay. Then in 2022 I commissioned a 1″ tin pin-badge of the band…