Nice-Premium: The Kids of Rock grow up in Nice. The 6th edition of this festival will take place on the 30th and 31st of May. Can you remind us of the initial concept and how did the Kids of Rock start in Nice a little over two years ago?
Patrice Bouchon: The basic observation is simple: there are more and more good bands in Nice and its surroundings. Unfortunately, they can’t all play regularly.
As the venues that allow bands to play their own compositions are very rare around here, and the opportunities to play are consequently quite limited, we started with the idea of trying to rotate a lineup of bands across several venues.
At the beginning of the project, in August 2006, I wanted to organize rock evenings with bands from the department.
We started at Volume, programming Maupity and In Vitraux, two bands already accustomed to playing in local pubs.
So, initially, the Kids of Rock was a traveling thematic evening. I hadn’t yet thought of making a real festival… We had the “return match” at the Ajm in Monaco, in mid-November 2006. The result? A total flop. Almost no one came, except for the musicians’ girlfriends and a few rare friends of the two bands.
The following week, we scheduled 4 local bands (Maupity, In Vitraux, Amadeus Tappioka, and My Diet Pill) at Salle 700, made available to us by the General Council of AM. Almost 400 people showed up.
So, we needed to improve the concept…
NP: Did you then imagine being able to bring Axel Bauer, Blankass, Matmatah, or even Louis Bertignac?
Patrice Bouchon: The basic idea, to program departmental bands, has remained unchanged from the start. However, it is true that by the end of 2006, I realized that the best way to help and “highlight” all these bands was to schedule them in a real concert hall (Nikaรฏa, Thรฉรขtre de Verdure…), opening for a headline act.
In March 2007, Kids of Rock 4 at Salle 700 welcomed Eiffel, giving Maupity and Solid State the opportunity to share the same stage.
Then, as I’ve had the chance to work in this industry for a few years, I was already very regularly in touch with most agents and producers. Consequently, when I called them and told them that the Kids of Rock was turning into a true festival, and was moving to the Thรฉรขtre de Verdure in Nice, they were very interested and immediately offered their rock artists.
I didn’t really have any trouble getting Matmatah and Louis Bertignac for the 5th edition of the Kids of Rock. Matmatah’s agent trusted me almost immediately. As for Bertignac, it was a bit of luck. I was wondering if we could organize a festival over two consecutive days, with a headline act each night, and I was visiting a lot of artists’ websites. When I got to Louis’s website, I saw that he wanted to extend his tour (although initially, he wasn’t supposed to tour in 2007). So I called his production, and they didn’t take long to convince him. Louis had already come with Tรฉlรฉphone and had very fond memories of the Thรฉรขtre de Verdure.
I must admit, in addition to my contacts, the venue now hosting the festival counts a lot.
Many artists and agents know the Thรฉรขtre de Verdure in Nice, which hosted the best of rock and international varieties in the 1980s. And for the few who don’t know it, just saying that the Mediterranean Sea is immediately nearby is enough to make them hurry over!
