Thierry Huylebroeck : Guitars
He
starts playing the guitar in April 1972 with his father's old jazz guitar
!!! He starts Conservatoire in 1973. In early 1974, he is offered a
real classical guitar. At this time, Deep purple and Led Zeppelin are
on their top with "Machine Head" and "IV"…
At the same time he meets Pascal (yes, the one who recorded the first two Kob albums), who played drums, with whom he sets up a group in early 1974, a band which could have played for wedding balls (two accordions).
A little later, in 75, with some friends from college, he sets up a little rock band, the Sea Horses, just to devote himself to his passion, rock, or even hard-rock !! The set essentially consisted of covers from Deep Purple, and of a few 3 chords blues "jam sessions", just to fulfill it. Then comes the time for original material. But in early 76, the famous musical differences lead to the end of the band.
He founds Wotan in 1976 with the bassist of Sea Horses and a certain Bruno on drums (the same as in Kob ... but younger ;)). It must be said there that at this time his neighbour at school is called ... François Mazetier ;).
In
this first year, they could hardly find a place to rehearse, but anyway,
the band was working well, even if they could not find "their"
vocalist. After that, they found a place for rehearsal in Bruno's
parent's house until he leaves for his military service, in 1979.
This will mean the end of Wotan Mark I.
During Bruno's military service, he founds a cover band with Bruno's brother on bass and some friends of their singer, Guy. They play tunes from Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Heavy Metal Kids, Mountain, Thin Lizzy, etc…
When Bruno returns, they bring back Wotan for a while with Guy, but as the vocals does not fit, they stop quick. Bruno tried things on his own, and Thierry rolls in a band called Elixir who had left an ad at the Golf Drouot. We are in 1980. they rehearse in the 15th borough in Paris and the music has nothing to do with Hard Rock, but with this band, Thierry signs a deal with Phonogram (Philips) for 7 albums (at the time, it was the standard deals with majors) and works with the producer of Ange, which has a deal with Phonogram as well. It is a deal you cannot refuse when you have no other band, and no real professional prospect.
A
first album is recorded in July 80. Then, a little later, the first
singer is fired and replaced by a guy from Bordeaux who had come to
Paris to make it. After the recording of the second album of Elixir
in July 81, and a few and a few tours, he quickly returned to Bordeaux!
: o ))))) Anyway, the second album is a good French rock album. It
also allows them to play on January 82 at the Olympia with Ciné Palace,
another french rock band signed with Phonogram and which does not
know success, as does Elixir ! Anyway, at this time that Thierry has
got a lot better(rehearsals everyday from Mondays to Fridays, studio
sessions, a lot of gigs, all of this during two years). But the lack
of success makes it clear that they have to break the deal with Phonogram.
We are in april 1982.
In the meanwhile, Bruno had joined a band called Panam in which played a certain Boboss (1st bassist for KOB) and two guitarists who were the first at the time to play Vigier guitars (Patrice Vigier was based in Evry, in their region), and obviously he does not had a blast, knowing that Thierry was all alone. He finally persuaded Boboss to come with him, and therefore, in spring 82, Wotan, Mark II is on its way.
As
usual, they start without any singer. After they've been testing a
lot of them, in 1983 Bruno joined back Panam, which has found a wonderful
singer, Jean Jacques Berete. And during the summer of 1984 he comes
back to Wotan with him. But even if they have been working very hard,
they have to face too many problems (especially with record companies).
So they decide to call it quit during July 1987.
Then, one day of spring 89, Boboss and Thierry meet two nice guys , Philippe (vocals) and Patrick (drums), who are more fans for Magma and Ange than for Hard Rock, but with a particular talent, especially Philippe which has some kind of really good ideas. They therefore decide to work together, the band is called 3615. The band lasts a year and a half/two years, some concerts, including one gig in Ris-Orangis, but that is the same old song, no label etc, etc ... so they split !!
Shortly after, during an audition for a guitarist who had so-called great plans to record an album, Thierry meets Aldo, a drummer, and Pierre, a bassist, with whom he decides to start something. Pierre is quickly out of it to be replaced by Boboss. It must be said that he was not very serious !!! :o))) But as usual, no singer, and thus, once again it is a split !!! We are in 1991 !!!
Nevertheless,
Aldo has a cousin, Enzo, who is trying to set up a band with an American
singer, Steve, and therefore, Thierry was introduced to the band,
Wild West, with the past Rondat keyboardist and Fred Milano. It is
some kind of a pretty cool californian rock band. He then tries the
power trio with Enzo on bass and vocals and Sam on drums, the band
is called Set ! The band is very heavy-oriented rock, the vocals is
not great, but there is a lot of feeling. It will not last long, but
still they have time to play a gig in Villethierry, set up by a certain
Alain Ricard, we are in October 92.
After a few months alone, Thierry decides to set up a band with two guitars as Wishbone Ash does. This is the beginning of Décade (see on Rudy's page) which stops in 96, Thierry being fed up with singers problems. On the other hand, a few time before, he was approached by Boboss who wanted to make it back with Bruno, yet another version of Wotan !!!!! So Thierry and Bruno started to work together during February of 1997, while Boboss was buying his new equipment. Boboss had stopped playing for six years and Bruno for ten !!!
In the meanwhile they had learned that Wotan was used for nazi's propaganda during WWII, so they decided to change the name of the band. After two years of rehearsing, Stéphane Graziani came in, the band became Kob and Rudy came in as well. Then Boboss decided to quit and was replaced by a guy who had been meeting Thierry at school in ... 1975, François !!!!
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