The Kaiserkeller

Paris, 1960

September 1960, it's friday night and for Hannah and her band, it's the big night, they play tonight at "the Golf Drouot", the best Rock concert hall in Paris, they'll play with the band "the 5 rocks "which will later become "Les chaussettes noires"(The Black socks) mythical band of French rock.

After years of hardship, they finally began to play in real concert hall and finally be able to live of their music, even if for the moment they didn't earn lots of money during their performance. But no matter, they were playing in front of an audience, and it was already great.

Hannah was 18 years old, she was a little brunette, she was thin with curves, beautiful brown almond eyes, insolent gaze, make up in black, she's always dress in black, leather, or blue jeans with custom clothes made by her. She was still hanging out with 3 guys, they were inseparable and united since their childhood, after meeting in an orphanage, where they hadn't lived easy moments, they had faces of killers, thin physical but muscular, with blue jeans and black leather jackets, the hair combed back, they were part of this gang that terrorized Paris "les blousons noirs", they were real hooligans, rock fans and loved pretty girls, more they were innocent and naive, more they liked it, Hannah loved gangsters, more dangerous they looked, more it attracted her, but hadn't find yet one who'll make her lose control, they also liked smoking and drinking a lot, but what they liked the most was music. During her first rock concert, Hannah had fallen in love with the bass, she absolutely wanted to have one and learn to play it, she had to make some bad tricks to earn enough money to afford her first bass, an amazing Fender jazz bass, overpriced, but she was determined, in her band, there was Simon playing the drums, Ben playing the guitar, and David playing the electric piano, they were older than her, Simon and Ben was brothers, Ben had 25, Simon 23 as David, they had trained a lot, Hannah wrote and Ben composed their own song, they did a few covers, but it didn't please Hannah who preferred to sing loudly what she wanted, sometimes in French, sometimes in English, which she had learned at the orphanage.

The Golf-Drouot acquires its celebrity thanks to its springboard on Friday night. It's a music competition open to all: four or five bands following each other, and each band have about half an hour to interpret few songs and conquer the audience. The band that comes first has the right to a new participation and can also win a studio session.

They loaded their instruments into the van, and go to the club, where the owner was waiting for them, Henri Leproux was a good fellow, who loved to discover new talents, he explained to them again the details of the evening, and in what order they had to play, then they saw the musicians of the "5 rocks", they had known each other for a long time, and were rather friends, they liked to make fun of each other, Claude the singer who called himself Eddy Mitchell to make more American (who'll become later a great French singer), arrived and put a small slap on Hanna's butt.

"So "mes loulous " who'll still kick your ass tonight?"

"In your dreams Eddy, tonight is our night"

"may the best wins, little Hanna"

It was Hannah's band's turn to play, they went on stage.

"Good evening I'm Hannah, Ben on guitar, Simon on drums, and David on keyboard, we're "The Frenchies" "are you ready? Let's go 1,2,3,4"

They had to play 6 songs in total, 3 covers and 3 of their compositions:
- I gotta know from Wanda Jackson.
-Fujiyama mama of Wanda Jackson.
- Johnny Burnett's Train kept a-Rollin.
-1,2,3,4 rock.
- Je suis french
- Tu es à l'ouest.

The audience seemed delighted, people danced and clapped their hands, at the end of the set the public asked a last song, they seemed to enjoy the original compositions of the band, they played a last song of their own, "people unite."

She believed in it thoroughly, but unfortunately the "5 rocks" that were much more popular won the contest, but "The Frenchies" reached nevertheless the second position, which was already not bad.

"I told you we'd kick your ass, little Hannah"

"Fuck you Eddy"

"ahaha such a bad loser"

she was really upset, she believed so much that they'll win.
A man of a certain age presented himself to Hannah.

"Hello Miss."
In english with a strong German accent, he kissed her hand.
She thought it was again an old pervert who was trying to fuck her.

"I introduce myself, Bruno Koschmider, I heard you play, and I must say that I loved it, it was really great.

"oh really, thank you"

"I own a club in Germany, we're currently organizing a rock festival, with several English bands, would you be interested to participate, we are looking for new talents"

She took a step back when she heard about Germany, but she began to think and asked the man what the conditions were.

"You will be paid $100 a week, until the end of December, and you will also be accommodated free of charge, I will also pay for the fees trip."
"Wait a minute, I'll ask my boys and I'll tell you if we agree."

she explained everything to the boys.
Simon, who was the most violent of the three, replied:

"You're serious there Hannah, you want to send us to the "Bosch", he's old he must be a former Nazi, I'd better smash his head"

"shut up Simon, calm down, and think, we'll be paid $100 a week, it's a bunch of money until next December, we need this money, we can't refuse his offer"

"I don't know Hannah, he's still a "bosch" I don't really want to play there after all the misery they've done to us!"

"You really think I can forget about it Simon, you think it doesn't bother me to go out there, but think of all that money, maybe you could pay for your new bike, we'd have money to try to record an album, it will be much better than staying rusty here, without doing anything, right?

"It's ok Hannah, tell him that we agree"

"there is a problem?" asked the man who didn't understand French.

"No, no problem, you can count on us."

"what an ironic situation, let's show them we're still alive and let them move their asses on our music."