The Lovers (band)

The Lovers are a French electronica/Neo Burlesque band based in Sheffield consisting of real-life lovers Fred de Fred and Marion Benoist. Their music is usually upbeat, satirising French stereotypes, with songs relying on food and sex.

Contents

• Discography
• Songs
• References

The couple started working on music after a chance meeting with Jarvis Cocker, who wrote them the songs 'La Degustation', 'Fred de Fred' and 'Basque Country'. These songs feature on their self-titled debut album, "The Lovers", which was co-produced by Dean Honer and Parrot of All Seeing I, Kevin Bacon and Jon Quarmby (Finley Quaye, Pretenders etc...), Leigh Devlin and Robin Downe.

The Lovers have been at the forefront of the Neo Burlesque/Gypsy Madness movement, often playing with Lost Vagueness.

They have collaborated in the past with Richard Hawley, Kings Have Long Arms frontman Adrian Flanagan, Afterflife, Budnubac, they also formed part of I Monster's live show.

In previous work, Fred worked for Sheffield studio FON.

Marion is a former bunny girl, who has worked with producers such as Nellee Hooper, and wrote the song 'Wonderland', which took Moloko's Róisín Murphy to number two in the dance charts.

Their music has attracted a rapidly growing audience, reaching from the duo's adopted home of Sheffield to all over the UK, The Netherlands, Germany and Singapore.

Their recordings have been used in a number of advertisements ("La Le" was used in an advertisement for McDonald's, "Crik Crak" on a number of others (Robinsons Fruit Juice etc...); "French Kiss" on the soundtrack of BBC TV series 'Sugar Rush') and are even being used as a grammatical teaching tool by Linguascope and the French Board of Education.

Their second album Pardon My French was produced and mixed in Austin, Texas by Gabe Rhodes (Beth Nielsen Chapman, Willie Nelson, Kimmie Rhodes, Billy Joe Shaver etc. … ) and Joe Gracey (Steve Ray Van, Ray Campi, Butch Hancock, Joe King Carrasco, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys etc...)

They are accompanied on stage by guitar player Bryan Day (Carmen Ghia and The Hotrods, Tony Christie) and drummer Marc Hoad (Pink Grease).