We owe him the arrival in Lausanne and elsewhere in Switzerland of the best artists of the moment in the 80s and 90s such as Nick Cave, Patti Smith or Siouxsie and the Banshees. Concert organizer Solstice Denervaud looks back on her journey as a woman in a “very masculine” musical environment, from the Lausanne alternative scene to the creation of major festivals.
In her book-conversation with Rodolphe Haener, she shares memories, anecdotes and reflections on the music industry. “It wasn’t easy. I wanted to quit at least ten times,” Solstice Denervaud told Keystone-ATS. But the journalist Rodolphe Haener was able to put her at ease.
Very early on, she imposed her assertive character and her feminist commitment, becoming an activist in the women’s liberation movement (MLF) and becoming involved in the cultural struggles of Lausanne with Lôzane Bouge. “I was a facilitator at the Center des Bergières. We started organizing concerts there. Then I managed my first group, the Lausannois de Maladie Honteuz.”
In Swiss alternative clubs – Dolce Vita in Lausanne, Fri-Son in Fribourg, Usine in Geneva, Rote Fabrik in Zurich – she made a place for herself in the boiling rock landscape. “We dreamed of experiencing in Switzerland what we had seen in the United States.” His first American road trip, to San Francisco with three friends from the MLF, will remain engraved in his memory.
Perfecto and box of chocolates
In Lausanne, she quickly professionalized. Hired by the Infrasound agency, she developed the Swiss and Anglo-Saxon catalogs, knocking on the doors of agencies in London, which sent artists around, perfecto on their backs and boxes of Swiss chocolates in their hands. “I was a warrior. At the time, apart from assistants, there were no women in the business. For equal work, you had to prove your qualities ten times more.”
She founded the agency Hip Line Productions with other people, organizing the first three editions of the HotPoint Festival at the end of the 1980s. “We were 100% guaranteed utopians! The first HotPoint, in 1987, took place at the Parc du Bourget, on the edge of the lake, near Vidy. Entrance was free. We wanted it to be open to everyone, to introduce rock groups to everyone. And the sponsors played the game.”
For the first edition, Johnny Rotten and his group Public Image Limited were on the bill. “I saw him arrive from the Fassbinder Hotel, he had red hair, I had blue hair.” Despite the artistic success, the festival did not survive financial constraints and stopped after three editions.
From U2 to Bob Dylan
The 1990s marked the passage by VSP, a concert organization company and the Leysin Rock Festival, where it programmed concerts by U2, Prince, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. “The evening with Mano Negra, Sinéad O’Connor and Midnight Oil, there were traffic jams all the way to the highway. The Dylan concert! The weather was so bad that the audience was in a fog. He found it magical! He took me by the arm as he left the stage.”
After the closure of VSP, Solstice Denervaud founded her own agency, Ishtar Music, in 1994. Her catalog includes: Massive Attack, Nick Cave, Björk, Moby, Rita Mitsouko, Blur, Les Négresses Vertes, Willy DeVille and Robbie Williams. “I saw him the next day in Zurich and I knew what an entertainer he was. Ten years later, I organized his two concerts at the Stade de Suisse, in front of 80,000 spectators.”
Eminem’s first concert in Switzerland, at the X-Tra in Zurich, we owe to Solstice Denervaud, like that of Radiohead. She also toured Public Enenmy, Ice -T and in other registers Faithless, New Order or Morcheeba. She also supports Swiss artists like DeLaSar or Wintershome and contributes to festivals such as Zermatt Unplugged.
The Sacred Voices Festival
Solstice Denervaud has always sought to promote voices, creating the Sacred Voices of the World festival in Lausanne in 1999. “I gave singers like Cesaria Evora, Angélique Kidjo and different choirs from all over the world an important place.” Today at 74, she listens to a little less music, but with a return to her roots to blues, soul and vocals. She sometimes helps out: advice, coffees with young artists or sharing addresses.
Observing the evolution of the music industry, she concludes lucidly: “If I had to start again today, I would opt for events mixing music, photography, cinema and the arts. But I have served my time. The place is now for the new generation, and especially for women, I hope.”
His book contains many gems. We can guess that she still has many more within her. This sylph with clear eyes will briefly emerge from the silence specific to agents, used to rubbing shoulders with the stars.
Dedication in Romont on Saturday March 7 at the La Rumeur bookstore, of “Conversations, Solstice Denervaud, Music & Feminism” in the presence of musician Yves Z.
This article was automatically published. Source: ats
