Didier Wampas, a working punk who opens up • Le Suricate

Titre : Punk Worker
Auteur : Didier Wamps
In collaboration with Christian Eudeline
Edit: Harper Collins
Publication date: November 13, 2024
Genre of the book: Autobiography

Didier Wampas, you have probably already heard this name without really knowing who he is. Or at the limit, you come back to his only commercial success, the song Manu Chao where if he had Manu Chao's portfolio, he would go on vacation at least as far as the Congo or that of Louise Attaque to go on vacation as far as at Easter. However, Didier Chappelaine and his group The Wampas, is a legendary French rock group, but if some of you are unaware of its existence, it is mainly due to its working-class Punk mentality, an artist who never wanted to having a compulsory commercial approach, even keeping his job as an electrician at RATP until his retirement at 50 so as to never have to submit to the authority of the record companies.

If reading this first paragraph has intrigued you or if the guy already thrills you, it's time to look a little further into his life and career. Play a mix in the background on your favorite platform, listen for example The red boots, The ravers of Spezet, Tonight is Christmasetc. and open the singer's autobiographical book, which he wrote with journalist Christian Eudeline. From the first pages, we quickly find the madness of Didier Wampas who quickly proclaims that he became a singer, because he was bad at everything else and that his accuracy is not really a problem for making a rock group, that the main thing is the artistic approach! The chronicles of his life and the group alternate with the lyrics of his different songs. The lyrics are always followed by a commentary from the singer and it is often quite funny and absurd. Most of his songs come from a basic idea that he then supplements with other lyrics without always making sense.

Despite everything, this work is not perfect. He sometimes leaves too much space for song lyrics and we are left a little unsatisfied with the anecdotes and the history of his career or his thoughts. Especially since the guy is rather talkative in interviews and we find a lot of interesting ideas there on the way he lived all these years with the Wampas. But for those who want to discover this unclassifiable singer, this is the perfect book. And then… Didier Wampas is the king!