PORTRAIT. “I had the life I wanted…” Erich Sperling, figure of the nights in Toulouse, leaves Cri de la Mouette

“In 20 years, I have never fallen into the water. Yet I took a few risks,” laughs Erich Sperling, while he poses for a photo, on the edge of the Brienne Canal, in front of the Cri de barge. the Seagull. He has no longer had the keys to the boat since December 24, the date on which he sold his floating nightclub to five buyers, including two managers of the Rex de Toulouse and a Chevalier du Fiel.

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Cap screwed on his bald head (“I look ten years younger when I wear it”), the great captain of Toulouse nights has just retired at the more than honorable age of 78. Do you know many men of this generation who spend their nights in clubs? Despite health problems – he helps himself with Nordic walking poles while awaiting back surgery – he was present almost every evening on his festive ship. Moored below the alleys of Barcelona, ​​the place opened its doors from midnight to 6 a.m., every weekend, to techno fans. “Everyone respected me until the end. As soon as there was a problem to resolve, I showed up and Grandpa calmed things down…”

It has been seven years since Cri de la Mouette was on sale. Erich had to wait before retiring from the stage, especially since he wanted to keep the musical identity of the place and the Covid happened. The new team kept the same electro programming, and its figurehead will no longer haunt the pontoon. “Calm down! That’s what I need,” he confides. In one lifetime, Erich lived thirty, and left his mark on Toulouse nights with three flagship establishments: the Métropole concert café, then the Erich Coffee bar, in Saint-Cyprien, and the Cri de la mouette barge. Four decades of music and partying, carried out in his own way, laughing and remaining free. “I had a lot of fun. I had the life I wanted,” he says. “I always remained poor, but I took pleasure in working as a boss, guiding young people. I was happy when the people inside were happy.”

Emigrated to East Germany

His birth dates back to just after the Second World War, in 1947, in a small Polish village, in the heart of a family of five children, forced to emigrate to East Germany when he was 3 years old. He grew up in Berlin. “My father lost a leg, the War destroyed him.” Young Erich is passionate about sport. “I was running very fast, like a refugee,” he jokes. He does odd jobs, repairing 2CVs, modeling, taxi… “I wrote ballads with funny lyrics in German and I sang them, I love making people laugh.” He travels by truck, obtains an architect’s degree and leaves his country for a tall blonde, a Toulouse woman he met in Ibiza. Arriving in the Pink City, he opened the Métropole, rue de l’Industrie (in place of the current Frog & Rosbif). It is one of the first concert cafés in Toulouse and it quickly finds its audience, hosting jams galore, rock, blues and pop lives. The Fly & The Tox made their debut there, the singer Nicolas became a close friend of Erich.

Then he moved and created Erich Coffee, in the Saint-Cyprien district. A pub brimming with energy, which sees Axel Bauer, Sandoval, Joël Daydé parade, with lots of beers and decibels. “Everyone who started came by my house. The sound was super loud, if it got too loud, I cut it off. The neighbors were yelling.” At the end of the evening, Eric took the microphone to sing “Gloria”, by Van Morrison, and push the customers out. It is the problems of local residents that push him to leave rue Joseph-Vié, after 15 years of living.

The arrival of technology on the boat

“I wanted a club, so as not to have to close at 2 a.m. I came across this barge, the Atlantis. It was trash, it was squatted, but it wasn’t expensive” , he remembers. He renovates it, soundproofs it and repaints it white. His wife, Véronique, named it “Le Cri de la Mouette”. “One day she said to me when she woke up: ‘No one knows that there are seagulls in Toulouse and yet we hear them all the time.’ Pop, funk and always rock are played there. , “never jazz”. Then the captain feels the tide turning. “The number of entries was dropping. Young people took the keys and showed me what worked.” Electro entered the Cri de la Mouette and it has reigned supreme ever since. “Even though I was from Berlin, I knew nothing about techno. I was already starting to be a little deaf, confides Erich. But I felt that a new era was beginning. I adjusted everything in terms of sound and it was a hit. Finally, I could pay myself properly, everyone was happy.”

Le Cri de la Mouette becomes a reference stage for emerging DJs, who come to learn their skills there before playing in larger venues, such as the Rex or the Bikini. Erich kept his energy until the beginning of 2025, when he now plans a life of rest. “From time to time, I’ll go see a big concert, like the Stones. I love going to the coast, to Collioure. And I want to go on long trips too, I don’t know Asia…”