Various

* 2021 Stock * Fabrice, 17 years old, is a minet, or to say it better, a mod from one of the posh neighbourhoods, the 16th district in Paris and such “golden ghettoes” as Auteuil, Neuilly and Passy. Fab’ likes to have his “ronron at the Dugstore”, as Dutronc sang it (an untranslatable wordplay on ronron, “cat food”, and a minet – “a kitten” – purring). Fabrice attends Henri IV prestigious high-school; his father, a businessman who made a fortune selling plastic flowers, and his mother, a former model from Jacques Fath, are never home – a cosy home indeed! With his Weston shoes, a slim-fitting suit by Renoma and his haircut modelled on those of Anglo-Saxons musicians appearing on French Eps, Fabrice dreams of Carnaby Street and the Sunset Strip.

He is not alone: there’s his sister Stéphanie, 16, who wears a fringe, a mock Courrèges dress, a pink Shetland pullover and white boots. Stéphanie reads Salut Les Copains and Mademoiselle Age Tendre, which both fuel her passion for Françoise Hardy, Zouzou, Twiggy and the Beatles. The Groove Club is happy to present twenty-two records that we dug out as a tribute to Fabrice’s kinky faves. We imagine those magic years 1966-71 (with two inclusions from 1976 & 77) to have been as you can hear it here — truly decadent pop-sike, as beautiful as the cathedral of Evry… whether it’s the arch-hippie Lolita taking us beyond the limits of pop music, singing songs which make one dream of Anicée Alvina riding her bicycle in a red dress… or whether it’s sunny and stunning, or brooding and tinged with sadness. And we sense that, paradoxical as it may seem, although we have imagined a parallel cosmos to the Grande Heures of pop culture, we are not far from the truth. Both the limited edition gatefold 2xLP and the CD version are chock full of information, sharing Fabrice’s story, as well as providing information about all of the tracks on this painstakingly curated volume of our celebrated Groove Club series. Popisme fantastique!