A Led Zeppelin show changed her forever, so she became one of the first female rock journalists in Quebec. Even today, Marie-France Remillard facilitates the arrival of top rock stars in Montreal, especially on set. Everyone is talking about it. A portrait of a music lover who thrives on rock shows.
Published at 10:00 am.
“Springsteen has already sold a million tickets in Europe. A million ! »
We are not sitting in a restaurant when Marie-France Remillard informs us of news from the music industry several times a day on social networks like Twitter.
The day before our interview, in early June, this great thirst for rock had driven him back from the night at Fenway Park Stadium in Boston, where he had seen Paul McCartney perform.
“It’s nothing, the road,” says a lover of night driving.
Marie-France Remillard returned from London on Monday. On Sunday, he saw the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park for his 64th birthdaye Anniversary. On Wednesday evenings, she sits in the front row of Kesu For a performance by Polish pianist Hania Rani. On Thursday, he will return to Rome for a performance of Manesque. He will then return to London ABBA tour And Duran Duran. A full program!
“We had to go”
Marie-France Remillard caught the rock bug when she saw Led Zeppelin perform in Montreal in 1975. “It was a shock and a desire to share,” he says.
Photo by Martin Tremblay, The Press
Marie-France Remillard
The young Montrealer then began writing for the newspaper pop rock, Another woman, Liz Ravery, worked there. He was hired by his friend Mario Lefebvre – who later managed the careers of Caro and Roche Voisin. Marie-France had mailed a review of the Nazareth group’s performance at the Place des Nations. Then she was… 17 years old!
Later, he wanted to see Led Zeppelin again, but the group dropped Montreal from their tour, so he made his first trip to America to see Robert Plant and the Jimmy Page Band in Detroit, then two evenings at the legendary Madison. Square Garden in New York. “I stayed in the same hotel they stayed in in Detroit and met Robert Plant in New York,” he says. Robert Plant was an artist I met often. »
During our meeting, Marie-France Remillard discloses several such cases. Experienced truths for you to dream, but it seems impossible today.
How did she pull it off?
“It was easy then. I called the record company. You just have to go and listen.”
So simple…
Build long-lasting relationships
Marie-France Remillard officiated Pop rock From 1975 to 1980. She covered Quebec music, while her male counterparts were only interested in Genesis and progressive rock.
I went to see Harmonium, Aut’Chose, Diane Dufresne…records were released all the time. It was a really good time. There was a lot of money for promotion.
Marie-France Remillard
At the same time, Marie-France Remillard began to associate with groups of “more rock” international groups such as Aerosmith, Rush, Van Halen and Kiss. She left in 1980 Pop rock Find the journal Long live! And she became the first female journalist to write about metal in Quebec.
Photo courtesy of Marie-France Remillard
Marie-France Remillard with members of Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen, left, and Sami Hagar, Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen.
Connections and connections, she wove, that served her. He became close with Gene Simmons of Kiss, for example, one of the artists he helped Everyone is talking about it.
Later, he served on the management teams of Marie-France Caro and Angelique Kidjo, with whom he is very close.
His best friend, Paul Levesque, Bruno Pelletier’s impresario, had died two years earlier. “A big hit,” he says. When he worked with her in the band Mahogany Rush, he introduced her to people who became close friends with bands like Metallica and Def Leppard.
In December 1989, Marie-France closed Long live! Because she was into metal music a lot. Passionate about travel, he earned a master’s degree in international relations from Laval University. He then worked in Benin before returning to Montreal and was employed in Air Canada customer service at the airport.
Thanks to employee discounts, he can do Montreal-London for $19. But best of all, she was still able to meet the many public figures and musicians who accompanied her in the airport’s private lounges.
No nostalgia
On social networks, Marie-France Remillard shares many news from the music world: catalog sales, awards, health status of old rockers, etc.
“Business is very interesting to me,” he says. Harry Styles performs 15 nights at Madison Square Garden and 15 nights at The Forum in Los Angeles. This is huge! People do not know its success. »
You understand that Marie-France Rémillard was a woman of her time. “I’m not nostalgic”, concludes the one who doesn’t want to miss the flight of a new artist.
