Ferre Grignard

Belgian singer and guitar player.

Born: 13 march 1939 Antwerp.
Died: 8 august 1982 Antwerp.

Ferre Grignard started of at the art academy as a painter. He had a fear of flying. He is never been in America and also has never lived in the black ghetto. That was a fantasy story to please the journalists. He lived in a mansion, the birthplace of Peter Benoît, where he made music, painted and partied with the 20 friends who lived with him and literally spent all his money at once.

His debut album (Ring, Ring, I've Got To Sing) is a mixture of skiffle, folk and improvised blues music. After that album and the unexpected international success that followed, things started to go wrong. One example is Johnny Hallyday who had a hit with "Cheveux longs, idées courtes" which was a copy of one of Grignard's arrangements, but Hallyday didn't pay royalties for it.

Grignard changed record-companies from Philips to Barclay, but the first Barclay-album "Captain Disaster" didn't do as well as expected. Two come backs (early and late seventies) failed as well.

He died in Antwerp of throat cancer in 1982, at that time he was living on an attic without heating, surrounded with empty bottles.

His music and legacy has inspired many other groups like dEUS, Zita Swoon and Roland Van Campenhout for instance.