In 1994 a new instrumental band was set up in Paris : Atlantis Five. They first had the idea to be Les Ombres (the French word for shadows), but it did not appear either imaginative or new. Then they thought of one of their favourite shadows number Atlantis. But after a while they realised this was the name of a Belgian band. That’s why they changed it to Atlantis Five.
The line up is Daniel Longoni on lead, born in 1943, Patrick Aymard on organ, born in 1958, Guy Leduc on bass, born in 1946, Didier Poirier (ex Guitar Express) on rhythm and Jean-Louis Dupas on drums. Daniel and Patrick played together in band playing the usual week end balls. At the end of 1993 they made a party in the Paris suburb in Kremlin Bicetre and they included in their usual set some Shadows numbers like Wonderful Land, Apache, Shadoogie, FBI. The audience went dancing and asked for more such tunes.
They made up their minds and said let’s try to set up a shadows style band. They had already the Fender guitars, the Vox amplifiers and the Roland reverb kit. They arranged some Shadows tracks like Guitar Tango and Daniel penned his own tune Nostalgia.
That was the start. Then they got known by the Shadows fans and made a lot of gigs in Paris, the press mentioned them and supported them, they played in such places like Le Petit Journal, a must for jazz , à l’Orée du bois , at the Disney Paris, in mMontparnasse. Finally Magic Records offered them to cut a record in 1997. Since then they made more gigs and are preparing a second album.
Jean BACHELERIE
Discographie (CD)
- Dans l’ombre des Shadows (Magic Records 1768620)
Apache / Wipe out / Atlantis / Johnny Guitar / Cosy / Find me a golden street / Riders in the sky / Gonzalez / Nostalgie / Telstar / Driftin’ / Wonderful land.