If you like dance music of any kind and aren’t familiar with Cerrone, it’s time to get back to basic… and I’m here to help!

French drummer, composer and producer Cerrone is best known as a pioneer of disco music in the 70s and early 80s.  His sound later branched out into pop-rock and electronica, fed on collaborations with top international musicians and singers, and was staged into large-scale “event” concerts around the world in the late 80s and 90s.  He’s enjoyed continued international success in the new millennium and is often cited as a major influence by the top dance artists and DJs of today...

Before moving on to current days, I’m going to stick a little bit with early influences and another Queen memory: my first-ever rock concert!

19 April 1982: Queen live in Paris, Palais des Sports (“Hot Space Tour”)

At that time, Queen had just released their first “Greatest Hits” album 6 month earlier, “Under Pressure” had been released as a single, but the “Hot Space” album wasn’t due until a couple of weeks later.

By 1982, I was a teenager and seriously into music.  But growing up in the French countryside, there weren’t many rock concerts – for that you had to make the trip to the capital: Paris…

My dad took me to my first concert – and several after that – not cool, I know, but Paris was very foreign and overwhelming to me at the time, and that was the only way I would be able to go.  To be honest, I didn’t mind at all and I think my dad enjoyed the show almost as much as I did.  In fact, I had already started turning on the entire family to Queen, by taking charge of the entertainment during family car trips and forcing them into submission with mixtape after mixtape…

I had been looking forward to this day for a long time.  The thought of being in the same building as my idols was blowing my mind.

One of my earliest memories of rock music was hearing on the radio “We Will Rock You” by Queen.  That must have been shortly after its release in 1977.

I didn’t really know what “rock” was and I had no idea who “Queen” was or what the song was about.  All I knew is that it sounded adult, it sounded “dangerous”, and I loved it!  That was a defining moment, the beginnings of my transition from childhood to adolescence…