The Immigrants - THE IMMIGRANTS - Music & Performance - CD

Kenny Dread played the last gig of HR's 1989 European Tour and stuck around London in time to record some demos with UK punk goddess Poly Styrene before heading down to the South of France to fulfill a dream: form a high-energy melodic rock and groove band with his best friend, singer-guitarist Brian Parks. Brian had fetched up in the beautiful Southern French town of Aix-en-Provence and met a local American expat photographer, Cory Maier, who just so happened to be killer on the drums. A few months later Brian summoned guitarist and Chapman Stick player Levi Chen from a gig in Taiwan to complete the quartet, named appropriately The Immigrants. Brian and Kenny shared most of the songwriting and lead singing, and Kenny swapped the lead guitar spot with Levi. In a scenario reminiscent of Exile On Main Street era Stones hijinks, The Immigrants rocked up and down Provence and the Cote d'Azur, bringing a tuneful original take on styles from the '80s and beyond: surging anthemic punk, heavy crunch, white boy go-go funk and reggae, Motown groove. WIld gigs ensued at all-night proto-raves in Riviera vineyards and near slavery in Mafia-run Marseille nightclubs as The Immigrants built a fanatic local fan base known as 'L'Equipe Zed Zed Zed'. In the middle of all the rosé and Algerian hash and diabolical Frenchwomen they managed to hole up in an unused basement and pound out an album. Appreciated by A & R from London to LA, the tracks never saw vinyl, much less a CD, because of the oddity of the band's location, and The Immigrants folded the expat fantasy before even attempting to crack the nut of the French music industry: The band never played in Paris.

• The Immigrants - THE IMMIGRANTS - Music & Performance - CD
• Music
• Jib Machine
• Rock