Les Forbans Future: After Bébert’s Passing

If the success of Les Forbans began at the end of the 70s, their hits have continued to be a hit over time, whether Sing!tricolor version of the song Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out) d’Ernie Maresca, or encore Clap your hands et Flip flap.

Still as close as ever, the members of the group continued to perform on stage, notably in 2018 where they were able to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Les Forbans at the Olympia. But this Tuesday, November 26, it was for a sad reason that the Forbans made the headlines in the media, since the leader and singer Bébert died at the age of 63 following a long illness. It was Michel Papain, drummer and co-founder of the group, who transmitted the announcement “in the name of the family” à l’AFP.

Les Forbans: will the group continue without Bébert?

It is a time of sorrow and mourning for the Forbans and those close to Bébert, who leaves a wife and two children behind. Moreover, the musicians had already spoken about the future in the event of the disappearance of one of them, as Michel Papain indicated at the microphone of the Parisian: “we talked about it with Bébert. He wants us to continue. For the moment, we are in the dark, we don’t know.”

But the artists are not closing the door to a possible return in another form. The drummer explains: “If another singer comes, it will in any case be his name followed by and Forbans. We cannot replace Bébert.”. It must be said that even if the singer had hobbies, none of them worked in any other field than music. “Bébert liked to do carpentry, but we always made a living from our music, thanks to the public. We toured non-stop.” revealed his friend.

Sing! almost didn’t see the light of day

Sing! is Forbans’ biggest hit. And yet, this cover could never have been recorded. Indeed, Bébert wasn’t really a fan of their producer’s idea. “It’s true that we didn’t want to do it. It was a twist, we were rockers. But we had 11 tracks for the album and one was missing. Bébert ended up adapting the lyrics into French and it was this piece that the record company chose to release. recalled Michel Papain. So he did well to let himself be tempted.