Satan JokerS' history begins in 1979 with the band JARRETELLES. At that time, the trio features Renaud Hantson on drums and vocals, Laurent Bernat on bass and a guitar player. They give only a few concerts and make some demo recordings before they decide to audition singers. Pierre Guiraud is chosen. At first, he is mostly noticed for his extravagant clothes (it is communally thought that he came to the audition wearing a red shoe on one foot and a white shoe on the other). After firing their first guitarist, the band quickly finds Stephane Bonneau (ex-STRATOS then WARNING). December 1981: Satan JokerS was born ! The band's name was inspired to Renaud Hantson by two rival gangs of bikers in the United States: the Satan Slavic and the Gipsy Jokers. In order to attract the attention of the record companies, the band records at the Studio Chien Jaune a three-track demo (presented in an iron box) composed of the titles "Les Fils du Métal", "Quand les héros se meurent" and "Vices privés" (this last composition will reappear under a different version on Satan Jokers' second album). They appear in Francis Zégut's radio broadcast "Les enfants d'AC/DC" in December 26th 1982 to perform the title "En partance pour l'enfer". Very quickly, Satan JokerS are noticed. Their audience becoming increasingly big, the group has to record its first album in order to release it as soon as possible. Isabelle de Kervalec (the band's producer as well as mother of guitarist Stéphane Bonneau) inks a three-record deal with PHONOGRAM for Satan JokerS. In the course of year 1983 an epic first opus is released, called "Les Fils du Métal" (the 10 000 first copies contain a patch carrying the logo of the band) and is preceded by the single Les Fils du Métal / Quand les héros se meurent. The group is happy to see its first album reaching good figures of sale, yet despite everything, only two concerts are given that year, the first one at Le Palace in Paris in June 3th 1983, and the second one at the Rameau theatre on June 29th 1983. The record is an immediate public hit but the press allows it a more mitigated welcoming.
In 1984, the band is in studio again for the recording of its second album "Trop Fou Pour Toi" with Steve Prestage (sound engineer for Gary Moore and Phil Lynot, among others). The single gets the invaluable support of Francis Zégut's WRTL programme. Despite a consequent support, the audience doesn't answer to the call of this second album, rather different from the first one and sounding more Hard FM. On the other hand, the press is very positive. A small anecdote: "Trop Fou Pour Toi" should have been called 1984 (an idea Renaud Hantson had before VAN HALEN entitled his album thus, inspired by the prophecies of Nostradamus), but the record company thought it was better to use the title of one of the songs from this LP. Later on, a French tour of about thirty shows starts, including the Bol d'or in September 1984. In 1985, they release their last album, simply called III. In those days, PHONOGRAM used to release 6 tracks mini-LPs to attract an audience who (already !) thought by then that records were too expensive. The album is rather violent and very technical (musically speaking). It gathers six songs with varied climes and features once more Pierre Guiraud and Renaud Hantson sharing the vocal parts. The release of this new LP is followed by several dates and festivals seeing Satan JokerS often co-staring with other french metal bands. As the France Festival (gathering approximately 50 groups with Satan JokerS heading the bill on the first evening and TRUST on the second one) attracts only 2 000 people, Renaud Hantson decides to put a term to the adventure and to start a new one as a solo singer. This second part of his career is maybe more known by the general public, notably with his participation to the mythical rock opera Starmania in 1988.
What followed belongs to history
Hantson never really neglected rock'n'roll since he released in 1992 the cult album FURIOSO with guitarist Thibault Abrial, Zouille (ex-singer of MAGIC SPELL), Farid Medjane (ex-TRUST) and the ten french guitarists most representative of made in France hard rock (Nono, Patrick Rondat
). He finally decided in 2005 to go back to drums AND singing when he started his parallel project called FURIOUS ZOO (two albums Furioso II, Furioso III and a DVD). The aim of the project is to find his roots again while playing in clubs in the tradition of his his anglo-saxon idols. He sometimes interprets there some of the Satan JokerS' songs. In 2005, Hantson produced what will become the will and the proof of the avant-gardism of Satan JokerS: the album Best of live (dedicated to Laurent Bernat, bass player of the band, who died in 2004) that gathers the six titles of the third album of the band (that was never released on the CD format) and the songs that the four fellows used to play regularly in concert.
Source : http://www.myspace.com/satanjokers
