A dozen studio albums, three Grammy Awards, millions of fans around the world, the prestigious career of Ben Harper would be-it was due in part to his encounter with a vendor of falafel rennes? This is what insinuates the singer in an interview with the Monthly Rennes on the occasion of 40 years of the Trans Musicales. In a special edition, where the stars reminisce about their fondest memories of the festival, the artist reflects on his first concert there in 1993.
Less than a year after the release of his first album, Pleasure and pain he said that he was moved by the audience who gave her a «pure adrenaline». Unable to sleep after the show, he strolled in the streets of the city. Hungry, Ben Harper then stopped in a restaurant for falafels, and there spent the night. «24 years after my birth, in Rennes, I am born again,» says the musician for 49 years.
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«The owner was running from my EP Like a King on his stereo. He loved to visibly my songs. The intensity that surrounded the music I had written was totally new for me. Fortunately, he spoke English. We ate, talked and laughed all night,» explains Ben Harper.
«I would like to tell him how much this night has counted for me.»
The interpreter in california claims to have discovered this evening, «the intensity that surrounded [his] music». «It has changed my way of seeing the world,» he adds. Today, he launches a search to find the owner of the restaurant to thank him. «I hope that, by coincidence, unbelievable, he will read this. I would like to tell him how much this night has counted for me,» says Ben Harper, even if he does not remember the exact spot where stood the establishment.
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The announcement is taken very seriously. Telegram has shared the appeal in its columns and the hashtag #BenàRennes has been launched on Twitter. A phone number, 02 99 79 04 65, and an e-mail address, rennes@lemensuel.com, have also been put in place.
In the meantime to find this mysterious restaurateur, Ben Harper released on march 30th his new album, No Mercy in this land , in collaboration with Charlie Musselwhite. On the 21st of June, it had inflamed The Olympia for a unique concert alongside Angela, Camille, or Jain.