🌟 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐊𝐎 𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 🌟

🔸 Dear Soulmates, I'm sure you've already seen these caricatures of Brian, depicting him at different times in his career. Today I'm going to tell you the incredible story behind these fabulous drawings, the author of which is none other than a fan, 𝑫𝒆́𝒍𝒊𝒂, who had an exceptional experience in 2003, which I'm sure she still remembers today ! 😊

She was interviewed and her adventure has been published in 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑀𝑎𝑔 in 2005. 🔸

Délia is 19 years old and very talented. A talent that simply allowed her to meet the band, two years ago…

📖 I can't remember the exact day when this whole story started, that particular day when I met Mr L. I just remember that it was a nice day and that I had taken the opportunity to spend some time in Paris. I know an Ali Baba's cave there, a little treasure chest well hidden, in an alley around the rue Rivoli. It's there, in this record store, that I search and find most of the Placebo rarities that make up my collection. It's therefore out of habit that I pushed the heavy black door of the shop that day, without thinking about what awaited me inside... My curiosity pushed me to dive my hands in this indescribable mess which gives all its charm to the shop. I didn't suspect at this moment that the man leaning against the cash register and who seemed to know the salesman well was going to be the red thread of my whole story. As I approached the counter, in possession of my latest find, I saw him cast an interested eye: "𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜, 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 !". I look at him astonished: "𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 ? 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 ?". "𝑌𝑒𝑠, 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑑, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜. 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝐺𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟 𝑁𝑜𝑒́, 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑖𝑚 ?". That's all, everything started from there, from this little bit of chance, from this unexpected sentence... We took the time to talk a bit, and I took the opportunity to show my work to him. I have always drawn and I am passionate about art in general. So I often take time to draw the band's members, as one would take time to listen to a record... It's just another way for me to 'sketch' them, to swallow their words like a placebo... The man was not very demonstrative but seemed convinced by the few reproductions he hold in his hand and offered to show them to Gaspar, who had to see Brian himself during the week. We exchanged our e-mail addresses, then our paths separated, Mr L. taking with him the precious contents of my old drawing bag.

Photo credit: Hamish Brown

A few days later, I received an email that made me shiver with happiness... He kept his promise"𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐺𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑-𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑜𝑛 (𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑂𝑢𝑖 𝐹𝑀...). 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑙𝑢𝑐𝑘, 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟. 𝐿.". That was on 8 September 2004. I never met him afterwards. So I decided that same day to go to the famous radio station where the members of the band were invited, hoping of course to bump into them and say a few words. Of course, I didn't come empty-handed, just to make sure that all this wasn't the product of my imagination... Once at the reception, I introduced myself to the person in charge of the band during the interview. My request seemed bold at first, as I asked for the few drawings I had brought with me to be sent to them. He took the time to look at them and then promised to do everything he could.. Another promise kept ! Everything was happening before my eyes, through the large windows of the building. I couldn't hear what they were saying to each other but the reaction of Brian, Steve and Stefan was amazing: discovering their caricatures, they all started laughing out loud and seemed to quickly notice that the content of the bag was identical to the one Gaspar gave them the same day. They had also just been told that the young cartoonist was present ! Scanning the few fans present, it wasn't hard for them to understand that it was me... Brian gave me a thumbs up and said: "𝑆𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 !" They too ended up keeping their word and I finally managed to exchange a few words with the three musicians as soon as they left the studio. Stefan made the effort to speak French, Steve says: "𝑂ℎ 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 !", while Brian was still trying to find his words, with his special little smile in the corner of his mouth. We were probably as intimidated as each other... "𝑆𝑜 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑡 ? 𝐼𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑠 𝑢𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ? 𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙... 𝑊𝑒'𝑟𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠, 𝑒ℎ, 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ !". This is the most beautiful reward of all...

Photo credit: Stefan De Batselier

I would have liked to thank them for what they do, for who they are, but also for all the encounters I made thanks to them... But none of that came out... so I just made sure that Brian didn't take the caricatures of my drawing entitled 'Molko evolution' the wrong way. "𝑁𝑜 ! 𝐷𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑦, 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑤𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑢𝑛 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑟 !". That's it, that's all, it's short, but we had the opportunity to meet again later and it has always been with the same smile and the same class... A few days later, on my way home from school, a small black letter was waiting for me on the big table in the living room. It contains a Polaroid photo of Brian Molko sitting on a hotel sofa, holding up one of my drawings. And this message from Mr L.: "𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑢𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 ! 𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝐺𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟 𝑁𝑜𝑒́ 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠, 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠..." 📕

(𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘨 - 2005)

🔸 The only unfortunate thing is that the drawings of Steve and Stefan were never published. I'm sure they are just as good ! I also wonder if she went on drawing them until now. I'm curious how it must look like, don't you ? 😉

𝑳𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝒔𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒉 𝑴𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒄 ! 💖 🔸
🎥 https://bit.ly/3ErkZ6u 🎵

Photo credirs pic 1: 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘋𝘦́𝘭𝘪𝘢, 𝘜𝘯𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 (1996 𝘦𝘳𝘢), 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 (1998 𝘦𝘳𝘢), 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘦 (2000 𝘦𝘳𝘢), 𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘘𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘯 (2003 𝘦𝘳𝘢)
𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘦

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