⭐𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐀𝐈𝐒⭐

💥... & 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 ‘𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨. 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞’, 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏, 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏💥
Exactly 23 years ago today, on 22nd November 1999, a French version of 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐄𝐍 was released exclusively in France under the title 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄̧𝒂𝒊𝒔.
➡️ https://bit.ly/3ALV9Zw

In its original English version, the song is the 12th track on 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐈’𝐦 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 album.

Photo credit: Rudy Leonet, Radio 21; single cover / edit by Olga

⭐The song was written during a soundcheck in Leipzig on Placebo’s first German tour in October 1996, and was one of the first songs to be written for the album, along with 𝑺𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝑶𝒇 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔.
⭐Adaptation of Brian’s lyrics into French was done by Brian’s friend Nicholas Elliot. 🔶𝑵𝑰𝑪𝑯𝑶𝑳𝑨𝑺 𝑬𝑳𝑳𝑰𝑶𝑻🔶
Nicholas Elliot is an American-French director, actor, and writer. He was born in Massachusetts (USA) in 1974 and grew up in France and Luxembourg. He studied theater and cinema in Paris where he lived for 6 years.
Besides translating Burger Queen into French, Nicholas designed 𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒔 and together with Russell Thomas, worked on the video compilation 𝑶𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 (2004) released on DVD. He also directed a short film 𝑺𝒖𝒆'𝒔 𝑳𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒆 with Brian as an executive producer.
Later, Nicholas Elliot moved to New York to pursue his film career and join the band Turkish Love Circus as a singer.

⭐𝑹𝑬𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑬𝑺⭐
▪ 𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒐 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒗𝒆:
Burger Queen Français
Aardvark
Every You Every Me live from the End Session on April 10, 1999
&
Burger Queen Français
Pure Morning video

▪ 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 (𝒅𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒌 / 𝒋𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆)
Burger Queen Français
Aardvark
Every You Every Me live from the End Session on April 10, 1999

▪ 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒓
Burder Queen Français
The Crawl (Live Version Radio 21)

▪ 𝑳𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒐𝒙 𝒔𝒆𝒕 that includes 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑰'𝒎 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 album and 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄̧𝒂𝒊𝒔 single was also released only in France.

Photo credit: Francis Tsang

⭐The single was recorded at the Real World Studios and Matrix Studios, mixed at Whitfield Street Studios and Matrix Studios.

⭐𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑾𝑶𝑹𝑲 is by Risto Bimbiloski based on photography by Corrine Day.
🔶𝑻𝑰𝑻𝑳𝑬🔶
𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧 is a play on words between the name of the famous fast food chain Burger King, the word queen and the Luxembourg where Brian and Stefan spent their teenage years.

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "Yeah, we did a song. A new song that will be on the new album, which is called Burger Queen. It's a pun on Burger King and it also means Luxembourger queen. The queer from Luxembourg. It is a very sad story. The character in this song is in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's one of the worst things to be in the wrong place. He is homosexual, he is goth, he's on heroin and he lives in Luxembourg. These are four things you can have in your life ... No. I'm not saying that being homosexual is bad. It's the worst place where you can be all of those things. It makes us cry to listen to this song and play it."
(𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑆𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤, 1997)

⭐The 𝐋𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐒 are inspired by Brian’s lonely adolescence in Luxembourg.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "I've always been a loner. The three of us were, we spent our teenage years locked in our rooms, playing music. And like many boys of that age, I dreamed of becoming a star. A city like Luxembourg can be stifling when you are trying to create an identity. I couldn't be myself there. I felt isolated, far from the places I wanted to be. There was no place where I could express myself, find an echo. From this isolation I made songs, Teenage Angst or Burger Queen, because it inevitably turned me into a voyeur. Which is not the most enviable position to observe the world."
(𝐿𝑒𝑠 𝐼𝑛𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑁°169, 14 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 1998)

▪ ▪ ▪
𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧: Maybe your European upbringing allows you to get away with lyrics that you wouldn't have dared use if you'd been brought up speaking English in the UK or America. I'm thinking especially of those rhymes in 'Burger Queen'...
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: That's the whole point of a song like 'Burger Queen' sort of like structurally or if you're talking about it from a musical standpoint. The whole point of that song is to use a cheesy rhyme but to use words like infection, you know, connection, erection, you know. So it's subverting the cheesiness. It's like putting fuck and baby in the same verse.

𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧: I bet it's also the first time caesarean section's been used in a pop song!
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: I know, I'm so, so proud of that. I'm so proud of that one. (laughs)

𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧: Is that song based on a real person?
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: No, that one's kind of more of a story really. It's kind of about being in the wrong place at the wrong time you know and I guess you just finally... since we kind of grew up in Luxembourg - finally since we've written a song about it we can kind of forget about it now. But you know I think it's just... the play on Burger King, Burger Queen, Luxemburger, just kind of you know amused me when I first came up with it and along with 'My Sweet Prince' I think it's one of the saddest songs, but really beautiful, that we've written. I think there's a real beauty in our sadness you know when it goes down there there's something in it that really pulls at your heart, you know, and I don't know how we really achieve it but it's there. There always seems to be a tiny bit of hope at the end of it as well which is important."
(𝐼𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑛, 𝐴𝑢𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡 1998)

Photo credit: Scarlet Page

💥To make this anniversary post a little bit different and more interesting for you, I decided to add excerpts from 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔’ book 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎. 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 𝐒𝐔𝐑 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 (2009) which I translated for you. From its first chapter, 𝐋𝐮𝐱𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, part 1 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐲, we can feel the atmosphere of this tiny bourgeois country and learn more of Brian’s childhood.

🔸 ▪ 🔸 ▪ 🔸 ▪ 🔸
Having passed Lorraine, finding yourself in the Grand Duchy comes a true shock. Just a few steps from the rapeseed fields close to the former mine basin, and the border clearly warns of the inevitability of the shock coming: alcohol and cigarettes at a price that can withstand any competition, signs in two languages: French and Luxembourgish. The latter resembles distorted German with guttural sounds.

Very quickly, the roads turn into avenues lined with tall buildings with signs of the of the largest commercial banks on the planet; luxury multifunctional cars and high-end sports cars are proudly displayed in front of them. No one walks here, people mostly drive in soft silence, muffled by financial well-being.

It was in this universe of comfort and slowness that the childhood and adolescence of young Brian Molko passed. Within this reliable but terribly predictable world, the young guy couldn’t find his place. He felt completely out of touch with his older brother and couldn't find any suitable cultural pursuits for himself. “My teenage years were dark, filled with loneliness and boredom. I felt out of place. All the time I was waiting for something special to happen and turn my whole life upside down.” (Brian Molko)
[…]
“What was great about Luxembourg, that’s its extremely international community. I grew up surrounded by children of various nationalities. I think, it made me open to different cultures, different traditions at an early age. And that taught me a lot. It taught me tolerance and understanding towards others. I think it's very important." (Brian Molko)
[…]
Next to his mother and older brother, his life flowed like a long and very calm river. Constantly busy with his own affairs and being in endless departures due to his business, Brian's father was very rarely at home. It’s the lack of paternal attention that future leader of Placebo would later call an important factor that had a huge impact on his personality.
“My father is an American financial freak. Of course, in a family where there was no place for any artistic aspirations, I felt like a black sheep. Nobody believed in me. So, I locked myself in my room and learned to play guitar." (Brian Molko)

“When I was a kid, we often drove somewhere in the family van, and my parents listened to The Beatles, The Kinks and other bands like that on the road. I was put to bed to the Elton John’s music … The Bee Gees and questionable masterpieces of The Wings, but at the age of 7 you can’t protest, you have to endure. My father was a big fan of Buddy Holly. It was really cool because my friends’ parents loved Elvis and I was kind of an anti-Elvis." (Brian Molko)

Photo credit:  Robin Sellick 

Studying at the prestigious American International School of Luxembourg, founded in 1962 as Dupont School, Brian was languishing; the only thing that fascinated him was drama course. Being a fragail and insecure boy, he was lost in the crowd of diplomats and bankers’ children he studied with. That close presence of the arrogant offspring of American financiers convinced him to never ever live in countries where people of his father’s job do.

Molko suffered of deep frustration and to replace it, he often visited Luxembourg bars of – which bothered his parents a lot. Unlike the little American bourgeois around him, he didn’t do any sports and instead, he escaped to the Netherlands where he also visited local bars with a wide range of psychotropic substances

“The Luxembourg school is the worst thing that happened in my life. I had to quit the high school because I was constantly bullied there. I used to provoke others, including the guys two times bigger than myself. Standing in front of a small, frail boy, they didn’t dare to hit. I remember that once, they hang me up by my feet at a height of six meters. If they had untied the rope then, I would definitely have my neck broken. So, I looked into the eyes of death at a very young age." (Brian Molko)

“Sometimes, I still have nightmares that I’m back to school. But the good thing is that in the middle of a dream, I always realise that school is over for me many years ago, and then I begin to badmouth everyone on my way.” (Brian Molko)
(𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑠 ‘𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜. 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑠𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒’)

Post by Olga