Les Charlots, known as The Crazy Boys in the English-speaking world, was a group of French musicians, singers, comedians and film actors, who were popular in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. The group was active first from 1965 to 1966 as "Les Problèmes", under which name they made an album with the French singer Antoine. They renamed themselves Les Charlots and remained active from 1966 to 1997, then again briefly from 2008 to 2011 (as a duo). Charlots is slang for "clowns" or "idiots" rather than being a direct reference to Charlie Chaplin, who was generally called Charlot in France. Their light-hearted comedy style was influenced by the style of popular Italian group Brutos and by the anarchist humor of the Marx Brothers. The five members were Gérard Rinaldi (vocals / saxophone / accordion), Jean Sarrus (bass / backing vocals), Gérard Filippelli, a.k.a. "Phil" (guitar / backing vocals), Luis Rego (rhythm guitar / piano / backing vocals) and Jean-Guy Fechner (drums / backing vocals). Filippelli was nicknamed "Phil" as there were two "Gérards" in the group. Rinaldi and Sarrus were musicians in various short-lived groups ("Les Rebelles" and "Les Tarés", for Sarrus) and they first met in 1963. They became friends and decided to form a rock band, even though at the time, Rinaldi was more into jazz than rock. In 1964, they were joined by Luis Rego, then in 1965 by Gérard Filippelli and Donald Rieubon on drums. In 1965, they became the backing band for singer Antoine under the name of "Les Problèmes" ("The Problems") or sometimes "Antoine et les Problèmes" ("Antoine and the Problems"). They backed him on two his greatest hits, "Les Elucubrations d'Antoine" and "Je Dis ce que je pense, je vis comme je veux". In 1965, while he was vacationing in Portugal (his home country), Luis Rego was imprisoned for a few months under the Salazar regime, for desertion and rebellion. During Luis' incarceration, Rinaldi wrote "Ballade à Luis Rego, Prisonnier Politique" ("Ballad to Luis Rego, Political Prisoner"), a popular song that the group often played on stage. He was replaced on stage and in the studio by guitarist Jacques Dautriche (also a singer under the alias Sullivan). Rego rejoined the band as soon as he was released. In 1966, drummer Rieubon was called up for military service and left the band. He was replaced by William Ollivier until the band became Les Charlots. ... Source: Article "Les Charlots" from Wikipedia in english, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
