I dug out my copy of Vanessa & The O's "La Ballade d'O" for the first time in a while the other day. It seems like only yesterday they were being pushed as the next big thing, but it is actually getting on for nearly 20 years. What happened?
Future big thingness seems unlikely at this point, at least for the O's. Vanessa has been keeping herself busy with Allez Pop! and the like but there has only been one further album from the O's, and that was ten years ago ("Stories For Watering Skies"). Never mind, we'll always have "La Ballade d'O".
"Bagatelle" - Vanessa & The O's
"NY Hotel" - Vanessa & The O's
PS After writing the meagre paragraphs above I discovered that Khayem did an Imaginary Compilation Album on Vanessa a few years back, so I suggest you direct any follow-up questions to him as he is more likely to know the answer. For example, he would know whether it is true that the O's were so called because Vanessa is an avid supporter of Leyton Orient FC.
Vanessa is much more likely to support Lorient who I'm sure you know are currently high flying in France's top league, Ligue 1 (currently known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats) than Leyton O presently residing in the English Div 1. I very much liked NY Hotel - the start of which reminded me of Mojave 3's Return To Sender.
ReplyDeleteI did consider that possibility, but then presumably the band would have been known as the L's not the O's.
DeleteAn excellent post, Ernie, and I will be back to comment further. However, I couldn't leave the mystery of The O's origin hanging, though.
DeleteI can say without fear of contradiction that the inspiration for the name came from Vanessa's time in the UK, where her snack of choice in the studio were these beauties
https://www.goldenwonder.com/range-category/ringos/
I mean, you can't say no to the 'o', can you?
More completely made up nonsense soon.
Many thanks for this 100% authoritative answer
DeleteI'm a massive fan of Vanessa's work, as you've probably gathered, so it was great to hear these songs again. So much so, I had to listen to both Vanessa & The O's albums again (and several times since). I really enjoyed her last album Voodoo Girl, released in 2020, so I hope there's more to come in future.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post on Vanessa yesterday. There is a lot of her stuff that I was not previously aware of that I will be checking out.
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