Stocks

Born in Valenciennes in northern France at the end of the 1970s, the band Stocks developed French-language rock strongly marked by the blues and the hues of southern rock. From the start, Stocks drew attention on regional and then national stages with a prominent guitar sound and a live-oriented aesthetic, embodied by a first album recorded live in the early 1980s. That record laid the foundations for a repertoire combining blues-rock riffs, extended instrumental passages and lyrics focused on everyday life and a road- and popular-culture imagery. Two studio albums followed in the first half of the 1980s, extending this direction between energetic French rock and influences from the American South. Stocks became part of the network of venues and rock festivals of the time, sharing bills with other French acts of the same generation. The band returned to the stage occasionally thereafter, keeping the name Stocks alive in the memory of French rock associated with blues-rock sonorities and forward-driving guitars.