Early life A
Spirou magazine reader and
André Franquin (
Spirou,
Marsupilami,
Gaston Lagaffe) fan, the song ''Les Élucubrations d'Antoine'' was a revelation for him at an early age. When advertising was permitted on French television from October 1, 1968, his parents of humble origins Nicole and Tony Blum started producing advertising films. Their success was immediate. Their company, named FBI (Falby Blum International) had already produced several films by young director
Jean-Jacques Annaud when they were awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Advertising Film Festival in 1971 for Annaud's
Crackers Belin film. The company had opened offices in five countries as Tony Blum moved to Toronto in Canada, where his son joined him during the 1974 and 1975 summers. Aged fifteen, he was already bilingual after several stays in the UK, USA and Canada. His father produced the first feature film by
Jérôme Savary ''Le boucher, la star et l'orpheline'' (1975). Bruno Blum got to meet and know his parents' colleagues and friends, including directors
Jean-Jacques Annaud,
Ridley Scott and actors such as
Pierre Desproges and
Jerry Lewis, but he was not interested in advertising. A dedicated comic strip reader, as early as twelve he was the founder of several amateur college comic magazines with his classmates. After an encounter with
Asterix author
René Goscinny, he created a magazine named
Klaus in the Paris art school Les Arts Appliqués where he studied comic book art with Georges Pichard, Jacques Lob and Yves Got. In 1974–1975, the very young editor gathered a team of talented artists that would all become professionals, including Bernar, Fernand Zacot, Klaus,
Jean Teulé and classmate Jean-Marie Blanche, son of the famous French comedian and humorist
Francis Blanche, an inspiration to both friends. Failing all studies, Blum was evicted out of three colleges, including two art schools. Self-taught from then on, he would build teams following the same pattern, being the prime mover in many of his future projects.
Move to London Following two convictions for record theft, and as his parents' company was going bankrupt, causing them to lose almost everything, in 1976-1977 the drifting teenager moved to London to study animation film with Oscar Grillo (who directed an animation film for Linda and
Paul McCartney) and keenly attended rock clubs. In 1977–1978 he lived in North London's
Stamford Hill Jamaican neighbourhood where he discovered reggae sound systems and dub music. He also made the earliest known recording of a then unknown band,
the Police, with a hand stereo recorder at London's
Roxy Club on March 3, 1977. Going through straits, he stayed in London squats, sharing houses with
punk rock musicians including Private Vices and the Electric Chairs. A precocious, gifted person, he had already formed a rock group when he started writing for glossy magazine
Best, a popular rock monthly for which he was London correspondent from 1977 to 1981 as chronicler, reporter, illustrator and photographer. He would then work for years with a small team comprising Christian Lebrun, Francis Dordor and Patrick Eudeline, travelling (and recording) to the UK, USA and Jamaica as a reporter. His successful
In the City column, in which he published accounts of the very influential British music scene of the time, was written in lively, vivid
gonzo style and left its mark on the French youth. He met several reggae artists, including
Linton Kwesi Johnson,
Steel Pulse,
Peter Tosh,
Toots and the Maytals,
Bob Marley and widely contributed to promoting reggae music among the French youth with his stories in popular
Best Magazine. He also interviewed rock artists, including
Nico,
Lou Reed,
John Cale,
Wilko Johnson,
Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers,
the Clash, the
Sex Pistols,
the Rolling Stones,
Paul McCartney,
Lenny Kravitz,
the Stranglers,
Fela Kuti and many more. By 1978, he had become a daily contributor as London correspondent and chronicler to nationwide French radio station
Europe 1's
Monde de la Musique show hosted by Pierre Lescure. He was recording and touring the UK in 1978-1979 with British punk group Private Vices, which he founded in 1977 with Christophe Ruhn. He was to be the first French journalist to write about
the Pretenders,
Devo,
Linton Kwesi Johnson,
Madness,
Motörhead and the then-unknown
Stray Cats, which he put up in his London squat as they first arrived from New York City. He also drew their original logo (as seen on the original
Runaway Boys single cover), and drummer
Slim Jim Phantom's tattoo showing a drum set bearing his name. His
Rock and Roll Comics book is a testimony of his rock artwork and photographs from this London phase. In 1979–1981 he had a love affair with the late
Saskia Cohen-Tanugi, who appeared in the James Bond film
Never Say Never Again with
Sean Connery and later became a noted theater director and writer.
1980s Blum was a militant ecologist since the age of fourteen, and after discussing the matter with Pretenders singer
Chrissie Hynde, he went vegetarian like her, a theme he would later sing about in his songs "Clementine Is a Vegan" and "Les Andouilles" and write much about in his animalist, 2016 autobiography
De Viandard à végane. Blum then became a DJ at the London Marquee Club as an occasional replacement for his girlfriend, DJ Mandy Hermitage. Initially published in
Best, his fiction comic strip
Rock Commando staging
Motörhead was published in
New Music News in London, then issued by the band as a comic book in the UK. He then created the
Nutty Boys comic book for pop group
Madness, drawing their biopic in issue #1. Blum came back to live in Paris after a busking episode in Nice in the summer of 1982 with Nice-born photographer Youri Lenquette on second guitar. In 1983 he formed Les Amours, a six-piece vocal group which recorded and toured in 1984. In 1984-85 Blum begun a side career as fashion model, posing for several advertising pictures, including for
France Inter radio. Still writing for
Best in the 1980s, for a time he contributed to the
Les Enfants du Rock rock TV show with
Antoine de Caunes as a reporter and published cartoons in the magazines
Rigolo,
Best and
Zoulou, an
Actuel magazine offshoot. In 1985, as seen in several TV shows, including
Michel Drucker's, he was featured live in Catherine Ferry's rock backing band produced by French pop star
Daniel Balavoine. Blum then recorded a few demos of his compositions in 1986 with a five-piece version of Les Amours not including the vocal group. After dealing with some personal problems reported in his
Cultures Cannabis book, he has since abstained from using any legal (alcohol, tobacco) or illegal drug. In 1989 he recorded with some of
Ziggy Marley's musicians in Kingston, Jamaica where he pressed his "Des Couleurs" vinyl single. In late 1989, he recorded and released
Ça Bouge (Sur la Place Rouge) in Paris, coinciding with the fall of the
Berlin Wall. His first album
Bruno Blum (1989) assembled these various recordings. He became the first French musician to have played, produced and released a dub record. A video of his rock song ''L'Histoire de ma Guitare'' taken from the album was broadcast several times on M6 television in France.
1990s In 1990 Bruno Blum played onstage with
Willy DeVille and joined
Bo Diddley live at Le Casino de Paris. A noted singer and guitar player, in 1990–1994 he led a rock cover band featuring John Weeks and other American musicians named the Sexy Frogs, with whom he recorded the original "J'aime les blondes" as well as various original songs. In 1994 he was the editor of a
Best special reggae issue for which he interviewed
Lee "Scratch" Perry, among others. In 1995 with the help of Patrick Zerbib and Léon Mercadet he then edited a special Bob Marley issue for one-shot new magazine
Radio Nova Collector that was soon to become
Nova Magazine. Blum persuaded
Chris Blackwell to let him include a CD featuring
Bob Marley's "Punky Reggae Party" and a rare dub of "Is This Love" entitled "Is This Dub" in the issue. He drew several album covers and published artwork in
Backstage,
Actuel (
Kronik le Kritik),
Best (Scud le Rok Kritik Sourd),
Hara Kiri Hebdo (weekly comic strips on vegetarian culture), ''L'Environnement Magazine
, Panda Magazine
, hosted a short, daily radio show on Radio Nova
and directed the documentary film Get Up, Stand Up – L'Histoire du Reggae'' produced by
Jean-François Bizot for the
Canal + channel. Jamaican producer
Clement Dodd produced two of his original songs at
Studio One in Kingston, Jamaica. As Dodd aka Coxsone saw Blum's
Best of Reggae special issue, he nicknamed him "Doc Reggae", which has stuck since. In partnership with American specialist
Roger Steffens he conceived and produced a series of ten
Bob Marley & the Wailers albums that include around a hundred rare or previously unreleased recordings (he also mixed eight of them), time period photographs and much previously unheard of 1967–1972 information. In 1997–2003 Blum revived the original Danny Sims-owned JAD American label in Paris at this occasion, and successfully released the albums in several countries. Doc Reggae then created the Jamaican label Human Race Records and its European incarnation Rastafari Records, through which he released several reggae vinyl singles featuring the voices of
Haile Selassie I,
Marcus Garvey,
Big Youth,
King Stitt, Buffalo Bill and Doc Reggae himself, also playing the guitar on all tracks. A version of Bob Marley's "
War" was recorded using the voice of the lyrics' creator himself, Haile Selassie I and surviving members of the Wailers. A vinyl single featuring Bob Marley and Haile Selassie I reached the #1 spot in the April 1998 of British magazine
Echoes charts.
The War Album was then recorded featuring Big Youth and Buffalo Bill. He also co-wrote, played on and produced several tracks sung by model/French song/jazz singer Annabelle Mouloudji in 1999. In Jamaica he directed videos for
Tenor Saw's
Ring the Alarm and Buffalo Bill's
Perfect Woman, as well as several TV reports for the
Tracks show broadcast on the
Arte channel. After the demise of
Best in 1995 he joined competitor
Rock & Folk magazine until 1999, then gave up all journalism work, excepting for a few stories published in
Les Inrockuptibles, which he left in 2002.
2000s Pierre Astier published his first book, the comprehensive biography
Lou Reed – Electric Dandy at Le Serpent à Plumes. A rock and reggae specialist, Blum was to publish a further twenty books, including some successful ones, among which: •
Le Reggae •
Bob Marley, le Reggae et les Rastas as well as his travel chronicles, fully illustrated with his photographs and artwork
Jamaïque, sur la Piste du Reggae where he tells the story of his Jamaican adventures. He also co-signed three editions of
Le Dictionnaire du Rock as a main contributor with Michka Assayas. •
De Viandard à Végane, his autobiography. Still performing live through the decade, after the 2001
The War Album recorded with
the Wailers, where he can be heard playing the guitar and voicing two tracks, he is noted as a producer and lyric writer on his second solo album ''Nuage d'Éthiopie'', also in 2001. Released on his own De Luxe label, this reggae album includes the single "Si Je Reste" (adapted in French from
the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go"), a duet with Annabelle Mouloudji. ''Nuage d'Éthiopie'' gets good reviews. To Yves Bigot " French reggae has found its songwriter ". Backed by the Wailers on "Avis aux Amateurs", he put to music the letter in which
Arthur Rimbaud breaks the news on his mother that he will remain in Africa. Going against the grain of fashionable electronic music, he forwards in a 1970s-influenced style where lyrics and skilled electric instruments players are pivotal. He refers to
Boris Vian,
Alain Bashung,
Linton Kwesi Johnson,
Jacques Dutronc (he has recorded a parody of Dutronc's "
Et moi, et moi, et moi") and
Serge Gainsbourg of whom he recorded a version of "L'Appareil à Sous" (originally recorded by
Brigitte Bardot) – and soon an English version of "Lola Rastaquouère".
Think Different, his third album of original compositions, was recorded in a wide array of styles and released in 2002 (featuring duets with Annabelle Mouloudji and
John Hostetter), followed by
Welikom 2 Lay-Gh-Us ! and deejay versions (including Lisa Dainjah,
King Stitt,
Lone Ranger and
Big Youth). The two press-acclaimed albums unveil several previously unreleased recordings, among which the Gainsbourg composition "Ecce Homo Et Cætera". Blum also voices one track himself, an English rendition of "Lola Rastaquouère", and plays guitar on his new arrangement of "Marilou Reggae", recorded with
Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace on drums and
Flabba Holt on bass. After contributing to
slam shows in his Ménilmontant neighborhood, he records slammer Nada's
Live at the Olympic Café (2001) album. He also supplies artwork for the CD cover as well as the follow-up
Ultrash, which he produces and plays on as Nada recites his lyrics over newly recorded instrumental versions of
Velvet Underground songs. Two other ex-members of
Best magazine's team participate to the album : Gilles Riberolles and Patrick Eudeline, who contributes with several short songs on
Ultrash.
Gainsbourg... Et Cætera, a new Blum-produced mix (Thierry Bertomeu, engineer) of the poorly mixed, original Serge Gainsbourg live album
Enregistrement Public au Théâtre Le Palace is released in 2006. This double CD includes five previously unreleased versions and an interview with
Serge Gainsbourg. Blum kept performing live with Dub De Luxe as well as, from 2006 in an American group playing classic 1930s/1960s R&B covers sometimes featuring pianist
Gilbert Shelton, the well-known
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic book artist. Blum also produces an album by Shelton. In 2006 he was invited to play a series of shows in
Asmara,
Eritrea by the French Ambassador in Eritrea. It is his first of a series of trips that would lead to producing an anthology album of the best Eritrean singers (released in 2010). In June 2007, the publication of his book
Culture Cannabis led Bruno Blum to an hour-long clash with Professor Jean Costentin live on national radio
France Inter. In 2008 he obtains a Master in musicology in Paris and publishes
Le Rap Est Né en Jamaïque (Rap Was Born in Jamaica) in 2009. He also produced the
Harry Belafonte - Calypso, Mento & Folk 1954–1957 anthology. Still performing onstage, he MCs dances as deejay and selecter, and speaks regularly in conferences around his country and abroad. In 2009 as he was one of the main writers in
Best Magazine he creates the
Facebook group
Best, le mensuel du rock. This internet site would eventually lead to Blum directing an anthology book of
Best's best stories.
2010s In the summer of 2010 a major Emma Lavigne exhibition on punk rock visual aesthetics and photographs at the ''Rencontres d'Arles
showed his collection of rare original punk records. At this occasion he spoke on punk musical aesthetics from 1930s jazz to 1940s–1970s rock music. In September, Doc Reggae performed at the Trois Baudets in Paris. For the first time, he offered a multimedia event where his paintings, artwork, comics trips as well as his Jamaïque sur la Piste du Reggae'' photo exhibition and video footage were shown before his own reggae show. In 2008–2009 he produced the Asmara All Stars ''Eritrea's Got Soul'' (released in 2010) album in
Eritrea, also playing on several songs. The album gathers some of the best musicians and singers from eight ethnic groups, including
Dehab Faytinga, Sara Teklesenbet, Mahmoud Ahmed Amr, Temasgen Yared, Ibrahim Goret and Adam Faid Amr. The album gets a warm welcome in the press as well as the radio: "If you like the Ethiopian soul-funk sound of the early 1970s, you should find much to enjoy in this contemporary take on it. Eritrea is Ethiopia's neighbour and many of the country's musicians actually contributed to those classic recordings. The main difference with this contemporary project is the influence of Jamaican reggae. But the dub elements fold perfectly into the sinuous Ethiopian grooves – as our own Dub Colossus have already demonstrated. Vibrant, heady and sensuous stuff" (
The Independent, London, October 2010). Two album release party shows, including one in the Opera House, take place in
Asmara in October 2010. In November 2010 Volume 1 of
Best of Best, an anthology of rock magazine
Best to which he was a major contributor, was published. The 320 pages book was conceived, coordinated and edited by Blum with the support of the original team including Sacha Reins, Patrick Eudeline and Francis Dordor, who wrote a tribute to the late editor Christian Lebrun. As part of the Festival des Cultures Juives de Paris in June 2011 he spoke on the theme "Bob Marley, culture Rastafari et Judaïsme" in the Paris 4 Town Hall. In 2011 Bruno Blum also translated Kim Gottlieb-Walker's
Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae photo book (published in France as
Bob Marley, un portrait inédit en photos) to which director
Cameron Crowe contributed. An anthology of his Jamaican record label Human Race was released in late 2011. Essentially recorded in Jamaica, the double roots reggae CD
Human Race Album'' with a bonus track, and features the voices of
Haile Selassie I,
Marcus Garvey,
Gandhi,
Nelson Mandela as well as
Big Youth, Spectacular, Buffalo Bill,
King Stitt, Brady, Annabelle Mouloudji,
Joseph Cotton, Lady Manuella, Bruno Blum and several previously unreleased tracks. Illustrated by several photographs and original artwork by Blum, the CD booklet is written by renowned U.S. reggae historian
Roger Steffens. Unveiling much information and rare original music, he also edited the following Caribbean music anthologies:
Jamaica, Mento 1951–1958,
Bahamas, Goombay 1951–1959,
Trinidad, Calypso 1939–1959 and
Calypso,
Jamaica - Rhythm and Blues 1956–1961,
Voodoo in America - Blues Jazz Rhythm and Blues Calypso 1926–1961,
Bermuda - Gombey and Calypso 1953–1960 for which he writes sizeable, standard reference booklets. In 2011 he designs and draws both ten-CD
Anthologie des musiques de danse du monde (
Dance Music Masters) box sets covers as well as each of the twenty album covers they contain. Five of his documented anthologies albums were co-published by national museums of France:
Great Black Music Roots 1927–1962 and
Jamaica - Folk Trance Possession 1939–1961, the latter being awarded the Académie Charles Cros' World Music
Coup de Cœur in 2014.
Slavery in America - Redemption Songs 1914–1972 includes a foreword by French Minister of Justice
Christiane Taubira, author of a law compelling the French educational system to include the memory of slavery in school programs.
Haiti - Vodou - Ritual Music From the First Black Republic - Folk, Trance, Possession 1937–1962 and
Beat Generation 1936–1962 followed. His contribution to the Frémeaux & Associés label also delivered several rock albums, including
Elvis Presley & the American Music Heritage - 1954–1956 containing both Elvis' versions as well as all of the original versions of the songs he recorded;
The Indispensable Bo Diddley 1955–1960 and many others. His Caribbean series are perhaps his most significant reissue work, documenting and making available to the public rare foundation recordings of most Caribbean islands including the Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Trinidad, Bermuda, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, etc. As more audio and ethnomusicologic analysis contributions to CD Box sets for major, national museums exhibitions took place (including
Beat Generation at Centre Pompidou and
The Color Line at Musée du Quai Branly, both in 2016), Blum was granted a foreword by
Paul McCartney for his 2016 book
De Viandard à Végane. He also played several shows with his new vegan group Cabaret Végane formed in 2015, featuring young female singer Gojy Gojy, who stars in the
Clémentine est végane video, to which artists
Mandryka, Pascal Le Gras and
Invader (artist) contributed. An English version of the song was also issued. Both were successful on Facebook. In 2017 Bruno Blum ran for MP in the French General Elections (for the Parti Animaliste) and obtained 1,36% of the votes in the Paris district of
Le Marais. In January until March 2018, his three-CD collection devoted to the history of avant-garde music in the twentieth century created an opportunity for the Frémeaux Gallery to put together an exhibition about avant-garde visual arts, as well as a conference by Blum on the topic. Blum translated three books that year:
Roger Steffens' definitive
Bob Marley biography,
Norman Mailer's
Hipster, street artist
Invader's
Invasion Los Angeles for which he also wrote a four-page introduction. He contributed to several of his fellow artist friend
Invader's books in the following decade. His instrumental dub album
Sophisticated Love partly recorded and mixed in Jamaica was issued in 2019.
2020s Blum also translated bluesman
Robert Johnson's award-winning biography
Up Jumped the Devil in 2020. He published two vegan humor, cartoon books, showing once again an ability to deal with entirely different subjects. On a different note, his major history book of 2021
Les Musiques des Caraïbes echoes his fine African-American cults-inspired
Culte album, which was recorded in several African countries, Yemen, Jamaica and France. A Caribbean music anthology also entitled
Les Musiques des Caraïbes was awarded a Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros in 2021. A new album entitled
Le Cœur à gauche, le fric à droite (partially recorded in Jamaica on the
Marilou Reggae sessions with Horsemouth Wallace and Flabba Holt) was released on bandcamp.com. It includes music recorded with
Coxsone Dodd,
Flabba Holt, Sticky, Chico Chin and Horsemouth Wallace,
The Wailers and
Sly & Robbie in Jamaica, and Manu Dibango's musicians in Cameroon as well as some French musicians in Paris. The covid crisis inspired Blum to publish a humorous cartoon book in which he condemns a totalitarian, downward slide that has also led him to move to the countryside in the South West of France where he formed an acoustic trio, Bruno Blum et ses Amis (upright bass and percussion, acoustic guitar) playing his own French songs. In 2023 Blum was sued by the French Hunters National Federation president Willy Schraen for a caricature published in his satirical cartoon book
Humour Végane Extrémiste, resulting in a trial won by the artist. A new CD
Les Moustiques contains a hilarious, light song about mosquitoes. Following
Soul Revolution, a major Bob Marley biography covering the 1967-1972 period they reissued together, co-authored by world-renowned specialists
Roger Steffens and Leroy Jodie Pierson, in 2025 his 500-page book Caraïbes/États-Unis – du Calypso au Ska" and the pertaining CD box set of the same name obtained plenty media attention. They show the round trip influences between the much overlooked Caribbean music and the USA. == Discography ==