Françoise Cactus

Françoise Cactus (5 May 1964 - 17 February 2021), born Françoise van Hove, was a Berlin-based musician and author, best known as co-founder, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist in the band Stereo Total. Cactus wrote several novels as well as contributing to German papers such as Die Tageszeitung. Prior to founding Stereo Total with Brezel Göring in 1993, Cactus played in the West Berlin band Les Lolitas, one of the few Western bands to play officially unsanctioned gigs in East Berlin before the wall came down. She was originally from France, having moved to West Berlin in 1985.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Françoise Van Hove was born in Villeneuve-l'Archevêque, a small village in Burgundy, France. She earned the nickname "Cactus" for her habit of spending her spare time hanging around in the greenhouse behind her parents' house. During the first half of the 80s she started writing songs and moved to West Berlin where she joined the Geniale Dilettanten (Ingenious Dilettantes) movement, a merger of the New Wave and Post-Punk scene. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lolitas were a French-German rock band influenced by Punk, Rockabilly, U.S. Garage, French 60s Ye-Ye Music and Pop. Founded by Françoise Cactus and Coco Neubauer, they were active since the mid 80s for about eight years. The group mainly used the French language in their own music, reserving English mostly for covers of famous songs they regularly included on their albums. They released seven albums, seven 7"s and two compilations.

Stereo Total is a Berlin-based multilingual, French-German duo which comprised Françoise Cactus  and Brezel Göring (aka Friedrich von Finsterwalde, born Friedrich Ziegler, ex-Haunted Henschel, Sigmund Freud Experience).  Both Cactus and Göring sung and played multiple instruments. When they appeared on stage as a duo, Cactus frequently played drums while Göring played guitar and synth; at other times the touring band has included additional musicians such as Angie Reed. Their early career was nurtured within Berlin's easy listening scene, and they frequently supported the DJ team Le Hammond Inferno, who went on to form Bungalow Records and sign Stereo Total to their label. Stereo Total became the most successful act on Bungalow, finding an audience not just beyond Berlin but also across Europe and eventually in Japan, Brazil and the US. 

Their music is a playful, wildly eclectic mash-up of synthpop, new wave, electronica, and pop music. The most consistent element in their cut and paste compositions is a retro-hip European 1960s style, with references to psych and garage-rock as well as to 1960s French-pop in the vein of Françoise Hardy, Jacques Dutronc, France Gall, and Brigitte Bardot. Some of their most recognized tracks are kitschy lo-fi covers of pop, rock and soul songs, such as their self-consciously trashy version of Salt-N-Pepa's electro rap hit "Push It." Their songs are primarily sung in German, French and English, but some of their output also features a number of other languages, such as Japanese, Spanish and Turkish. The band has covered songs by: Sylvie Vartan, Françoise Hardy, Brigitte Bardot, Brigitte Fontaine, Serge Gainsbourg, Johnny Hallyday, Velvet Underground, Nico, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Harpo, Pizzicato Five, Hot Chocolate, Die Tödliche Doris, Nina Hagen, KC and the Sunshine Band and Marjo (Corbeau). 

Françoise Cactus died aged 57 on 17 February 2021 in her Berlin home after having suffered from breast cancer.