The internationally acclaimed French band Indochine will rock Vietnamese audiences in Hanoi tonight and tomorrow as part of its 25th anniversary tour.

Worse than the cure: French rock band Indochine will perform two nights at the Hanoi Opera House, today and tomorrow.

During their first visit to Vietnam, the rock band will offer music fans two joint performances with the Hanoi Conservatory of Music's Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Xavier Rist.

"I am very happy that our group has the opportunity to perform with the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra. We will make a special DVD of the two performances and then present them to music lovers in France and abroad," said lead singer Nicolas Sirkis at a press conference yesterday.

The French rock sensation, currently on a world tour, consists of Sirkis, guitarists Oli de Sat and Boris Jardel, bass player Mar Eliard and drummer Francois Soulier.

The band was founded in May 1981 by Sirkis and Dominique Nicolas, who were both only 20 years old. Indochine made their first recording in November of that year.

But the band's debut drew more attention from critics than from the media and attracted a limited audience. In 1983, their luck changed with their second album, Le Peril Jaune (The Yellow Peril), which sold 225,000 copies.

Indochine has now evolved to be a major player in the global rock scene. By 1985, the group attracted a cross-generational audience with songs including 3e Sex (Third Sex), Canary Bay, and 3 Nuits Par Semaine (Three Nights a Week). After gaining success in Europe, they began a world tour in 1988.

With ten years experience of uninterrupted success from the beginning of their career, it took the group another ten years to overcome a series of mishaps including unsuccessful albums and departures and deaths of some of the band members - but they eventually regained their place at the top of the charts.

The two shows will be organised tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm at the Hanoi Opera House, 1 Trang Tien Street. The show will be shown live on two big screens next to the Hanoi Opera House. For further information, please contact L'Espace, French Cultural Centre, at 04 936 2164.

(Source: Viet Nam News)