Alain Maneval, who was press officer for Iggy Pop, host of cult TV and radio shows or even head of Arte, died at the age of 69 in Fontaine-les-Coteaux (Loir-et-Cher) from bone cancer, his family said Thursday, March 10. Man of the media, smuggler of pop, rock and punk music, Alain Maneval had mediated his HIV status at one time, but was cured of it.
Born in Saint-Etienne, he left for Paris at the age of 17 to try his hand at acting. Chance encounters will lead him to be press officer in London for the Heartbreakers, an American punk band. He was also the press officer in France for Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. He also slipped into the free radio circuit in France – such as, among others, the legendary Carbone 14 – before reaching a larger audience at the end of the 1970s with “PO-GO”, a musical program on Europe 1 which it will animate in a punk spirit.
In “Arditube”, a program by Thierry Ardisson, he told of being fired from Europe 1 following calling for a boycott of Shell (one of the station’s advertisers) following the oil spill triggered by the sinking of the ‘Amoco Cadiz in 1978, which he had witnessed during a weekend on a Breton island.
“The love of radio and music”
the « dandy rock », as he was nicknamed, then moved towards television, hosting the musical programs “Megahertz” on TF1 and “Tam-tam” on TV6 (ancestor of M6) in the 1980s. Then he became program director for a time. ‘Art. He will also oversee the creation of Morocco’s first pay-TV channel, 2M. In the 2000s, he returned to the radio box on France Inter.
Many media personalities paid tribute to his memory on Thursday. “So sad but I still have everything he gave us: freedom, passion (…) an attitude, the love of radio and music”commented the musical director of the antennas of Radio France, Didier Varrod, on Twitter.
So sad but I still have everything he gave us: freedom, passion, obsessions, an attitude, love… https://t.co/GcgNBB4JB2
