# Hermine Demoriane > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hermine_Demoriane > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hermine_Demoriane.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermine_Demoriane > Source revision: 1347911608 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) French singer This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) **Hermine Demoriane** is a French singer, writer and former [tightrope walker](/source/Tightrope_walking). Daughter of an engineer and a journalist, she married the British poet [Hugo Williams](/source/Hugo_Williams) in 1965, with whom she has a daughter, Murphy Williams, also a writer and journalist. ## Bohemian London At the end of the 1960s she contributed to *[International Times](/source/International_Times)*, a hippy magazine, carrying out interviews with [Jean-Luc Godard](/source/Jean-Luc_Godard), [Philippe Garrel](/source/Philippe_Garrel), [Len Lye](/source/Len_Lye) and others. In the early 1970s she spent time as a tightrope walker (see her book *The Tightrope Walker*), performing, for example, with [COUM Transmissions](/source/COUM_Transmissions) (pre-[Throbbing Gristle](/source/Throbbing_Gristle)), and spending a season with [Jérôme Savary](/source/J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_Savary)'s *Grand Magic Circus* in Paris in 1974, acting in [Copi](/source/Copi)'s play *Goodbye Mister Freud*. She played the character of Chaos, singing [Piaf](/source/%C3%89dith_Piaf)'s "[Non, je ne regrette rien](/source/Non%2C_je_ne_regrette_rien)", in [Derek Jarman](/source/Derek_Jarman)'s *[Jubilee](/source/Jubilee_(1978_film))*. She also took part in *[Alternative Miss World](/source/Alternative_Miss_World)*, organised by the artist [Andrew Logan](/source/Andrew_Logan_(sculptor)). Hermine wrote three plays; *Lou Andréas Salomé* (starring [Richard O'Brien](/source/Richard_O'Brien) and [Jenny Runacre](/source/Jenny_Runacre)), *He Who Is Your Lord Is Your Child Too* (starring [Anne Bean](/source/Anne_Bean)) and *The Knives Beside the Plates* (with the [Neo-Naturist Cabaret](/source/Neo-Naturist_Cabaret)), between 1978 and 1980. From October 1980 until 1981, she performed musical interludes at [The Comic Strip](/source/The_Comic_Strip), a pioneering café-theatre in [Soho](/source/Soho) with comedians including [Rik Mayall](/source/Rik_Mayall) and [Jennifer Saunders](/source/Jennifer_Saunders). In addition she performed and organised various evening shows of performance art. She acted in [John Maybury](/source/John_Maybury)'s *Court of Miracles* in 1982 and *Hilda Was a Goodlooker* by [Anna Thew](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anna_Thew&action=edit&redlink=1) (London Film-Makers Co-Operative) in 1986. ## Chanteuse In 1974, while employed as a tightrope walker by [The Moodies](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Moodies&action=edit&redlink=1), she sang for the first time in public, singing "I Won't Make It Without You" by [Nick Lowe](/source/Nick_Lowe). With Moodier, successor group to The Moodies, she performed a version of [Roy Orbison](/source/Roy_Orbison)'s "Blue Angel" produced by [Max Paddison](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Max_Paddison&action=edit&redlink=1) in the style of a [Marlene Dietrich](/source/Marlene_Dietrich) song. In 1976 she played two concerts with the group The Subterraneans, composed of [Nick Kent](/source/Nick_Kent) and [The Damned](/source/The_Damned_(band)) without their singer [Dave Vanian](/source/Dave_Vanian), and also recorded with both Nick Kent and [Peter Perrett](/source/Peter_Perrett); the resulting single was being released. [David Cunningham](/source/David_Cunningham_(musician)) from [The Flying Lizards](/source/The_Flying_Lizards) noticed Hermine and helped recorded her single "Torture", originally planned for [Virgin Records](/source/Virgin_Records) but which was eventually released on her own label Salomé Records, with a later remastered release on [Human Records](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Human_Records&action=edit&redlink=1). She then released a second single with Human. In April 1982 the Belgian record label [Crammed Discs](/source/Crammed_Discs) released an album containing six songs by Hermine, *The World on My Plates*, well known for the cover photograph by Richard Rayner-Canham where Hermine loads 7" singles into a dishwasher while wearing a [cocktail dress](/source/Cocktail_dress). She toured in 1982 and 1983. The follow-up album *Lonely at the Top* was released in July 1984 on her own label (Salomé). Swiss session recordings for another album, along with a couple of re-recordings, were eventually released on *Who'll Come Walking* in 2008. Her two albums were both re-released in digitally remastered CD editions in 2006 by Les Temps Modernes (LTM). Although having recorded very little since 1984, viewers of the TV series *[French & Saunders](/source/French_%26_Saunders)* and *[Absolutely Fabulous](/source/Absolutely_Fabulous)* have been able to see her as well as hear her French-accented voice in numerous musical pastiches (she sings a French version of the theme tune at the end of the episode "Paris" in 2001.) She sang in May 2008 during a cycle rally that took place between [Sacy-le-Petit](/source/Sacy-le-Petit) and [Verderonne](/source/Verderonne) in l'[Oise](/source/Oise), France, and on 11 and 12 June at Andrew Logan's Summer Sale at the GlassHouse in London. ## Lady of the Manor Hermine is president of the non-profit organisation *Ateliers d’artistes de Sacy*, based in the Château de Sacy (a country house that she inherited in 1994 from her grandparents Hermine and Armand Dupuis, after having bought out the shares of her brothers and sisters, cousins and aunt), in Sacy-le-Petit, l'Oise. The organisation organises artists' residences by British and French artists and hosts exhibitions. She is also secretary of the [Blondin Memorial Trust](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blondin_Memorial_Trust&action=edit&redlink=1), dedicated to the memory of the tightrope walker [Charles Blondin](/source/Charles_Blondin). ## Discography ### Original - *Torture/Veiled Women*, 7", Salomé, re-released Human Records, *Torture/Veiled Women/Born a woman/Foxes will*, HUM 3, 1980 - *TV Lovers/Valley of the Dolls*, 7", Human Records, HUM 11, 1981 - *The World on My Plates*, 12", Crammed Discs, 1982 - *Lonely at the Top*, 12", Salomé, 1984 - *Who'll Come Walking*, CD and download, Salomé, 2008 ### Re-releases - *The World on My Plates*, Remastered CD, LTM CD 2473, 2006 - *Lonely at the Top*, Remastered CD, LTM CD 2476, 2006 ## Bibliography - *Lifestar, a Diary of Nine Months*, Demoriane, Hermine, Alan Ross, 1969 / Coward-McCann, 1970. A diary of her pregnancy. - *The Tightrope Walker*, Demoriane, Hermine, Secker & Warburg, 1989. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-436-12682-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-436-12682-6) ## External links - The site of [Château de Sacy](http://www.chateaudesacy.com/) - Demoriane's [MySpace](https://www.myspace.com/herminedemoriane) page - [Biography](http://www.ltmrecordings.com/herminebio.html) on the site of Les Temps Modernes (LTM) - Murphy Williams' [MySpace](https://www.myspace.com/murphywilliams) page - The [Blondin Memorial Trust](http://www.blondinmemorialtrust.com/) web site Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat National United States Artists MusicBrainz --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hermine Demoriane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermine_Demoriane) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermine_Demoriane?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.