Chez Gege

View over the rooftops towards Paris drawn from a turret window in the Gemini Studios of Gege L’Homme in Chenneviers sur Marne.

When Pip Pyle moved out of the cottage in Hatfied Heath, given to him by his father and left his wife and children behind to move in with his new girlfriend: Sophia Domanchich – a French piano player – in Paris. He did not tell his parents who lived in nearby Sawbridgeworth. His father, who was a rich and powerful man, played a vital role in the support of Pip’s family by paying all the bills, as Pip’s earnings as a drummer were not enough to cover  them.. Pip had grown up knowing that he in turn would be a very rich man when his father died, but things did not go to Pip’s plan and the rumours of his whereabouts and circumstances eventually reached the ear of his father.  So outraged was he by what Pip had done that he went straight to his Lawyers and had Pip cut out of his will, (although he continued to support Pip’s family.) Time passed and Pip’s father died and left his fortune to his daughter. Pip was desperate to buy himself somewhere to live in France and eventually managed to persuade  his sister to lend him some money against their mother’s will (she had survived her husband and had some small property of her own but the onset of dementia meant she was not able to help Pip directly). His sister would only lend him the smallest amount of money, enough  to buy the tiniest house in Chenneviers  comprising a small downstairs room opening onto the street, a small upstairs room, a tiny low ceilinged attic and a cave-like, very damp  cellar. Pip had chosen live in Chenneviers because Sophia Domancich’s sister Lydia was living  at the time with Gege L’Homme who owned the Gemini studios in Chenneviers. Pip developed a good relationship with Gege and it was this connection that led Phil to use Studio Gemini to record In Cahoots’  album Recent Discoveries. although by this time Ms Domancich had given Pip the order of the boot.

I drew the view at the top of this page from a small turret window at the top of Gege’s beautiful and eccentric house while the band recorded in the studio below. Chenneviers is situated on the top of a high plateaux, above the river Marne.  The whole of Paris can be seen in the distance and the cover of the Recent Discoveries CD shows In Cahoots in a photograph taken from this cliff – like vantage point. In later years this part of France would become best known for being the site of Disneyland Paris.