Ferraro, Bernard

Guitar player Bernard Ferraro was a member of several rock and roll instrumental bands that became popular in France in the 1960s. At the end of 1963 he joined the guitar quartet Les Fantômes, but they were in the process of disbanding. He then was given a place as lead guitar replacing one of Les Cyclones, formerly El Toro et Les Cyclones, but that group too was starting to split up, having already lost El Toro, its singer. He worked as a session musician and also did some composing with singer Anne Vanderlove, among others. In 1969 he began arranging and producing the records of Black Sabbath’s Brian More, including “Oh Happy Day” (Quels jours de paix in French). He also accompanied such singers as Eddy Mitchell and Françoise Hardy, for whom he worked seven years. Another singer whom he accompanied was model and dancer Micky Amline (the stage name of Christiane Ameline), whom he later married. Around the turn of the century Ferraro decided to give up performing and become an ornithologist, and in the wake of an auto accident his wife also quit the music business. The two bought an old house in Tusson in southwestern France which they repaired and opened as a tearoom called “L’Echauguette” (the watchtower).