George Thurston was a Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 singer, author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and radio show host. He was known as Boule Noire since 1975 and worked in the music industry as a solo artist for nearly 30 years and as part of musical groups for 5 years.

Early years

Born in Bedford, Quebec

Bedford, Quebec

Bedford is a town located in the Montérégie region of southern Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 2,612. This small community is just a half hour's drive from larger cities such as Burlington and Montreal, and is the home to southern Quebec's largest boy scout troop.-...

, Thurston later moved to Saint-Jerome, Quebec

Saint-Jérôme, Quebec

Saint-Jérôme is a town in Quebec, Canada, near Mirabel, about northwest of Montreal along Autoroute des Laurentides. The town is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its resorts....

, where he formed his first band in 1965 called les Zinconnus and produced R&B music, his favorite musical genre. In 1969, he moved on to join the 25th Regiment band and remained with the group until the early 1970s.

In the 1970s, he worked with several other Quebec artists including Robert Charlebois

Robert Charlebois

Robert Charlebois, OC, OQ is a Quebec author, composer, musician, performer and actor. He is an important figure in French language song....

, Claude Dubois

Claude Dubois

Claude André Dubois is a Canadian singer-songwriter.Dubois was an early star of the francophone musical Starmania...

, Tony Roman

Tony Roman

Anthony Roman was a politician in Ontario, Canada. Roman served as the Mayor of the Town of Markham, Ontario from 1970 to 1984, Chair of the Regional Municipality of York in 1984, and independent Member of Parliament for the riding of York North from 1984 to 1988.Roman won the 1984 election in...

, Nanette Workman

Nanette Workman

Nanette Joan Workman is today a singer-songwriter, actress and author who has been based in Quebec, Canada during much of her career. She was raised by musician parents in Jackson, Mississippi where she began her first performances. She mainly performs in French although raised as a native...

 and Michel Pagliaro

Michel Pagliaro

Michel Pagliaro is a prolific Canadian rock singer, songwriter and guitarist. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he is also based there. He is often referred to simply as Pagliaro or Pag. Although he writes and records predominantly in French, Pagliaro has released material in English...

. He played the piano, bass and guitar. He would later be a composer for the group Toulouse.

Solo career

Thurston's solo career started in 1976 when he released his first solo album titled Boule Noire. It included his first hit Aimes-tu la vie?. During his 30-year solo career, he produced at least 14 albums in both English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

. His first English album, entitled Premiere, was recorded in 1980.

Thurston was one of the prominent figures in dance and R&B music in Quebec during the 1970s and 1980s and covered songs by other artists including the Beatles hit Let it be

Let It Be (song)

"Let It Be" is a song by The Beatles, released in March 1970 as a single, and as the title track of their album Let It Be. It was written by Paul McCartney, but credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was their final single before McCartney announced his departure from the band...

 in 1995. He also represented Canada at several international music festivals including Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

 in 1976 and UCLA in 1988.

Thurston's 1978 album Aimer d'Amour was certified triple platinum

Platinum

Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...

. The title song would later gain success in the early 1990s when 800,000 copies were sold in Europe.

Thurston became a radio show host for Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

's Rythme FM

CFGL-FM

CFGL-FM is a French language Canadian radio station located in Laval, Quebec, near Montreal. While the station's city of licence is Laval and its studios are actually in that city, it operates as a de facto Montreal station...

 radio station in 2000.

Biography book

Just prior to Thurston's death he released his autobiography called Aimes-tu la vie? after his first hit single. He revealed that he had often been disliked and mistreated. He also said that during his teenage years he nearly became a criminal, but that music helped him to survive through tough times.

Death

Thurston died of colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer, commonly known as bowel cancer, is a cancer caused by uncontrolled cell growth , in the colon, rectum, or vermiform appendix. Colorectal cancer is clinically distinct from anal cancer, which affects the anus....

 on June 18, 2007 in Montreal. He learned of his cancer in early 2006. He finished recording his last album later that year after extensive chemotherapy operations.

Discography

Source:http://www.qim.com/artistes/albums.asp?artistid=504

• Boule Noire (1976)
• Les années passent (1977)
• Aimer d'Amour (1978)
• Il me faut une femme (1979)
• Love me please love me (1980)
• Premiere (1980)
• Primitif (1980)
• Boule Noire Reggae (1982)
• Le tour des îles (1987)
• Résolution (1991)
• Soul Pleureur (1992)
• Let it be (1995)
• Réunion (2003)
• Last call (2006)

External links

• Biography of Georges Thurston
• Canuckistan Music review of Aimes-tu la vie comme moi