With a
chorus of "He Gives
me head!" Jet Boy, Jet Girl / Pogo Pogo
(Lightning 1978) was never
to be a single played to death on the radio though Lou Reed may got away
with it. Yet there's more than meets the eye to the elusive Elton Motello
band. It's not the most evocative name so try mainman Alan Timms (Ward)
previous incarnation in 1974/5 called Bastard featuring none other than a
certain Bryan James before he formed The Damned. Then on top of that
there's the worldwide smash of 'Ca Plane Pour Moi' by Plastic Bertrand
with an identical backing track. What gives?
Nobby Goff
(later Twink)- Drums, Alan Ward - Vocals, , (later)
Mike Butcher- Guitar, Des - Bass
When
Alan Ward decamped to Belgium to become a recording engineer at Morgan
Studios his band Bastard (well bassist and guitarist), who had been
playing a a sort of High energy MC5 act without success in the UK came
with him. Drums was filled by the occasional appearance of Twink, ex Pink
Fairies and The Rings, but within 6 months they had lost their guitarist
Bryan James to the London SS and who later formed the Damned. Mike Butcher
then joined on Guitar.
Click to view larger image. Sounds 1.4.1978
>>
Enter
one Roger Jouret on drums (who had previously been in Hubble Bubble) and a change of name to Nobby Goff and a band
name change to Elton Motello. Elton Motello then record a single called
'Jet Boy
Jet Girl' and 'Pogo Pogo' which is picked up by Lightning Records. The
record is extremely catchy, punky and risqué as hell with lyrics regarding
oral sex and penetrating boys as girls!
From here it all goes a
little strange though as a French version of the song is created by Lacomblez. Lou De Pryk and Lacomblez were producer and lyricist at RKM
publishing at the time and with lyrics too controversial to be
adapted Lacomblez created the meaningless stew of words that became
'Ca
Plane' Pour Moi' to
the tune of 'Jet Boy
Jet Girl.'
Interestingly the front person and name for
the artist performing this version is Plastic Bertrand. Plastic
Bertrand is Roger Jouret, Elton Motello's drummer (that's him on
the far left opposite). Even more interestingly it's claimed that Plastic Bertrand was just a front person and
did not even sing on any of his records up until 1980 and that
the producer
of said single called Lou De Pryk again with RKM was responsible
for the vocals. A
court case in 2006 settled that
Plastic was indeed the singer.
So where did that leave
Elton Motello and Alan Ward? He seems remarkably sanguine about the whole
thing and I think tongue in cheek.
Alan Ward: We have all
been ripped off at some point in our lives but judging by the emails I
receive my lyric has touched many more people and seems to ring a chord
in many more hearts than the French one will ever do. That's why I wrote
it. If I was meant to be rich it would have happened. But I am rich in
the knowledge that my thoughts will never disappear.
All of this is fishier
than a tin of pilchards. Such a blatant steal would have led to a court
case. Even more so as the flipside,
Pogo Pogo,
is also done by both artists. Interesting that the Bertrand connection
doesn't end at 'Jet Boy' as the second Bertrand single was
'Sha La La La Lee'
featured on the Motello album
Victim Of Time.
Lastly who is the producer of Bertrand's second album,
J'ete Fais Un Plan?
You guessed
it. Alan Ward.
Judging by the amount of
foreign sleeves for the single it had a fair crack at the European market
not least because they wouldn't understand the true meaning of the words.
Pop Art (1980)
But Elton Motello was more than just one single and the band went on in
fact to record two fairly good albums.
Trouser Press describes the albums as
such.
Victim of Time (1979) leads off with seven minutes of "Jet Boy Jet
Girl," but also boasts a funny ode to a drunken father ("He's a Rebel")
and great versions of "Pipeline" and the Small Faces' "Sha La La La Lee".
The Ramonesy rock is functional and, when he's not sinking to topics like
"Teen Pimp" and "Artificial Incemination" [sic], Motello's jovial manner
makes the record entertaining. Proceed, but with caution.
Pop Art (1980) is
a wholly different affair — synth-pop that aspires to be weird for weird's
sake, but with occasional success. The best track is a totally syncopated
version of the Who's "I Can't Explain"; other numbers work New Musik/M
dance-pop terrain to good effect.
Elton Motello Promo Video
circa 1980 part1. This was part of the promotion for the second album "Pop
Art" to be used within the biz and not for broadcast.
