Elton Motello

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 Brian 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?

Enter one Roger Jouret on drums (who had previously been in Hubble Bubble) 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 below).

So where did that leave Elton Motello and Alan Ward? He seems remarkably sanguine about the whole thing and I think tongue in cheek.

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.

Alan Ward

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.

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.

So there you are … the strange affair of Bastard, Alan Ward, Elton Motello, Plastic Bertrand and Jet Boy Jet Girl. Here’s the lyrics to THAT song.

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