Fact #117435
When:
Short story:
Belgian 'punk' Plastic Bertrand enters the UK singles chart with Ca Plane Pour Moi, which will peak at No8.
Full article:
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PLASTIC BERTRAND?
(interview by Johnny Black, September 02)
Plastic Bertrand : I was born in Brussels. My father is French and my mother is Russian.
Ca Plane Pour Moi was not a real punk record, it was a parody, but it became the first punk thing to cross over to the mass market. When it was released, the A-side was actually Pogo Pogo, but my record company in Paris decided to put Ca Plane Pour Moi as the A-side. Then, when I did my first tv show, it was incredible, we started selling about 50,000 copies a day in France, Europe.
It became a hit all over Europe, which enabled me to get it out in the UK. Strangely, I toured all over the world, America, Canada, Japan, but not the UK, at that moment. It was pity because my first gig outside Belgium was when I was sixteen, I played the Marquee in London, supporting Ultravox, with my first band Stalag 16. I had met Ultravox in Belgium, and they invited us to come and support them at The Marquee.
You know, only two French songs have charted in the States, in 59 it was the Singing Nun, Dominique, and then it was me in 1979. So I did a lot of promotional touring there. I became friendly with The Ramones, in New York, because they understood that it was a parody and they loved it.
Before my solo career I was in a real punk band called Hubble Bubble, and we sold 25 copies, but when Ca Plane took off I was selling millions, and I was travelling on Concorde, the world was mine, and I went a bit crazy, playing the rock’n’star with all that it means. I set fire to the curtains in my hotel in Cannes. It was just for fun. It was a very nice night, and we were all crazy, and we wanted to make a scandal. Another time I smashed up the furniture in New York, but the people in France did not like that from a French artist. I was the only one.
My next single, Sha La La La Lee, didn’t do so well. Videos weren’t so common, and we didn’t have the internet in those days, so all the promotion had to be done in person. So I was travelling all around the world, working in the biggest markets like Germany and the United States.
I performed on the soundtrack album to the show Abbacadabra, which was great working with the girls from Abba, which was wonderful.
The Eurovision Song Contest in 1987 in Brussels, was a joke for me. I used to watch it when I was a child in the 60s, and it was the huge musical event of the year, and I swore that one day I would go on that show. Then, when they asked me to do it, I was delighted, not as a new stage in my career, but just for the personal pleasure of achieving a child’s ambition.
It was a lot of fun, we made it so kitsch, because that’s how Eurovision is. I wasn’t interested in winning, just in being there.
I was very successful until about 1992 and then I decided to stop because I got crazy again. I was exhausted with touring and working all the time. I felt like I was working in a factory. With all the excess, I was growing very fat and unhealthy. And did not look good.
I wanted to do something different, and I love surrealistic painting, so I started a contemporary art gallery in Brussells, which I ran until 1998, when I got a fax from MTV Europe. They had done a poll asking their viewers which artist they would most like to see back on stage again, and I was the winner. Two days later Universal called and asked to make a compilation album of my hits, and it started all over again like in 1979.
Since then, I have never been so busy. I am working all the time.
I love to play games, any game, and three or four years ago I beat the world Scrabble champion in Cannes, and got my picture on the cover of Nice Matin for something other than music. I love to do different things, that’s what makes me happy.
I was very surprised by the Clark’s ad. Six months ago I was approached by an advertising company, and then nothing happened, so we thought it had fallen through. Then I was in Paris and a friend told me he had heard Ca Plane Pour Moi playing on television in a commercial for shoes. I knew nothing about it. We had done no deal with the advertising company, and we were getting no money, so I was surprised and angry.
We have three lawyers helping us to find the people who had done this. I’m still not sure if it’s my version or a cover version. We still don’t know all the details. I just hope it helps me get my new album released in the UK.
I’m currently very busy as director of Star Academy, the most popular tv show in France and Belgium, same format as Pop Idol, we had 5,000 demos sent to us. We film it in a chateau forty kilometres from Brussells, and I am the one who decides who will be the winner. And the academy itself is near Liege.
I’ve got my 25th anniversary concert coming up on 21 March 003, with a big orchestra and everything. I’m not an artist who does normal projects. I love to surprise people, and surprise myself, with what I do.
I’m just finishing my ninth album, then we start mixing. It has some rap, some r’n’b, but always with my own touch.
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(interview by Johnny Black, September 02)
Plastic Bertrand : I was born in Brussels. My father is French and my mother is Russian.
Ca Plane Pour Moi was not a real punk record, it was a parody, but it became the first punk thing to cross over to the mass market. When it was released, the A-side was actually Pogo Pogo, but my record company in Paris decided to put Ca Plane Pour Moi as the A-side. Then, when I did my first tv show, it was incredible, we started selling about 50,000 copies a day in France, Europe.
It became a hit all over Europe, which enabled me to get it out in the UK. Strangely, I toured all over the world, America, Canada, Japan, but not the UK, at that moment. It was pity because my first gig outside Belgium was when I was sixteen, I played the Marquee in London, supporting Ultravox, with my first band Stalag 16. I had met Ultravox in Belgium, and they invited us to come and support them at The Marquee.
You know, only two French songs have charted in the States, in 59 it was the Singing Nun, Dominique, and then it was me in 1979. So I did a lot of promotional touring there. I became friendly with The Ramones, in New York, because they understood that it was a parody and they loved it.
Before my solo career I was in a real punk band called Hubble Bubble, and we sold 25 copies, but when Ca Plane took off I was selling millions, and I was travelling on Concorde, the world was mine, and I went a bit crazy, playing the rock’n’star with all that it means. I set fire to the curtains in my hotel in Cannes. It was just for fun. It was a very nice night, and we were all crazy, and we wanted to make a scandal. Another time I smashed up the furniture in New York, but the people in France did not like that from a French artist. I was the only one.
My next single, Sha La La La Lee, didn’t do so well. Videos weren’t so common, and we didn’t have the internet in those days, so all the promotion had to be done in person. So I was travelling all around the world, working in the biggest markets like Germany and the United States.
I performed on the soundtrack album to the show Abbacadabra, which was great working with the girls from Abba, which was wonderful.
The Eurovision Song Contest in 1987 in Brussels, was a joke for me. I used to watch it when I was a child in the 60s, and it was the huge musical event of the year, and I swore that one day I would go on that show. Then, when they asked me to do it, I was delighted, not as a new stage in my career, but just for the personal pleasure of achieving a child’s ambition.
It was a lot of fun, we made it so kitsch, because that’s how Eurovision is. I wasn’t interested in winning, just in being there.
I was very successful until about 1992 and then I decided to stop because I got crazy again. I was exhausted with touring and working all the time. I felt like I was working in a factory. With all the excess, I was growing very fat and unhealthy. And did not look good.
I wanted to do something different, and I love surrealistic painting, so I started a contemporary art gallery in Brussells, which I ran until 1998, when I got a fax from MTV Europe. They had done a poll asking their viewers which artist they would most like to see back on stage again, and I was the winner. Two days later Universal called and asked to make a compilation album of my hits, and it started all over again like in 1979.
Since then, I have never been so busy. I am working all the time.
I love to play games, any game, and three or four years ago I beat the world Scrabble champion in Cannes, and got my picture on the cover of Nice Matin for something other than music. I love to do different things, that’s what makes me happy.
I was very surprised by the Clark’s ad. Six months ago I was approached by an advertising company, and then nothing happened, so we thought it had fallen through. Then I was in Paris and a friend told me he had heard Ca Plane Pour Moi playing on television in a commercial for shoes. I knew nothing about it. We had done no deal with the advertising company, and we were getting no money, so I was surprised and angry.
We have three lawyers helping us to find the people who had done this. I’m still not sure if it’s my version or a cover version. We still don’t know all the details. I just hope it helps me get my new album released in the UK.
I’m currently very busy as director of Star Academy, the most popular tv show in France and Belgium, same format as Pop Idol, we had 5,000 demos sent to us. We film it in a chateau forty kilometres from Brussells, and I am the one who decides who will be the winner. And the academy itself is near Liege.
I’ve got my 25th anniversary concert coming up on 21 March 003, with a big orchestra and everything. I’m not an artist who does normal projects. I love to surprise people, and surprise myself, with what I do.
I’m just finishing my ninth album, then we start mixing. It has some rap, some r’n’b, but always with my own touch.