Plastic Bertrand

Plastic Bertrand is one of Countdown’s greatest one-hit wonders. Molly tells the tale: “During the Countdown years, a wonderful woman by the name of Carolyn James ran what we called the Countdown Council. Every Monday night, she would do a report, getting reaction to the songs we’d played the previous night from designated Countdown watchers across the country. One of the biggest fights I had with Caroline was in 1978 over Plastic Bertrand’s ‘Ca Plane Pour Moi’. The viewers thought it was awful and they never wanted to hear it again. But I thought if it’s getting such an extreme reaction, we might be on to something. We played it again. And ‘Ca Plane Pour Moi’ ended up going to number one.”

Twenty years later, MTV declared Plastic Bertrand “the most wanted comeback artist”. Plastic Bertrand was the alias of new wave prankster Roger Jouret, a native of Belgium who appropriated the sound and style of the new wave movement in order to give it a gently satirical poke in the ribs, while scoring several European hits in the process.

Jouret began his musical career as a drummer for the Belgian punk trio Hubble Bubble, which recorded one unsuccessful album. When Jouret met producer/songwriter Lou Deprijck, the two struck up a recording partnership; Jouret emphasized his pretty-boy looks and punkish fashion sense. Their first effort, ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ (‘This Life's for Me’), is widely regarded as a New Wave classic for its gleefully deranged stupidity, with Jouret singing French nonsense lyrics in a cartoonish voice over basic three-chord rock & roll complete with saxophones and a falsetto vocal hook straight out of the Beach Boys or Four Seasons. The song was a smash in Europe and became a cult favourite in America.

Plastic Bertrand continued to release records in Europe, including a U.K. hit remake of the Small Faces' ‘Sha-La-La-La-Lee.’ Bertrand experimented with seemingly every new wave fashion, including spacy electronics, disco, bubblegum pop, reggae, and spoken word raps, all with the same naggingly entertaining stupidity. He remained popular on the European continent and in Canada for several years, where audiences were more attuned to his largely French lyrics, but the novelty eventually wore off, and nothing was heard from Bertrand after 1982. Plastic Bertrand released several albums, all of which are difficult to find; a greatest-hits collection is also floating around.
~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide