Another childhood illusion shattered, another comfort zone wrecked. Belgian punk “sensation” Plastic Bertrand has admitted he wasn’t the singer of his one and only UK hit ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’. Is there nothing left we can believe in?
This is far more devastating than the Milli Vanilli ‘scandal’ of 20 years ago. Poor Plastic (real name Roger Jouret, but why would he use that again?) is distraught at having to admit this now. I must admit, I feel for him.
Admitting that the voice on the record was actually that of the record’s producer, the wonderfully named Lou Deprijck, Plastic said: “I’m the victim. I wanted to sing but he wouldn’t let me into the studio. This is going to dog me till my dying days. I’m really fed up.”
Younger readers (younger than me, I mean) will have no idea just how big Plastic Bertrand was for a (short) period in the late 1970s. I well remember him appearing on no less than the BBC’s lamentable prime-time light entertainment show Seaside Special in 1979 (an edition from Honfleur in northern France) being semi-introduced by Rod Hull, who called him “Plastic Bucket”. Yes, he was THAT huge. Also on that show were the magnificent Gibson Brothers. Que Sera Mi Vida, indeed.
[Tangent] Ah, I in this age of remakes, reduxes, reimaginings and regenerations, how about a Seaside Special revival? Better still, how about mixing it up with It’s A Knockout? Imagine Stuart Hall commentating as BBC viewers throw coconuts at a pillory containing the heads of 1920s swimming costume-clad Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh? 20 million viewers per week guaranteed.
I Have Grave News 
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