plastic bertrand - classic or dud?

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we all love plastic bertrand - or do we? - but he hasn't had his own thread yet.

it only just occurred to me last week that plastic bertrand might have any songs other than 'ca plane pour moi' - so i downloaded as many as i could find on soulseek and every single one of them is great! (ok with the possible exceptions 'asterix est la!', 'jacques cousteau' and 'ping pong' - but with titles like that who cares what they sound like) how could someone with so much good material have been consigned to one hit wonder status?

minna (minna), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 22:36 (twenty years ago) link

Can only say I've heard "Ca Plane," but that is a classic. Even as "Jet Boy, Jet Girl."

TMFTML
http://intonation.blogspot.com

TMFTML (TMFTML), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 23:20 (twenty years ago) link

as a side question, does anyone know whether any of his records have been released on cd?

minna (minna), Thursday, 17 October 2002 00:04 (twenty years ago) link

"Pogo Pogo" is grebt

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 17 October 2002 00:14 (twenty years ago) link

On CD? I doubt it, although I could be wrong. His LP isn't all that easy to find, either.

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 17 October 2002 00:31 (twenty years ago) link

Further investigation has determined that whilst An 1 is unavailable on CD, he does have a couple of compilations in digital format. And quite a substantial discography to boot.

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 17 October 2002 00:39 (twenty years ago) link

yay! thanks jim i will have to put my hunting hat on and find me some plastic bertrand plastic, for these reasons:

*super cool ("wop-doo-wop, super cool!")
*bambino (manic mandolin-like instrument, possibly a mandolin.)
*stop ou encore (chic copycat disco funk (!!))
*sha la la la lee ("she is the queen of the solarium/she's gone to sleep on aluminium")
*sans amour (sounds like bizarre belgian early 80s infomercial)
*le monde est merveilleux (has this awesome four seasons/beach boys round robin at the end)
*pogo pogo
*tout petit la planete (spacey synths and vocoders!)
*hula hop (more doo-wop flava)
*le petit tortillard (maraccas and woo-woos!)
*major tom (well actually this sounds like billy idol singing in french)
*sentimentale moi (this is a soppy ballad with cooing saxophones and slide guitar and it should be terrible but i still like it in the context of the other stuff. i dunno maybe it's the way his cartoonish nasal french destroys all the kenny g ambience.)

minna (minna), Thursday, 17 October 2002 01:12 (twenty years ago) link

is he still alive?

minna (minna), Thursday, 17 October 2002 01:19 (twenty years ago) link

I put "Telephone a Telephone Mon Bijou" on a mix a few months ago.

Jody Beth Rosen, Thursday, 17 October 2002 01:36 (twenty years ago) link

I have the "An 1" album... classique bertrand! "Pogo Pogo" is amazing.

donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 17 October 2002 01:57 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/covers/plasticb.jpg

donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 17 October 2002 01:58 (twenty years ago) link

who was it that said royksopp were shite? cause they were right. i should have listened.

keith (keithmcl), Thursday, 17 October 2002 02:10 (twenty years ago) link

it could have been almost anyone. and indeed they are right.

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 17 October 2002 02:14 (twenty years ago) link

also classic: the midi version of ca plane pour moi on this page

minna (minna), Thursday, 17 October 2002 02:18 (twenty years ago) link

'Tout petit la planete' is fantastic 70's space disco

Paul R, Thursday, 17 October 2002 07:35 (twenty years ago) link

Damn if only i didn't have this measly download limit.

Minna was this inspired that ad with 'ca plane pour moi' on it? Can't remember what it's for or what it's like but I sing along whenever it comes on.

Keith McD (Keith McD), Thursday, 17 October 2002 08:50 (twenty years ago) link

He's still alive. Apparently he runs an art gallery. I am trying to find some records of his here in Belgium (to upload somewhere) but I can't find ANY! He tried a comeback a few years ago but without success.

nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 17 October 2002 10:08 (twenty years ago) link

Minna was this inspired that ad with 'ca plane pour moi' on it?

hehe, not directly, but it could have been a subliminal thing... there were several contributing factors:

*i put ca plane pour moi on a mix cd for my mum (by request)
*a few days later the guy who came to fix my window spotted michael jackson's 'off the wall' and we started talking about music: he loves off the wall and the cover art reminds him of his favourite record of all time: ca plane pour moi/pogo pogo. he picked his up for a dollar at a garage sale.

i bet my mum asked for the song cos of the ad!

minna (minna), Thursday, 17 October 2002 14:48 (twenty years ago) link

''He's still alive. Apparently he runs an art gallery.''

indeed he is. saw it on eurothrash.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 17 October 2002 14:51 (twenty years ago) link

two years pass...
hey, so why the heck does this website (below) say "ca plane pour moi" went to #39 in billboard? sounded absurd to me, and i checked my joel whitburn book, and indeed it is nowhere to be found. unless the website means in england. assuming england even has a billboard hot 100, which i don't think it does. how big a hit was it there anyway? and how big a hit was "jet boy jet girl" there? that one wasn't a hit in the u.s., either, except in gay discos i believe. anyhow:

http://www.comicgenius.com/DiscoFever/disco_profiles/plastic_bertrand/plastic_bertrand_profile.htm

xhuxk, Thursday, 7 July 2005 15:54 (seventeen years ago) link

He came to Montreal last year and put on an amazing show in a club. The crowd went so nuts the floor was litterally bouncing up and down like a trampoline. When Nina Hagen came to the same place a couple of months later they asked us not to jump for security reasons.

Search: Most of Minna's list (not too keen on "Sentimentale-moi" and "Le monde est merveilleux"), also "Slave to the Beat" (Plastiiiiiiic!) and "Téléphone à Téléphone Mon Bijou".

Seb (Seb), Thursday, 7 July 2005 18:08 (seventeen years ago) link

"Stop ou encore" was unbelievably big in Montreal, way more than "Ca plane pour moi" ever was. 9 year-old kids would sing it in schoolyards and such.

"Ca plane" hit #49 in Billboard, not #39 - still pretty goddamn impressive, I think, though I wish it would have gone top 40 like Edith Piaf's "La vie en rose".

Patrick (Patrick), Friday, 8 July 2005 04:49 (seventeen years ago) link

He was the king of the divan.

moley (moley), Friday, 8 July 2005 06:47 (seventeen years ago) link

PLASTIC BERTRAND still alive & performing?

That's made my day! Now, how about a double bill with Metal Urbain?

Soukesian, Friday, 8 July 2005 07:37 (seventeen years ago) link

You really should hear "Le Petit Tortillard" - it chugs, man...

mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Friday, 8 July 2005 09:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Plastic Bertand is still alive (with a brand new young face but a body of his age), and has been pathetic on the french real tv program "LA FERME CELEBRITES" (that Jordy won).

snowballing (snowballing), Friday, 8 July 2005 09:12 (seventeen years ago) link

'tout petit la planete' is so the other best one along with ca plane. big brooding dark and galaxious.

Affectian (Affectian), Friday, 8 July 2005 09:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I prefer Anne Bertrand or Bertrand Russell. Yoko Ono sucks.

Stoned Fella, Friday, 8 July 2005 11:10 (seventeen years ago) link

oh no he is on la ferme?! man that show is painful.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link

I have the LP, "Le Petit Tortillard" is fucking awesome. What is a tortillard?

n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:10 (seventeen years ago) link

it's a train i think. like a little train.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Plastic B and Jordy were on La Ferme??

Baaderonixx le Belge (Fabfunk), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:17 (seventeen years ago) link

it's a train i think. like a little train.

Indeed it is. Hence the chugging.

mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link

five years pass...

WTF!

seandalai, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 13:54 (twelve years ago) link

Le chanteur n'a jamais nié avoir fait du play-back. Mais Lou Deprijck, dont les motivations financières semblent à peine dissimulées, va plus loin. Selon lui, il aurait également chanté les chansons de Plastic Bertrand "jusqu’au quatrième album où on s’est disputé." "Je suis à l’origine de son succès. Même son nom, c’est moi qui l’ai choisi (...) Plastic a fait, à l’époque, des essais de voix, mais ça ne donnait rien… Il a une voix entre Michou et Hervé Vilard !", renchérit-il.

http://www.metrofrance.com/info/ca-ne-plane-plus-pour-plastic-bertrand/mjgz!H4DDOPE3tpdY/

Apparently Bertrand was Milli-Vanilli-ing all the way up to his fourth album...

seandalai, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 14:00 (twelve years ago) link

Say it ain't so, Plastic

Jeff W, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 14:09 (twelve years ago) link

oh, he did, in 2006, and the Belgian courts agreed

http://fillessourires.com/?tag=plastic-bertrand

Jeff W, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 14:21 (twelve years ago) link

ha - so the music was Elton Motello and the singing was Lou Deprijck!

progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 14:47 (twelve years ago) link

it's beautiful in a KLF kind of way

progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 14:48 (twelve years ago) link

twelve years pass...

In 'you could have knocked me over with a feather' news, the guest judge this week on Drag Race Belgique? Mr. Plastic B himself. He was looking GREAT, rocking a silver fox look, and was absolutely into it all.

https://ds.static.rtbf.be/article/image/1920x1080/f/3/4/d6c651ddcd97183b2e40bc464231c962-1678896867.png

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 18 March 2023 02:26 (one week ago) link

So still the king of the divan, then?

Think Fast, Mr. Mojo Risin’ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 18 March 2023 02:39 (one week ago) link


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