Plastic Bertrand admits: Ça n'etait pas moi

slow news day at The Guardian...

Belgian singer blames former producer after admitting his was not voice on Ça Plane Pour Moi.

"The Belgian singer Plastic Bertrand has admitted that the voice that gave the world the 1977 Euro-punk anthem Ça Plane Pour Moi was not his. Roger Jouret, the man behind the Plastic Bertrand persona, had previously denied that he was not the singer on the record. But in an interview with the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, he admitted it had been another singer – and laid the blame at the door of his former producer, Lou Deprijck. His admission came a day after a linguist commissioned by a judge concluded that the singer's accent did not match the voice on the record."

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Looks like Mr Bertrand had a pang of guilt, the allegations were only reported on Tuesday! Unbelievably a linguistic expert was brought in to analyse the vocal phrasing on the song and concluded that all was not cool.

Serge-fest

Last Sunday, Verity and I went to a free screening of the Gainsbourg film. For some reason it's been re-titled Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus for the English speaking market, perhaps to make it more accessible to a new audience by referencing the one song most people know from his back-catalogue. But definitely a bit confusing for anyone who knows a bit more about Gainsbourg and has knowledge of his own 1976 directed film Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus.

I picked up this glossy little pamphlet at the cinema:



I won't spoil the film for anyone who's not seen it yet, but it was definitely a better viewing experience than when I first saw it on a longhaul flight (on a six-inch screen with altitude sickness and jumbo-jet engines roaring in the background). Joann Sfar has used his artistic-license in building the Gainsbourg narrative around the myths and tales that make Serge's life so colourful. There is much spinning of yarns and embellishing of myths, which turn what could've been a straight-down-the-line biopic into an almost fantastical, hallucinatory tale.

Later that evening, we reacquainted ourselves with some a little Serge-fest on DVD, comme ça...

CE SOIR - L'AMOUR ELECTRONIQUE

Sorry been a bit slack with posting of late (far too many excuses to reel off just now)...

All you need to know is
L'Amour Electronique is tonight,
9pm - 3am
at The West Hill, 67 Buckingham Place, Brighton.
It is free entry, so you can drop in at any time.

As well as the usual Frrrench Pop and ye-ye, Synth-heavy sounds and electronic music, I have a load of Gainsbourg gems I'm eager to play after seeing the film again last Sunday.
All hail dirty ol' Serge!

Gainsbourg free screenings this Sunday

See page 7 of today's Guardian Guide cinema listings for details...

Breathless

Finally got to see the 50th Anniversary re-print of Godard's À Bout De Souffle (or Breathless if you can't pronounce the French) last Friday. I've seen it countless times on DVD, but seeing it on the big screen it had so much more impact. It was, if you pardon the pun, close to breathtaking.

I urge you to go and see it if you can.

Here's a little mp3 tribute to the scene above: A song I first discovered on (the sadly latent) Spiked Candy back in July 2007 . Hopefully she won't mind me re-posting it now...

Jany. L - Herald Tribune

[Feeling rich? You can buy Jany. L's only 2 seven-inches from cdandlp.com!]