When he hit European television screens in 1977, pogoing across music stages with a glint in his eye and a flower in his buttonhole, Plastic Bertrand gave no reason for anyone to doubt him when he yelled into the audience "Ça plane pour moi" (All's cool with me). Thirty-three years later, however, the erstwhile hero of Brussels' music scene could be forgiven for ruing his youthful chutzpah. If evidence given to a Belgian court this week is to be believed, the man recognised as the voice behind Euro-punk's anthem had built his acclaim on shaky ground: he did not actually sing the song.
According to a linguistician commissioned by a Belgian judge to examine the original recording of Ça Plane Pour Moi and compare it with a version released in 2006 by Bertrand's former producer, the singer of the 1977 track spoke with a distinctive twang that would not have come naturally to the Brussels-born front-man. "With the endings of sentences on the tapes the voice can only belong to a Ch'ti or a Picard," read the judgment, implying the true singer must have originated from north-eastern France, an area which produced both the Picard dialect and the affectionately mocked Ch'ti patois.
It is also the area that produced Lou Deprijck, the track's composer and producer, who believes he has been vindicated in his claim to be the true performer of the big-selling single. "My Ch'ti patois has proved me right. I am relieved," he was quoted as saying in Le Parisien newspaper. "I hope I will finally get my rights." Deprijck, who for the past decade has been pursuing his music career in Thailand, has insisted for years that he was the real singer on Ça Plane Pour Moi, the hit that made it to No. 8 in the UK single's charts despite being performed in largely unintelligible French.Roger Jouret – the man behind the Plastic Bertrand persona – vehemently denies the claims. Boosted by the findings of the linguist, who spent three months in a studio analysing the voices on the original track and a cover released by Deprijck four years ago, Plastic Bertrand's rival claims he recorded the song but that the record label wanted a flamboyant punk figure to carry it off. "I was even prepared to shave my moustache but the record label preferred this guy with his punk look," he said.
Asked to rule on the question in 2006, the Brussels court of appeal ruled that Jouret was indeed the "legal performer" of the song because he had appeared on the cover and had signed the original contract. For him, the latest development in the years-long legal saga means "nothing".
"This expertise carries no weight. It has been set up because Ça Plane Pour Moi has been taken up by advertising campaigns and Deprijck wants to get all the rights," Jouret said, vowing to sue his rival for defamation. "He's making me out to be a crook, but I am an artist, not a crook.
the Guardian
the Guardian
