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Formed: Belgium, but is generally considered English because that's where singer Elton Motello was born

Discography

A year or so before punk began, Alan Ward played in a group called Bastard, which featured a certain Brian James on guitar, alongside Dez Lover and Nobby Goff. Bastard gigged around Belgium for a short while, but to little acclaim, their MC5-inspired racket being woefully out of step with the times. They split when James left for London and formed London S.S. and then The Damned.

At some point Ward began calling himself Elton Motello and formed a band with this name: Elton Motello. The lineup included Twink, drummer for Pink Fairies, battering the bins. In 1977, Elton Motello recorded the single Pogo Pogo b/w 'Jet Boy Jet Girl with a load of session musicians. The two very same backing tracks were then utilised by a certain Plastic Bertrand for his single 'Ca Plane Pour Moi' b/w 'Pogo Pogo'. Bertrand, real name Roger Jouret, had previously drummed with one of Belgium's first punk bands, Hubble Bubble, and they had recorded two versions of 'Pogo Pogo' on their debut LP (but this is a completely different song to the Elton Motello number - it just shares the same name). Both singles were released initially in 1977, and both were reissued a year later by numerous labels in numerous countries. The rather rude version by Elton Motello charted only in Australia, but Plastic Bertrand's version (with completely different lyrics) was a Top Ten hit all over the world. Elton Motello also issued a less rude version of the single in the UK.

The band's debut album, the excellent Victim Of Time, was released in 1978, and stands as a sublime piece of punk rock. Later pressings substituted the single version of 'Jet Boy Jet Girl' for an astonishing 7-minute version. The LP was recorded with a slew of Ward's mates, as he explains here (thanks to Larz for sending me this):

Alan Ward: Nobby Goff was the drummer of the band I had with Brian James and Des Lovett in the UK, "Bastard". The start of punk in the UK.. we did a few gigs in Europe and then Brian and Des returned to the UK. When I started recording tracks for my album (pre..Plastic) I, of course, worked with Nobby Goff, hence some of the tracks on the first album are with Nobby. Nobby had a few personal family problems to sort out and he asked if he could take a break to work things out. So, came a time when we worked with other guys (Plastic, Eve Kengen, etc. ). When I came to finishing my Motello album I called on my friends and acquaintances: Twink, Willie , Robbie Finkle, Peter, Frisoi, Pietro, who all played an important part in making the album great. Now please understand: at the time, things were flexible .. musical .. and brotherly ….. we were making music we believed in .. so everything overlaps, which may not please today's spreadsheet society, but that's how it was … and how i fondly remember it … many years later.

LP Number Two, Pop Art, was a more new wave sounding affair, with synthesisers all over the place. Elton Motello disbanded in the early '80s, but Motello himself carried on in the music biz as a producer.

'Jet Boy Jet Girl' has been covered many times since, notably by Captain Sensible and Chron Gen, in standard punk fashion. ('Ca Plane Pour Moi' was also covered many times, notably by Telex (a deadpan electronic version), The Headcoatees (garage punk stylee) and Leila K (powerful techno). Seems it's impossible to do a bad version of this song

DISCOGRAPHY

Note: 'Get The Guy' is a super-rare limited edition one-sided single released by Low Down Kids Records - only 25 pressed! The song 'Get The Guy' comes from Victim Of Time. And images of the 'I Am The Marshall' single (released in Belgium by RKM) would be greatly appreciated. Any additional/better scans of any of the records would also not go amiss.