Elton Motello
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Elton Motello were an English punk rock and new wave band.
Elton Motello is both the moniker of Alan Ward, the lead singer and songwriter, and the name of the band itself.[1] Alan Ward was formerly a member of the glam punk band Bastard along with Damned guitarist Brian James, Dez Lover, future Raxola frontman Yves Kengen on bass, and drummer Nobby Goff.[citation needed]
Ward then recruited a new set of musicians who became the band Elton Motello: Peter Goff (guitar), Willie Change (bass), and Nobby Goff (drums), with Ward himself (as Elton Motello) on vocals and percussion. This is the line-up listed on their debut album Victim of Time, which also featured guest appearances from former The Pretty Things and Pink Fairies drummer John "Twink" Alder, Tony Boast (guitar), and Mike Butcher (as Jet Staxx), who had played guitar on the single version of "Jet Boy, Jet Girl".[1][2]
Ward/Motello returned in 1980 with a second album, Pop Art, now backed by Butcher, Andrew Goldberg, J.P. Martins, and Walter Mets.[1] Two singles followed towards the end of the year, after which the band split up.[1]
Alan Ward had toured Belgium with Bastard. Through his connections there, he had his new moniker, Elton Motello, debut on the Belgian label RKM with the single "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" in 1977. The song was backed by session musicians[3] Mike Butcher (guitar), John Valcke (bass), and Bob Dartsch (drums), instead of Elton Motello's regular musicians. That exact same backing track was simultaneously used by Belgian artist Plastic Bertrand on his internationally successful hit single "Ça plane pour moi". Since then, "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" has sometimes been wrongly thought to be a cover of "Ça plane pour moi", with new lyrics over the same backing track,[1] but the truth is that the two songs were simultaneous adaptations of the same backing track.[4]
While Bertrand's single was a huge international hit, Motello's single in English was a night club hit in Europe, U.S.A., Japan, & Australia, where it was released on the RCA label and hit #33 on the National Top Forty (and regionally in Melbourne at #11 and in Sydney, at #10). Also in Australia, "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" has appeared in a television commercial[citation needed], but the commercial only included the chorus and none of the controversial lyrics.
Discography
Albums
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1978 | Victim of Time |
| 1980 | Pop Art |
| 2001 | Jet Boy (compilation) |
Singles
| Year | Title | AUS[5] |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | "Jet Boy, Jet Girl"[6][7] | 33 |
| 1978 | "Pinball" | - |
| 1978 | "Lightning" | - |
| 1980 | "20th Century Fox" | - |
| 1980 | "Pop Art" | - |
