The Song

DISCLAIMER - there is a lot of inaccurate information about Jet Boy Jet Girl floating about in print and online. I hope that the below is all correct BUT I can't promise its the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Okay.

Most people are familiar with Ça Plane Pour Moi, Jet Boy Jet Girl's bastard sibling.

They will have heard it used in TV and Film soundtracks, chopped up and regurgitated on countless commercials selling everything from from cereal to soft drinks and cars. It still pops up from time to time on radio too. It has been covered countless times too by acts including The Presidents of The United States, White Horse, Metallica, Sonic Youth & Nouvelle Vague.

So it's a pretty safe bet to say you've heard it in one form or another!

If you're old enough you'll remember seeing and hearing it on Top of The Pops in 1978. I'm not quite that old but I'm old enough for the song to have indelibly printed itself on me in the following years and to have seen Plastik Bertrand singing it in the official music video (perhaps more on that 'singing' aspect later but I don't want to get bogged down in non JBJG stuff) on television much later on.

You notice anything?

Sounds familiar right?

I'll be honest the first time I heard Jet Boy Jet Girl I thought it must be a punk parody/ rip off of Ça Plane Pour Moi.

It's a little more complicated than that.

But let's rewind a little first.

Some time around 1975 Alan Ward (and later Mike Butcher too) moved from the UK to to Belgium to assist in the start up of Morgan Studios in Brussels as their Chief Engineer. The studio was already operating successfully in London and wanted to set up a European base too. Alan had been working at the London studio for a while and saw it as an opportunity to help create something from the ground up.

I have no idea who Alan had worked with up until then but the roster of artists that had recorded at the London studio was a list of who's who of British and International rock. It was after Alan's time in the London studio but The Cure's first two albums were recorded there, which as they are perhaps my own personal favourite band of all time impresses me at least even if nobody else cares :-)

More about Morgan Studios (in London) can be read here.

Before moving to Belgium Alan had already been in a couple of bands. The first band he was in was the gloriously named Bastard, a garage rock inspired proto punk outfit consisting of Alan, Dez Lover, Yves Kengen, Nobby Goff and the one and only Brian James who went on to be the founding member, main songwriter (initially) and linchpin of the original incarnation of The Damned. They were all from Crawley (Alan went to the same school as Robert Smith, though they didn't know of each other as Alan was a few years older) and they played across the South of England frequently. According to Alan they had a big Biker following at the time.

Until recently no recordings have ever been released of the band though at the time I spoke to him Alan confirmed to me they do exist. A limited edition pressing has at last surfaced (June 2026). More about it here.

Initially the band all came over to Belgium with Alan and they played a few gigs in Europe before Bryan James returned to the UK to join London SS (alongside Mick Jones, later of The Clash). Brian then went on to form The Damned (which lead me to the song!).

Meanwhile Alan, remaining in Belgium, formed Elton Motello, initially with other members of Bastard but soon joined by Mike Butcher (aka Jet Staxx) who was also an engineer with Morgan Studios who had come over from the UK to work there. Mike was a guitarist and keen to play in a band and the pair of them started writing togehter.

Meanwhile one of the star music producers in Europe, Francis Jean "Lou" Deprijck was looking across the Channel at the punk scene burgeoning in the UK and trying to devise a way to take advantage of that and make money from it in Belgium and Europe.

This is where it all gets a little messy!

Alan and Mike were working with Deprijck and Yves Lacomblez and the backing track for Jet Boy Jet Girl which they had recorded was also used for Ça Plane Pour Moi but with very different nonsensical lyrics. To add even more confusion both songs featured a song called Pogo Pogo on their b'sides. Again with very different lyrics. The Elton Motello version has lyrics written and performed by Alan for both songs and the Plastic Bertrand release has lyrics written and reportedly performed by Deprijck (though at the time Bertrand, aka Roger François Jouret, was purported to be singing and still to this day that is a bone of legal contention).

Cue much confusion.

Lots of people seem to think they are the same song and that one is the translation of the other. Still to this day. Even the wikipedia page for Bertrand states incorrectly tha t they are both the same song and that Deprijck wrote both!!

However, though Ça Plane Pour Moi would go on to gain greater chart success (it is a tad more radio friendly!), Jet Boy Jet Girl was written, recorded and released first. It is the older (better) sibling by two months having been released in October 1977; Ça Plane Pour Moi not released till December of that year. Musically (though there may be tweaks in the mix) they are the same track but with very very different lyrics and vocal performances.

But (for now anyway) lets never speak of Ça Plane Pour Moi again.

Jet Boy Jet Girl achieved minor success in both Australia and Canada. It hit #33 in the charts in Australia but in Europe it wass overshadowed by the song which shall not be named.

Why?

Well the lyrics might play a big part in that. The main character in the song is a fifteen year old boy hankering after his older male lover (it's never stated how much older, I like to think not by much but...) who is now in a straight relationship, lamenting that he no longer receives oral sex from him anymore and quite joyously singing about gay sex, boys kissing boys, penetration and boys becoming girls when they are penetrated.

Honestly. It has it all.

I fell in love with the song from the first mention of oral sex and when penetration popped up in the mix to boot I knew it was a love affair that endure for the ages!

Can you tell what's on my mind
She's with him it drives me wild
I'd like to hit him on the head until he's dead
The sight of blood is such a high
Ooh, he gives me head

We made it on a ballroom blitz
I took his arm and kissed his lips
He looked at me with such a smile, my face turned red
We booked a room into the Ritz
Ooh, he gives me head

Jet boy jet girl
Gonna take you round the world
Jet boy, I'm gonna make 'em penetrate
I'm gonna make you be a girl
Ooh, jet boy jet girl

I know I'm only just fifteen
I like to kick, I like to scream
And even if I have a kick or two in bed
When I'm with him it's just a dream
Ooh, he gives me head

Jet boy jet girl
Gonna take you round the world
Jet boy, I'm gonna make 'em penetrate
I'm gonna make you be a girl
Ooh, jet boy jet girl

The other day what a surprise
I saw him with some other guys
God, he was dressed up with a girl around his neck
I could have cried with both my eyes
Ooh, he gave me head

And if and when I make it through
Or if my brain is stuck on glue
And when the world trusts you to forget all that
I said I'll still remember you
Ooh, you gave me head

Jet boy jet girl
Gonna take you round the world
Jet boy, I'm gonna make 'em penetrate
I'm gonna make you be a girl
Ooh, jet boy jet girl

(all words written by Alan Ward)

They wouldn't be the most radio friendly lyrics even now in the enlightened 2020's (the age of the hero of the song being somewhat problematic - sixteen surely could have worked just as well? But its a moot point).

In 1977 though. There wasn't a cats chance in hell of it getting airplay. And certainly in the UK (the biggest market in theory for the song) that was the case.

It fared slightly better in Europe and there is a clip online of the band (minus Mike who wasn't available on the day) playing it on a German TV show with Alan wearing a t-shirt with FUCK YOU scrawled on it, his face painted white and flour in his hair which billows everywhere when he smacks himself on the side of the head.

It's a little more complicated than that.