A Day on TV with a French Legend and Talking Heads

After many decades lurking in the shadows this wonderful footage of The Boys on French TV has shown up:

I remember the day well. A Sunday, I believe, at the start of a French tour to promote Alternative Chartbusters, we’d flown in early. There was a bar just by the filming stage, always dangerous for The Boys, but all went well.

The show, “Blue Jeans”, had an eclectic line up. Mainly French pap but also legend Serge Gainsbourg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Gainsbourg . He had a new single out called “Sea, Sex and Sun” which Jack Black impersonated side splittingly for the rest of the tour. The single comprised young french women twittering away about the summer hols for a bit with an intermittent, chain smoking Gainsbourg coming in with a big, bass rumble of “Le Soleil” on the chorus. Jack’s take was perfect.

Talking Heads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Heads were on plugging Psycho Killer. They’d just stepped off the plane from New York. I gather having a conversation with David Byrne is not easy at the best of times. Trying to talk to him when he was jet lagged and a couple of vodkas to the good is one of the most challenging tasks I’ve faced in my life.

After the recording a very wet behind the ears me was walking back to the hotel for a kip. I stopped to ask the most gorgeous, black hooker, without realising her profession, what the hour was. The conversation went like this:

Me: “Do you have the time?”. Her: “Yes, follow me”.

I was left on the “trottoir” thinking “These good looking French girls are very forward”.

Looking back at the footage what strikes me now is: Didn’t we look great in red. Really ahead of our time.

PS: I’d forgotten Jack Black played the drums with 2 rolled up newspapers. That’s how you mime 🙂