Attila the Stockbroker on Radio Four

[Lord Bracknell]

Singing Jaques Brel in French!

 

[Mullers]

Good. He wont bore me on there!

 

[aftershavedave]

thought his accent was appalling, but interesting that he liked brel. me and the missus (madamoiselle i guess) went toi the brel expo in brussels earlier this year....absolutely brilliant if you like that kind of thing

 

[pevenseagull is spartacus]

are you trying to tell me that Attila doen't sing like Scott Walker?

 

[Gwylan]

Attila's long been a Brel fan...he was going on about him in the 70s. He even went to live in Belgium in the early 80s.

Pity I missed the programme; Brel's a big favourite of mine too.

 

[attila]

I played bass in a Brussels punk band 24 years ago, that's where I discovered Brel (and got my accent!) He's one of my favourite songwriters of all time - it's a shame that so few translations of his work are anything other than appalling ('Ne Me Quitte Pas' turned into 'If You Go Away' being the prime example, along with 'Seasons in the Sun' - yes, every time we sing 'We had joy, we had fun, we had Palace on the run..'we are singing a Brel song)
Robina and I are going to the Brel exhibition in a few weeks - I bet it's brilliant,
the Bruxellois are justly proud of him.

 

[Brovion]

I played bass in a Brussels punk band 24 years ago ...

Ah yes! The mighty 'Contingent'! Pity 'Spermicide' never made the big time!

 

[The Large One]

I have been to the Brel Exhibition in Brussels.

If you are a fan of Jacques Berl, you should very much enjoy it. It is brilliant, even if my French is a bit rusty, I got the gist of his life story.

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

Dunno which programme you're on about, but if you do you can listen again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml

 

[aftershavedave]

liked your contribution to the programme attila...very interesting. your accent....well let's not go there!always interests me how much my in-laws (from normandy) take the piss out of the belgians incessantly but treat brel like a god!

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Ok I admit it, I am a phillestine.

Can you please explain who was this guy brel

dave the thicko

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Ok I admit it, I am a phillestine.

Can you please explain who was this guy brel

dave the thicko

Jeez, Dave. That's what a Huddersfield upbringing does.

The greatest French language popular singer of the twentieth century.

Even better than Piaf.

A famous Belgian.

Read about him here

 

[attila]

The French tell 'histoires belges' like (some) English people tell Irish jokes - the Bruxellois punk band I was in was always the brunt of jokes like that when we played in France - even though only one of us was actually Belgian. And, of course, the French cultural establishment have always tried to claim Brel for their own - but he was having none of it ('Bruxelles', 'Les Flimingants' 'Le Plat Pays' 'Les Flamandes') although he did deliberately lose his Brussels accent, which I think was sad........

Quant a MON accent bruxellois, Afters, mon vieux: ben, une fois, moi, j' en suis fier, et si t'aimes pas, moi, je m'en contre-balance...

 

[aftershavedave]

attila, be proud of your accent, as i'm always told by the in-laws "tu parles avec un accent anglais...............mais c'est tres charmant"