The Bowling Balls was a Belgian post-punk/New Wave/synthpop novelty band created in 1976 by cartoonists and comic artists [url=https://discogs.com/artist/211353]Frédéric Jannin[/url] and
Thierry Culliford and active between 1979 and 1983. For the first three years, the ensemble was purely fictional — introduced as a narrative element in Fred and Thierry's humorous comic strip "
[url=https://discogs.com/artist/4236274]Germain and us…[/url]" published in
Spirou magazine, where it was a favorite band of the main protagonist and his teenage friends. Jannin and Culliford subsequently decided to develop Bowling Balls as a "spinoff" hoax together with a mutual close friend, music journalist [url=https://discogs.com/artist/3958826]Bert Bertrand[/url] — son of prolific Belgian comic scriptwriter
Yvan Delporte (1928—2007), who was one of Fred's early mentors and patrons and extensively collaborated with Thierry's father, renowned cartoonist
Peyo. They invited another mutual friend to act as brothers [url=https://discogs.com/artist/923761]Elton[/url], [url=https://discogs.com/artist/923760]Averell[/url], [url=https://discogs.com/artist/923757]Billy[/url], and
Fernand Ball, while Thierry's dad joined as the supposed "producer" and manager
Jack Grodikski. In November 1978,
En Attendant rock magazine published a faux interview with Bowling Balls, followed by more fictitious ephemera, including a bogus press kit, photoshoots, and non-existent record covers.
At this point, only one element was missing — the music itself; the Ball "brothers" soon recorded two songs,
God Save the Night Fever (a "portmoneau" gag of
God Save The Queen by
Sex Pistols and
Bee Gees disco soundtrack extravaganza
[url=https://discogs.com/master/23443]Saturday Night Fever[/url], both released in 1977), and borderline offensive "Chinese reggae"
Dreadlock'n Lol — both explicitly and obviously satirical, with nonsensical lyrics and over-the-top vocal mannerisms. The band initially planned to release a flexi-disc insert with
Spirou but the magazine's promotional budget ended up insufficient to cover the costs. Luckily, Spirou label stepped in and agreed to release a
God Save The Night Fever 7" single with proper artwork, which came out on 1 April 1979 — symbolic date to inaugurate the band that literally started as a joke.
The following year, Bowling Balls signed a record deal with Spirou, which released their sophomore 7" single,
Visco Video, featuring a cover of
Del Shannon's "When You Walk in the Room" on the B-side and produced by
Phil Delire, in April 1980. The band soon had debut live appearances on Spirou's primetime television music show, "
Génération 80," and at Pepperland, a renowned comic bookstore in Brussels. As they lacked true musicianship, the Bowling Balls delivered comedy routines and orchestrated truly bizarre and eccentric performances. For instance, they appeared as a quartet of accordionists in January 1981 on
Gilles Verlant's weekly music TV program,
RTBF Follies, as the band presented their third 7" single,
You Don't Know What It's Like To Be Alone In The House. Jannin and Bertrand, the only members deeply engaged in creating music, soon produced enough material for a full-length album but the label insisted it was too early for the LP; instead, Ariola released the group's fourth seven-inch,
[url=https://discogs.com/master/204091]The Boys/The Girls[/url] (notably produced by
Dan Lacksman and
Marc Moulin of
Telex) in September 1981. Shortly after, Bert Bertrand suddenly left Belgium, claiming he'd be traveling to Bora-Bora and leaving his bandmates on an indefinite hiatus.
In early February 1983, Bertrand committed suicide in New York. The remaining members decided to release the band's sole album in his memory a few months later — a promptly titled
First & Last Album For The Same Price LP featuring all four singles and several new songs. In September 1995, Bowling Balls presented
The Greatest Best Of Number One Hits Ever CD compilation on Spirou. Two years later, French television channel Spirou produced
La véritable histoire des Bowling Balls documentary about the band, featuring interviews with
Thierry Tinlot, former editor-in-chief of
Spirou magazine,
Jean-Pierre Hautier (Jannin's bandmate in
Zinno), and journalist
Marc Oschinsky.
In January 2004, following a complete four-volume reissue of "
[url=https://discogs.com/artist/4236274]Germain et nous…[/url]" comics by [url=https://discogs.com/label/1851401]Le Lombard[/url], Fred Jannin presented
For Ever And Never 2×CD compilation on his private imprint Spirou, featuring ten previously unreleased songs remastered by
Dan Lacksman and "You Don't Know" cover in French by
Marka (
Serge Van Laeken).
