While I have a
bit of a love / hate relationship with actor / musician work (a topic I’ve
already covered here), there's one job in that field that I’d still quite like
to do: play Elwood in the Blues Brothers.
I’ve wanted to do it since I was a kid, when I used to go and watch The Official Tribute to The Blues Brothers at the Gordon Craig Theatre each year. Me and my best friend Chris were obsessed with it – and would spend hours singing along with the soundtrack in his front room, whilst attempting Jake and Elwood’s moves. We knew the album inside out (as I imagine Chris’ neighbours eventually did too).
I tracked down copies of the original Blues Brothers LPs, plus a VHS of the movie. The film is patchy at best, but the music is fantastic; John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd surrounded themselves with the genre's finest players.
Singing along with the records lost its interest as we got a little older, so we decided to pull a small Blues Brothers band together. We called ourselves The Bandit Blues Brothers; we only ever played two gigs as part of two school concerts – but we had a lot of fun when we did them.
I can still remember using the photo booth at Stevenage Station to mock up some Jake & Elwood-style mug shots; posing in a pair of porkpie hats, with a borrowed cigarette hanging from Chris’ mouth.
(We weren’t rebellious enough to be real smokers.)
Unfortunately, I tend to see Chris a lot less these days – but when we meet up we often mention the idea of doing it again, but properly. We’d now be much better equipped; I even play blues harmonica, so that’s a bonus.
It’s fair to say that our mission from God is a long time overdue.
I’ve wanted to do it since I was a kid, when I used to go and watch The Official Tribute to The Blues Brothers at the Gordon Craig Theatre each year. Me and my best friend Chris were obsessed with it – and would spend hours singing along with the soundtrack in his front room, whilst attempting Jake and Elwood’s moves. We knew the album inside out (as I imagine Chris’ neighbours eventually did too).
I tracked down copies of the original Blues Brothers LPs, plus a VHS of the movie. The film is patchy at best, but the music is fantastic; John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd surrounded themselves with the genre's finest players.
Singing along with the records lost its interest as we got a little older, so we decided to pull a small Blues Brothers band together. We called ourselves The Bandit Blues Brothers; we only ever played two gigs as part of two school concerts – but we had a lot of fun when we did them.
I can still remember using the photo booth at Stevenage Station to mock up some Jake & Elwood-style mug shots; posing in a pair of porkpie hats, with a borrowed cigarette hanging from Chris’ mouth.
(We weren’t rebellious enough to be real smokers.)
Unfortunately, I tend to see Chris a lot less these days – but when we meet up we often mention the idea of doing it again, but properly. We’d now be much better equipped; I even play blues harmonica, so that’s a bonus.
It’s fair to say that our mission from God is a long time overdue.
