Bandwagon

Why do you start a rock band? Lots of films have been made which have tried to answer this question, though few have succeeded like John Schultz in his debut film Bandwagon. The Commitments started for the noble reason that they, like The Blues Brothers, were on a mission from god, the band in Bandwagon does not have any such fine excuse. Bandwagon is the story of four young guys in a dreary American small town who start a band because they do not have anything better to do. It all starts when the introverted guitarist Tony is fired from his meaningless job. He joins forces with the drummer Charlie who insists that they start a band. A major problem being that music is so personal for Tony that he cannot look at anyone when he is playing. Because of this, he always drags the guitar cords into the nearest cubby-hole when they rehearse. Tony comes out of the cubby-hole when they succeed in persuading the guitarist Wynn to join them. He has two major problems: he is constantly stoned arid suffers from claustrophobia, which makes touring in a buss a bit of a problem. Wynn hates the whole of the rock myth but is so impressed by Tony's songwriting that he stays with the band. The fourth and final member is the psychotic bass-player Eric. The band cannot start to rehearse until they have got Eric's bass back from a drug-dealing redneck whom Eric owes money. After a very funnily staged break-in at his house, the group is finally ready to rock the ass off the Establishment. The greatest problem remains however: the name of the group. After a general row they decide on the name Circus Monkey and play their first gig. Which is a predictable flop. Debutant John Schultz has, like his actors, had various small bands and has a good working knowledge of the subject. There are many entertaining details like mums sandwiches in the garage, a sister who asks them to play quieter, an audience which wants to hear heavy metal, a broken down touring bus and general bother whichever way they turn. As a road manager's answer to the holy Yoda coming to their rescue, we see Doug MacMillan from The Connells and no less than Don Was has supervised the soundtrack. Bandwagon is not only a successful depiction of a band's first stumbling-steps but also a smart and fantastically entertaining film, and you cannot get enough of those. MR

Premiärstatus
Skandinavisk premiär: Medverkande
Kevin Corrigan, Steve Parlavecchio, Lee Holmes: Producent
Alyson Pook & John Schultz: Manus
John Schultz: Foto
Shawn Maurer: Musik
Greg Kendall: Talat språk
English