Ãœber zine DIY culture heroes – The Blues Brothers coming to Liverpool

Posted on 15 July 2010
By Martin Higgins
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This month Purple Revolver and Über zine send a salute to true DIY culture icons John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd with a special screening of their cult classic The Blues Brothers in Liverpool.

Jake and Elwood’s ‘On a mission from God’ pledge to save their childhood orphanage and the whole film captures the Do It Yourself spirit, which is re-awakening across the world.

Peeps are bowing out of the rat race for a just cause or to take up their own creative projects and doing it bettter than the big boys.

To help celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Blues Brothers big screen debut all you have to do is head down to Studio 2, Parr St for our Über issue 2 launch party on Thursday July, 29.

For a cover charge of £5, straight outta 1980, you will get a free glass of Barefoot Wine on entry, enjoy Aretha’s Soul Food buffet and be blessed with a blistering blues set from Xander And The Peace Pirates.

And get your hands on one of the first copies of the new Über zine. Buy tickets http://www.wegottickets.com/event/87745

For more – hit the Facebook event page…http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139247409435301

Now, for the tale of how the Saturday Night Live stars had to navigate petty council beauracry and studio red tape to get permission to shoot the now infamous car chase, even before going on the run from Neo Nazis and the Good Ole Boys.

John Belushi walked into Mayor Jane Byrne’s office, sweat beading down his forehead, while Dan Aykroyd waited outside the door.

Dan gave Belushi, a Chicago native, the breathing room to appeal to the mayor as a local boy to a local girl. Belushi was nervous, Byrne remembers sitting at her desk stone-faced and silent, offering no relief.

Belushi and Aykroyd wanted to shoot the movie in Chicago but the local government were not open to the idea of big budget movie productions in the area.

Byrne recalls the meeting: “I know how Chicago feels about movies,” John said to the mayor.

She nodded. “Belushi said the studio would like to donate some money to Chicago orphanages in lieu of throwing a big, expensive premiere. ‘How much money?’ I asked. He said, “$200,000.” ‘And I just nodded again.’
“And so he kept talking,” . “Finally, I just said, ‘Fine.’ But he kept going. So again I said, ‘Look, I said fine.’ He said, ‘Wait. We also want to drive a car through the lobby of Daley Plaza. Right though the window.’

“I remember what was in my mind as he said it. I had the range of agitators against me anyway, and most of Daley’s people were against me.

“They owned Chicago for years, so when Belushi asked me to drive a car through Daley Plaza, the only thing I could say was, ‘Be my guest!’

“He said, ‘We’ll have it like new by the morning.’ I said, ‘Look, I told you yes.’ And that’s how they got my blessing.”

In this way Belushi, Aykroyd and Landis took it upon themselves to move outside the studio and cut through the red tape with their own cunning and turned their ambitious pre-production ideas into a hilarious reality and now cult classic movie, loved across the world.

They had somehow managed to get the local authorities to agree to closing down Lake Shore Drive, dropping a car from 1,000 feet and demolishing a shopping mall. No small feat, even by today’s big budget standards.

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