| played very convincingly by Neighbours’ Tad
Reeves. Steven Berkoff plays the sinister ‘Mazda’
– impresario and magician who gets Suzanne and her band to sign a contract in blood
to play the 12 Bar Club every month for a thousand years. In return she is given the
guarantee that everyone who steps onto the stage with her will become a star. She develops
a musical partnership with John Morrison (Hugh Laurie), and the
two help launch the careers of acts like Radiohead, Aimee Mann and Ultrasound (cameo
appearances from Phil Collins and Barry Humphries). There is romance, too, with a rare
screen performance by Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins as the
boyfriend and a classic ‘duelling trombones’ scene between Cybil Shepherd and Jeff Daniels. Psychic
investigator Simon Berridge, played insightfully by singer Cat
Stevens, finally discovers Mazda’s satanic temple beneath the club and performs
an exorcism with the help of comedy man Sean Hughes, who appears
as himself in the movie. In the final scene we are confronted with a tearful speech by Lysette Anthony, who plays the ghost of Julieanne, another poor
soul who remains ensnared by the curse of the 12 Bar Club. McDaid’s direction is, at
times, masterful, and his choice to have his own character portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen is the central pivot of the entire movie. The
haunting soundtrack by Michael Nyman and Dubstar serves to heighten the tension during the
cursed Cushy night that the characters are condemned to re-enact month after month.
Rhatigan member John Morrison served as musical adviser during the filming, showing Hugh
Laurie how to playthe bass and coaching Paula Wilcox on her vocal technique. |
