The Commitments star talks about hit movie ahead of show in Whitby
The Commitments 35th anniversary tour is heading to Whitby later in the year – and Robert Arkins, who played wiley band manager Jimmy Rabbitte in the hit 1991, movie cannot wait to visit the Yorkshire coast for the first time.
Arkins will be heading to The Royal Hotel on Saturday, September 12 with his The Commitments band, playing all the hits from the film including Mustang Sally, Try A Little Tenderness, Midnight Hour, Destination Anywhere, Nowhere To Run and many more soul classics.
The 35th anniversary of the classic movie is being celebrated in Whitby with a special screening of the film and a Q+A session as well as a musical performance.
In the film, Rabbitte – an unemployed Dubliner – put together a soul band made up entirely of the Irish working class.
And despite the chaos and carnage which unfolds backstage after each gig, the finger-snapping, foot-tapping tunes really steal the show.
It is interspersed with light moments of comedy amid the grit – such as one which wouldn’t look out of place in a fishing town like Whitby.
As the band’s tour bus (which is actually a chip van) pulls up at the side of the road with the window wound down, a man asks if they have any rock salmon.
The reply – “No I’m sorry, we only have soul”.
In an exclusive interview with the Whitby Gazette, Arkins said: “I’m really looking forward to coming to Whitby – it seems a really cool place.
“It’s not a part of the world I know but I’ve been looking it up online and looking forward to it.
“Years ago in Birmingham, I did the Q&A and sat in the audience and watched the film afterwards.
“It was so crazy and hilarious, so when asked to do it again, I said ‘definitely’.
“There was 500 people which makes it more intimate – it’s like the Rocky Horror Show without the dress-up.
“All the people know the lines and they’re blaming me for the band breaking up!
“I thought ‘this is fun’ and hopefully what we’re getting every time.”
Robert says you can expect to hear the hits from the movie as well as some favourites of his own, such as Big Bird by Knock On Wood star Eddie Floyd.
Support on the evening comes from DJ Jacqui Carroll, who will be playing all the best Motown and Northern Soul.