Deepest Blues

PERFORMERS go to great lengths to put on a show. Some will even go to extremes. But how many of them actually change their name by deed poll to that of their hero, sacrificing their marriage in the process?

"Joliet" Jake Blues started life as William Smith-Eccles, a clubland entertainer who worked in soul bands and as part of a comedy double act.

His life changed forever when he watched a video of the cult film The Blues Brothers, starring John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd.

"That was it," he said. "From that moment I was hooked. Some people love to have a cigarette. Me, I love the Blues Brothers."

From seeing the movie, Bill decided that he had to be in his own tribute band and the Blues Brothers Review was formed. It proved hugely popular, with Bill taking the role of the late John Belushi. Then eight years ago Bill officially became Jake.

"We had a slight problem with a West End show about the Blues Brothers who said we couldn't use the name for the tour. They were mentioning solicitors and things so I thought 'I'll show you' and changed my name so they couldn't stop me.

"Of course," he says matter-of-factly, "I didn't tell the wife.

"She found out six months later when we had a meeting with the bank manager and he kept calling me Mr Blues.

"When we left his office she just turned to me and said 'you haven't have you?' She went crazy."

Jake's devotion (or should that be obsession) with all things Blues Brothers eventually caused the break-up of his marriage.

"I went to Chicago and while I was there I had the logo for the House of Blues tattooed on my arm. I also got a lovely picture of John Belushi's grave, which I keep in the kitchen. When she saw the photo she said 'you've gone too far this time.'

"I'm not sure if that was the final straw or if it was when I bought two lifesize figures of Jake and Elwood and put them in the kitchen.

"I forgot to tell the wife and she came in and fell over one of them. Perhaps that was when it all got too much for her."

The Blue Brothers Review features Jake and his partner Elwood Blues (he, too, has changed his name by deed poll), backed by the 10-piece Black Rhino Band.

"I've taken the John Belushi character and just gone that bit further with it," he says. "We just want people to have a great time. We tour virtually non-stop and we love it.

"We've had 80-year-olds come up to us at the end of a show and say their feet are sore from dancing."

Jake, who lives in the Potteries, is also famous for being the only person in Britain allowed to wear sunglasses on his passport photograph.

"It took me several months to convince the passport authorities to allow it but, as I never take off my sunglasses, that's a true representation of who I am.

"I went to the photo booth in Woolworth's in my suit with my hat and shades on. I kept sending in my application and the passport people kept sending it back. Eventually they sent me my passport complete with me in sunglasses.

"Once I'd got my passport it was fairly straightforward to get my driving licence. I just wrote to the DVLA and said, as you cannot have two identities and I've got my sunglasses on in my passport photo, you've got to let me wear them on my driving licence photo. And they did."

Just because Jake's passport is official, it doesn't mean he doesn't still have problems.

"I do get some strange looks whenever I go through passport control when we're touring abroad," he said. "We played the Edinburgh Festival and flew out for a gig in Norway. When we tried to come home they wouldn't let us back in the country. But we sorted it out."

Jake acknowledges that some people may wonder about a grown man who lives his life as a character in a film, but it doesn't worry him in the slightest.

"I suppose you could call me obsessive but I'm me and that's it. You can't change the way you are."

The Blues Brothers Review will be Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre next Saturday, February 15 (box office 01254 380293) and Burnley Mechanics on Friday May, 16 (box office 01282 664400).