Video by rockontherockPR

Tom Redhead, left, and Scott Guilbert as Elwood and Jake Blues. (Picture by Adrian Miller)

For a couple of hours on Saturday night the David Ferguson Hall at Beau Sejour became The House of Blues as 12 accomplished musicians accompanied two men wearing dark suits, hats, and sunglasses – The Blues Brothers.

The original duo featured the performances of John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd as Jake and Elwood Blues, and their Guernsey equivalents Tom Redhead and Scott Guilbert successfully captured the distinctive characters and gave a polished delivery of some classic blues tunes.

While Jake/Scott did the majority of the singing and linked each song together, Elwood/Tom maintained a more enigmatic presence, occasionally singing along and producing a harmonica and even a triangle at one point.

But he got his chance to shine in the evening’s more quirky numbers, starting with the Country and Western classics that the original band played to get themselves out of a tight spot.

So it was that we were able to enjoy the theme from Rawhide and an amusing version of Stand By Your Man.

But my Elwood highlight of the night was the nonsense song Rubber Biscuit, which managed to be note perfect, peculiar and funny all at the same time.

Jake’s energy and enthusiasm for the material shone through in songs like Everybody Needs Somebody, Gimme Some Lovin’ and Mustang Sally.

But his standout vocal of the night was on the quieter number Stand By Me, which showed that he could deliver a powerful low-key tune as effectively as the uptempo songs.

In addition to vocals, the brothers were no slouches on the movement front, with many songs featuring their unique, simple but always watchable and frequently amusing choreography.

Lovers of the original movie will remember that a guest appearance from a blues legend was never far away, with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles turning up. This show was no different, although instead of Aretha and Ray we had Samantha Smith and Tim Millard.

The opening of the show had been slightly marred by a couple of technical glitches which were quickly resolved, but when keyboard player and musical director Seb Grand complained that his keyboard was broken, for a second I thought he might have been telling the truth.

But it was all a bit of theatre and an excuse to invite Tim Millard to the stage, sitting down at the keys to deliver a terrific ‘Shake A Tail Feather’. He was back later to do a similarly first-rate turn on the Wilson Pickett classic 634-5789.

Samantha Smith’s versions of Think and Respect were, quite simply, breathtaking.

Powerful and passionate vocals, ably supported both by the band and the evening’s backing vocalists, the ‘Blues Sisters’.

The show’s one other guest was also something of an eye-opener.

There was probably many a raised eyebrow when Culture and Leisure Minister Deputy Mike O’Hara stepped up to the microphone clutching the lyrics to Minnie the Moocher.

He may not have known the words, but he certainly delivered them without a problem, getting the audience to take part in the refrain and revealing a pretty good voice into the bargain. It’s always good for a politician to have an alternative career to fall back on…

With 12 musicians supporting the singers it’s not possible to mention them all, apart from saying that if anyone played a bum note all night I certainly didn’t notice it.

But I have to single out lead guitarist Casey-Joe Rumens and trumpet player Lucian Amos for special mention, since both of them blew me away with their solo contributions to various songs.

I hope there’ll be an opportunity to hear more of them – and Samantha Smith – in the future.

As usual, it took a few songs for the audience to warm up, but thanks to the classic tunes and the infectious performances of everyone involved, by the end of the night pretty much every member of the nigh-on 500-strong audience was on their feet.

The rapturous response to Sweet Home Chicago ensured that we were treated to reprises of Everybody Needs Somebody (minus microphone problems this time) and Gimme Some Lovin’, with a belting version of Jailhouse Rock sandwiched between them.

As an experiment in providing something different to Guernsey audiences the organisers must have been a bit worried as to how it would go down.

But nobody involved would have been feeling blue at the rapturous reception.

* Proceeds from the evening went to the Dyslexia Day Centre.