''Buddy's Song'' is a 1991 British

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film starring Chesney Hawkes,

Roger Daltrey Sir Roger Harry Daltrey (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer, musician and actor. He is the co-founder and lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band the Who, known for his powerful voice and charismatic stage presence. His stage persona ear ...

Sharon Duce Sharon D. Duce (born 17 January 1948) is an English actress. Career Born in Sheffield, she trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art then became a stage actress at the Sheffield Repertory Theatre, the York Theatre Royal, and the ...

and

Michael Elphick Michael John Elphick (19 September 1946 – 7 September 2002) was an English film and television actor. He played the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series '' Boon'' and Harry Slater in BBC's ''EastEnders''. He was nominated fo ...

, based on the 1987 novel of the same name by

Nigel Hinton Nigel Hinton (born 1941 in London) is an English novelist, primarily of fiction for teenagers. Career Hinton worked in advertising for two years, then taught English for nine years at the Hugh Christie School in Tonbridge, Kent. He then wor ...

. The film follows a teenage boy, Buddy Clark (Hawkes), who is determined to make it as a pop star, aided by his father Terry (Daltrey). He struggles with young love, estranged parents and the problems associated with making it in the music business. The film was accompanied by a soundtrack album which featured Hawkes' song " The One and Only". It was filmed in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and various towns in the Thames Valley. The long-running teddy boy

Rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

group The Flying Saucers play the roles of themselves in the film. Playing the part of Terry's friends, they offer support by rehearsing with Buddy and becoming his backing band. Buddy contributes vocals and rhythm guitar while Sandy Ford handles lead guitar duties. The film was a sequel to the 1986

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television series '' Buddy'', which starred Daltrey in the same role (it featured Wayne Goddard as Buddy, however). Daltrey, Bill Curbishley and Roy Baird acted as producers for the film and Daltrey also served as musical director. The film was released with a 12 certificate in cinemas on 1 March 1991 and was re-rated PG with cuts (made by the distributor prior to submission to the

BBFC The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films exhibited at cinemas and video works (su ...

) made to tone down the nudity and violence, for home video as the 12 certificate was not available on this format in the UK at the time. The film was released on VHS in late 1991 with a music video for "The One and Only" performed by Hawkes and an exclusive interview with Hawkes as special features. The film has, so far, never been officially released on DVD or any other modern home video format. However, the whole film was posted uncut onto Hawkes' official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel on 22 June 2020.

Plot

Buddy Clark and his father, Terry, go to see live rock 'n' roll at a hotel. Terry meets Des King in the car park who pays him to keep a briefcase in his car which Buddy is sure was stolen. Buddy's mother, Carol, arrives; then Buddy attempts to get his estranged parents to talk. Buddy moves the briefcase of jewellery back into Des's

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

, then tells Terry when he mentions he is going to move his

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

. Terry fears the police are going to look in Des's car first so he gets the briefcase, but the police catch him in the act and he goes to prison. Buddy spends his free time practising the guitar and polishing his father's car. Des King visits and offers Carol an envelope of cash but she refuses to take it. Buddy visits his father in prison after his mother convinces him. Whilst talking to his friend Julius, Buddy notices his mother is seeing her boss Adrian Mandell a lot. Buddy records a tape of himself playing the guitar for his father, and he suggests going into music but Carol wants Buddy to concentrate on his school work. Terry is released on

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

two weeks later and Des King gives them a lift home. They see that Des has Terry's house redecorated where he gives Terry the cash Carol refused. Terry gets Carol to move back in, but rows later arise between them. Terry gets an electric guitar and an amplifier along with a keyboard for Buddy and a camcorder for himself, which gives him the idea of advertising in the local newspaper to film weddings. Terry resigns from his job at the

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...

and starts working for Des King at his breakers yard. Terry then arranges to have Buddy play with a band of middle-aged men called the Hi-Tones who recently lost their singer. They perform gigs at the wedding receptions Terry films. Terry goes to a party at Carol's office where he meets her boss. This leads to Buddy's parents having a row at home. When Terry tries to help Carol after she drops a milk bottle, she says she does not need him and he leaves. Terry moves into the caravan at the breakers yard where Buddy visits him. Meanwhile, Julius finds a band called the Hurt and Buddy plays with them at the milk depot. Buddy joins Glenn the milkman, along with Mike and Jason, and Julius becomes their manager and tambourine player. Buddy goes to a

Teddy boy The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly United Kingdom, British youth subculture originating in the early 1950s to mid-1960s and then revived in the 1970s who were interested in rock and roll and Rhythm and blues, R&B music, wearing clothes part ...

pub to perform with the Hi-Tones where Terry meets a young woman named Dawn; then a fight breaks out after Terry unplugs the

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

. Terry and the band, along with Dawn, leave in the van. In the morning, Buddy is angered to find Dawn in the caravan with Terry and walks off. Terry catches up with him, where they argue and Buddy tells him he is now in his own band. The Hurt perform at

youth club A youth center or youth centre, often called youth club, is a place where young people can meet and participate in a variety of activities, for example table football, association football (US soccer, UK football), basketball, table tennis, v ...

s. After seeing them perform, Terry meets with the band backstage. He advises them to make him the manager to help them get to the top, fearing that no record company will do a deal with someone of Jules' age. The band agree. On their first gig with Terry as their manager, they perform at the Manhattan Club where the sound system fails. Terry gets them a studio session and arranges a tour where they perform fourteen gigs in fourteen days. As they discuss it, Terry tells Buddy that he does like Dawn a lot but does not love her. On the tour the band discover that Terry has changed the name to the Wild Ones, as he never liked the Hurt. When they get back, Buddy goes to see his girlfriend Elaine, but is disgusted to find Glenn alone in the house with her. At band practice, Glenn apologises and Buddy forgives him, though he does not want Elaine back. At the breakers yard Terry films a music video for the band's song ''Nothing Serious'' and hands the tape to the video editor Donald to be dubbed and cut. Terry finds a note on the caravan door that reads 'Get stuffed' from Dawn then hears a howl of pain from the office. Terry finds two men attacking Des and manages to shift them off him but he gets stabbed. Buddy telephones his mother and she joins him at the hospital to see Terry. At band practice Julius who temporarily replaces Terry gets Kelly, who Buddy fancied, to help get the single of "Nothing Serious" in the shops and radio stations and request it on the radio. When Terry gets out of hospital, he gets in touch with Bobby Rosen at Mammoth Records. He likes the record and the music video so they go to the studio. After a recording session, Bobby speaks to the band in private in the booth but Terry hears on the speakers. Bobby tells them they will have to change the name of the band and they will have to go without Terry because he is inexperienced and has a criminal record. Buddy catches up with his father who advises him to go back and sign with them. The rest of the band comes along, and Terry tells them he is going to concentrate on the videos with Donald. Julius tells Terry that if he had them under a contract when he took over management he would have screwed money out of him for compensation. This gives Terry the idea of getting money for a new video studio called Video King. At the opening ceremony of Video King, Buddy invites his parents to a meal for his birthday. Carol suggests a new Italian restaurant, and they go with Kelly. The film ends with Terry arriving at the restaurant in style.

Cast

* Chesney Hawkes as Buddy Clark *

as Terry Clark *

as Carol Clark *

as Des King *

Douglas Hodge Douglas William Hodge (born 25 February 1960) is an English actor, director and musician. He has had an extensive career in theatre, as well as film and television where he has appeared in ''Robin Hood'' (2010), '' Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Retu ...

as Bobby Rosen * Paul McKenzie as Julius *

Lee Ross Lee David Ross (August 25, 1942 – May 14, 2021) was a Canadian-American professor. He held the title of the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University and was an influential social psychologist wh ...

as Jason *

Nick Moran Nick Moran (born 23 December 1969) is an English actor and filmmaker. His roles include Eddie the card sharp in ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' and as List of Harry Potter characters#S 2, Scabior in ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hall ...

as Mike * Colin Peel as Glenn *

James Aubrey James Aubrey may refer to: * James Aubrey (actor) (1947–2010), English actor * James T. Aubrey (1918–1994), American television and film executive * Jimmy Aubrey Jimmy Aubrey (23 October 1887 – 2 September 1983) was an English actor wh ...

as Adrian * Liza Walker as Elaine * Emma Amos as Dawn *

Julia Sawalha Julia Sawalha (born 9 September 1968) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon in the BBC sitcom '' Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992–2012). Her other television roles include as Lynda Day in '' Press Gang'' (198 ...

as Kelly * Billy Murray as Harry * Alan Ford as Phil * Sandy Ford as Themselves * Tracey Southwood as a Roller Skater

Soundtrack

Eleven songs from the film, performed by Hawkes, were released on CD and vinyl in 1991. The album is known as ''The One and Only'' in the United States, as the film did not see a wide release there. Three singles from the album were released: " The One and Only", " I'm a Man Not a Boy" and " Secrets of the Heart". The songs ''Brain Train'' and ''Taking the Blame'', which were not included in the original soundtrack release, have since been released, along with the other master mixes for the film and the demo track ''Peggy Sue'', as part of Hawkes' 2022 compilation The Complete Picture: The Albums 1991–2012.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buddy's Song (Film) 1991 films 1990s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 1991 independent films 1990s teen comedy-drama films British coming-of-age comedy-drama films British independent films British teen comedy-drama films Animated films about music and musicians Films based on British novels Films set in the 1960s Films set in London Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films shot in Berkshire Films shot in London Films shot in Oxfordshire 1990s English-language films Films directed by Claude Whatham 1990s British films English-language comedy-drama films English-language independent films