This is the first entry in a mini-series looking at music used in films about football.
This one features a lad from Sheffield who as well as living out a boyhood dream by (sort of) turning out for his local team, made it in Hollywood too.
Sean Bean in: WHEN SATURDAY COMES
It was released in 1996 and was billed in some places as ‘a footballing version of “Rocky” ‘
Aye… all right then…
Don’t know if the film title was inspired (or nicked from ?) the venerable magazine. It was as mentioned a dream come true for the long time supporting 100% Blades fan.
The plot:
“Maria Giese’s directorial debut follows the struggle of Jimmy Muir, a 25-year-old, working class lad who dreams of becoming a football star.
Jimmy is a hard-drinking brewery worker in the city of Sheffield, with an arrogant lack of respect for authority. His entire life revolves around football (Sheffield United) and while he shows the potential, he has never had the courage or discipline to make anything of it.
Jimmy’s fortunes take a turn for the better after he is spotted by football manager Ken Jackson,(Pete Postlethwaite)while he’s playing for his local pub team.After playing brilliantly for Jackson, Jimmy is offered a trial at Sheffield United. However the evening before the trial he gets drunk; he wakes up feeling rough and blows his chances with SUFC.
(That never stopped.. [snip ! Ed] )Faced with failure, a critical father and a dismal job, Jimmy soon becomes suicidal as his problems compound: his brother dies in a mining accident, he loses his job at the brewery and his pregnant girlfriend Annie
(Emily Lloyd)ends their relationship.Jimmy is forced to consider his future and his choices, and to discover once and for all whether he has the self discipline to succeed.”
Source: www.compleatseanbean.com/
The movie also featured his then wife… don’t know which number, he’s had a few… Melanie Hill, who some will remember as the (2nd) Aveline in Bread.
As for the film itself… well the intentions were good, but it didn’t quite pull it off. It had a predictable plot which was full of clichés (Sheffield United winning.. come on…. ) and you were glad when it ended.
The Soundtrack:
Which has: ‘Music From And Inspire By The Film’ as well as the yet another clichéd cover image, is just as predictable as the film featuring many obvious tunes such as “Nessum Dorma”, “The Boys Are Back In Town”, “If the Kids are United”… etc, etc…
But the producers tried to feature as many local (but well known) musical acts as they could. Notable was amongst them was Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott who is another avid Blades fan and he supplied two songs to the film.
One of them was the theme tune to the movie and the other a ballad-type instrumental:
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» Joe Elliott – When Saturday Comes » Joe Elliott – Jimmy’s Theme |
– Next up is a couple Sheffield born blokes who between them nearly dominated the new romantic scene in the early 80’s.
ABC’s Martin Fry and Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory got together to record a song for the soundtrack, but then re-recorded the same tune to be included on ABC’s Skyscraper album. Below is an interview via ABCMartinFry.com in which Glenn Gregory does not pull any punches…
Q: How did you get to duet with Martin Fry for the soundtrack of ‘When Saturday Comes’ and why did you rerecord the track for Skyscraping’?
GG: “I’ve been friends with Martin Fry for years, and we had often talked about doing a song together. I was asked to do a track for the film When Saturday Comes and the producers asked if I new any other bands or singers from Sheffield (it was originally going to be a totally Sheffield soundtrack) that would be good for the film. Anyway I gave Martin a call and he immediately came up with the idea of doing something together. The films producers liked the idea so that was it we started work the next week. We wrote two songs together for the film, but only Seven Day Weekend appears on the soundtrack. The other song is called, Carry Me Home, which is quite apt really as every time I go out drinking with Martin Fry, that’s exactly what someone has to do. The reason that Seven Day Weekend is on the ABC album is that the we felt the film was rubbish, but Martin still thought the track was good and deserved to be heard.”
So let’s hear:
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» ABC (Martin Fry & Glenn Gregory) – Seven Day Weekend |
More Linkage:
Some information obtained for this article retrieved from here and here.
Extra Time:
If you really want to, you can watch the whole movie here.