Robert Arkins on The Commitments, Jimmy Rabbitte and Life After the Film

It was last year, I went to do a, a Q&A after a screening of the film in Birmingham, and the two guys who, who, who put on these cult movies and put on The Commitments in Birmingham said, "Would you be interested in fronting this?" And, and having sat in the audience, watching the film, and seeing it being exactly like it was, I thought, "Shit, why let this go?" And it is the 35th anniversary, and if these people completely are besotted by it and are, are on the floor laughing and, and, and think this is hilarious and are quoting all the lines 35 la- years later, I went, "I'm in." Not only because of the fact that I tried to get the others to do it before, and I went, "Well, I am a singer, I am a bass player, I'm perfectly capable of putting a band together, holding a band together." I went, "Yes." [upbeat music]

It was last year, I went to do a, a Q&A after a screening of the film in Birmingham, and the two guys who, who, who put on these cult movies and put on The Commitments in Birmingham said, "Would you be interested in fronting this?" And, and having sat in the audience, watching the film, and seeing it being exactly like it was, I thought, "Shit, why let this go?" And it is the 35th anniversary, and if these people completely are besotted by it and are, are on the floor laughing and, and, and think this is hilarious and are quoting all the lines 35 la- years later, I went, "I'm in." Not only because of the fact that I tried to get the others to do it before, and I went, "Well, I am a singer, I am a bass player, I'm perfectly capable of putting a band together, holding a band together." I went, "Yes." [upbeat music]