The BILL NIGHY Experience

THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Some of the awards and nominations "Still Crazy" got:

·1998 Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award for best comedy perfomance for Bill Nighy

· Nomination for the 1998 Golden Globe Award as best film

· Nomination for the 1998 Golden Globe Award for best song ("The Flame Still Burns")

Some excerpts from the "Still Crazy" press kit

(I had to translate from the German version,

so please forgive if the words are not exactly original.)

Of importance for the band's credibility especially was lead-singer Ray - a man living in his own past, clinged to the ruins of his rock career, still carrying his monstrous ego. "Bill Nighy was the ideal cast", (director Brian) Gibson explains. "Not, because he'd be exactly like Ray, but because he's a brillant actor, who revealed a fantastic voice on a sudden. Probably he could've made his way as a rock singer."

...

When Bill Nighy met the production team to discuss his role, he was asked about possible experience as a singer. (Writer) Ian Le Frenais remembers: "When Bill confessed to never having sung rock songs before, but reading the New Music Express (NME) since the Sixties, we knew, we had our man. Bill Nighy of course was not only able to sing rock'n'roll, but even was good enough, to do the singing for the soundtrack recording himself. In addition he was so convincing as a rock comet that died away, that some extras even asked him for the band he had to have been in before starting his career as an actor.

The chance to sing himself Nighy saw as a gift. "Though I've never sung this style before, not to talk about pretending to do so, I knew exactly that I wouldn't want to move my lips with the playback of someone else.. In my book this would've been an experience very unsatisfying." In the recording studio Nighy found help from professional musicians - and divergent pieces of advice what to do with his voice. His singing teacher advised abstinence from smoking and alcohol, warm drinks and times of recreation, when the studio musicians counseled cigarettes, alcolhol and sex between the takes as a secret recipe. Which way Nighy may have chosen - the result is very impressing and advanced the band's credibility on stage.

Bill Nighy appeared at the "Donny & Marie" show in Los Angeles (together with Jimmy Nail and Mick Jones)

Marie: What did you think of Bill's singing?

Mick: I thought he was one of the craziest lead singers I'd ever seen!

Donny: Did you get training for that?

Marie: You never sang before that, did you!

Bill: No, I'd never done anything like that before. I used to lock myself in my bedroom when I was about 14, and sing into my toothbrush, like most of my generation! But I'd never done it for money, nobody had ever asked me, and I never dreamed that I would, really, so this was a bit of a shock to the system. They sent me to a vocal coach to try and help me sing, who was a very serious woman who normally deals with opera singers!

Donny: Oh, boy!

Bill: She said I should give up smoking, give up drinking, try and get as much sleep as possible, and preferably don't speak on the day of the recording, and get lots of warm drinks. But then when I went into the studio...

(Marie and everyone else cracks up)

Bill: ...and then I got confused, because the rock and roll guys said smoke as much as you possibly can, drink a great deal, you know, deprive yourself of sleep, hang with a loose crowd...

April 1st 2005 Germany saw the first ever Still Crazy party. Read the report here.