Bullock’s ‘Sandwiches’ May Feature Cuts by the Redheads

So after a dozen years, the group responsible for 10 million beers, several thousand one-night stands, several hundred divorces and countless DUIs is finally going Hollywood on us? It won’t be David Lynch’s remake of “The Lost Weekend,” but Ventura’s Raging Arb & the Redheads apparently is going to have some music in a new short film directed by Sandra Bullock called “Making Sandwiches.”

At least that’s the story according to John Drury, Arb lead singer and proprietor of the Beach Hut, the Ventura surf and clothing store that specializes in Redhead paraphernalia, and which is in the midst of the cinematic action.

“Sandra’s cool, from the East Coast and pretty laid back,” said Drury. “This place will be in the movie. They’ll probably show it, but if they don’t, they’ll refer to it as ‘The Redhead Surf Shop,’ ” he said. “She was checking the area out, and saw the big Redhead banner and came in. Now the whole crew is wearing Redhead stuff, and Sandra is wearing a Redhead hat.”

According to Drury, Bullock, who has yet to survive an actual Redhead gig, intends to use at least one of the band’s songs in the soundtrack of the film, which can’t hurt the ol’ resume.

“She may take a song off the CD, or else we may write a new song just for her. They should be done shooting by Saturday, then I’m going to take her to the Rincon and give her a surfing lesson. Pretty cool, huh?”

In addition to being discovered by Hollywood, albeit for a short film, the Redheads--who took 10 years to make one CD--may mess up their timetable by making another one this year. Rumor has it that Dennis Dragon, former Surf Punks drummer, current Montecito rich guy and owner of Reset Records, will record a live Arb CD to be transacted at Nicholby’s in Ventura soon. In the meantime, an Arb clone band, the Signicci’s, featuring Redheads guitar player Toby Emery plus Drury and guitarist Chris Byrd, have been playing Eric Ericsson’s lately.

“Last weekend was great, just like the old Redheads gigs,” said Drury. “Someone called the cops on us at midnight.”

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Bloody Mary Morning, east Ventura’s favorite rock ‘n’ roll party band, won’t be playing this weekend as originally scheduled at Nicholby’s or anywhere for a while because the swaggering singer, Chad Turner, is due to go under the knife shortly.

“Chad’s gotta have surgery,” said guitarist Ryan Denger. “He sang one time after he had an infection and it messed up his vocal chords. There’s some sort of growth on them now. We have to cancel all our gigs for a while. The doctor says he’ll be out for at least three months.”

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Hanging out at Nicholby’s in Ventura last weekend, Dave Wakeling of English Beat fame packed ‘em in with his new band, Bang. There were nearly twice as many fans as at his first gig here in December. Where else are you going to hear Beat songs by one of the guys who sang them originally? Besides your CD player, nowhere.

Wakeling, originally from Birmingham, recently moved from Dana Point to Laguna Beach. He still hasn’t lost his English accent. “Well, I’m not a dude, yet, not totally,” he said. “I’m partially a dude.”

The fact that the Beat broke up about a dozen years ago won’t stop them from releasing more stuff. If being dead didn’t stop Elvis or Jimi Hendrix, a simple breakup is merely a minor inconvenience. To that end, there’s a new Beat album in Europe entitled “bpm” (beats per minute), which is a digitally remastered hits compilation. The album should be released in the States within a month or so, by which time Bang should be back.

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So who says the east county doesn’t rock? On Friday night at the Record Outlet in Thousand Oaks, Collapse will have a CD release party beginning at 9 p.m. Then on Feb. 23, it’s another release party featuring Spankthenun. The venue is located at 824 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Call them at 371-0574.