You know how it is, you run a dive bar in hip east London, you’ve had a solid Sunday night, the blues band have packed down for the night and you’re not far off following suite… and then Bill Murray arrives looking for a good time. That’s exactly what happened at Blondies on Sunday evening. The venue, a fun little sweatbox rock bar based on Lower Clapton Road in Clapton, wrote all about the actor’s surprise visit on their Instagram page yesterday:
“Sooo Bill Murray came into the bar last night 😅 In an unprecedented turn of events, last night after @ashlambeandthe3220s had just finished their set and we were minutes away from closing the doors, in strolls absolute legend Bill Murray 🙌 In true Blondies fashion we stayed open and got the band back in ASAP (thanks boys). Bill stuck around for a boogie and a couple bevvies 🍺 He was an absolute sweetheart.”
The venue also posted a video of Murray sampling the venue’s tequila, downing a shot and opining with trademark nonchalance: “not bad”. Whilst it’s not been confirmed what Murray was doing in the English capital, there has been a swathe of recent rumours that he and singer-songwriter and Milkshake star Kelis are currently an item. Kelis was performing at Glastonbury the previous day and, perhaps rather than stick around for Elton John, the Lost In Translation and Ghostbusters actor left Worthy Farm early to go and find out about this cool speakeasy he’d heard about.
It's no surprise to find Murray getting down to the blues in the early hours, though. Back in the 70s, Murray was part of the Saturday Night Live crew who would party all night at the Holland Tunnel Blues Bar, a club set up by his future Ghostbusters co-star Dan Ackroyd. It was at the club where Ackroyd and Jim Belushi would obsess over the blues sounds blaring out the speakers, eventually coming up with the idea for The Blues Brothers. Quite how Blondies matches up to those wild nights? Well, only one man can tell you…
