The Stars of Stage and Screen…Song #59/250: Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the Film Bank of Dave

For most of my adult life I have lived somewhere in the province of Ontario, Canada. For that same time period, my mother and sister have lived by the sea in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. For the entire time I have lived in Ontario, I have always considered Nova Scotia to be home. Consequently, once, twice, maybe even three times a year, I pack my bags, hop in my car and drive or catch a flight back home. In my younger days, one of those regular times that I traveled home was during the Christmas holidays. Before meeting my wife, if I was to be with family on Christmas morning it meant that I needed to be back home. So I went. Every year. There were many quaint rituals involved in being in Nova Scotia for Christmas but, for the purposes of this post, the one that I want to talk about is the advertising shown on our local television channels. During the holiday season, the amount of traditional TV commercials shown goes waaaaay down. You might find this to be odd, as Christmas time is one of the busiest, most profitable times of the year for many businesses. But back home, they still have their priorities straight. Instead of an onslaught of ads from big box stores pitching this gizmo or that must-have brand, the spots normally reserved for TV advertisements are given over for holiday greetings from local businesses. So instead of seeing a commercial for an Apple product or from Walmart encouraging us to buy, buy, buy, the TV screen will show an image that looks like the front cover of a holiday card. Seasonal music will begin to play.The announcer will come on with a voice over that says something like, “Bob and the staff at Bob’s Towing want to wish you and yours all the best for the holidays and in the year to come”. The name and address of Bob’s Towing Company would appear on screen to close out the spot. That will be immediately followed by more music and another holiday card image in the background as the announcer croons, “May the blessings of the season be yours. That is the message from the staff of Kay’s Kozy Korner Restaurant in Sydney”. Finally, a third local business would thank folks for their patronage throughout the past year and extend holiday greetings in reply. Just like that, regular TV programming will resume until the next commercial break when more local businesses would take their turn thanking customers and wishing everyone all the best. I grew up in that environment. There was a certain element of commercialism present, for sure but, overall, the feeling that existed back home during the holidays was one that emphasized the sense of community between those who lived there and the local businesses who provided employment, bankrolled local sports teams and provided needed goods and services for customers who were truly like family and friends. I have taken that appreciation of the importance of shopping locally back with me to Ontario. If at all possible, my family and I try to shop from local merchants. In an age of increasingly corporate consolidation and the threat of monopolistic business practices becoming commonplace, these are tough times for independent business owners. I have always believed that money spent in our community in local stores stands a better chance of remaining in our communities. Personally, I would rather support a neighbour by patronizing their store or business than give money to faceless corporate entities such as McDonalds or Home Depot. Sometimes you need to go where you need to go in order to get what you need but if you can do so and help a local person stay afloat or even, get ahead then that is an added bonus. This mindset is the foundation of a true story that was recently fictionalized and made into a movie on Netflix called Bank of Dave. Sometimes it is the little guy who wins. Let’s take a look at this film. Here we go!!!

Bank of Dave is based upon the true story of a man from Burnley, England named Dave Fishwick. Burnley is a small community in the north of England that sits about an hour north of Manchester and four-five hours north of London. Because Burnley is so far from the social, cultural and economic influences of London, it has come to be a community that has relied on its own people for its sense of identity. Living in a pocket of isolation has its perks but also its disadvantages, too. There is a freedom to being on one’s own and living as you see fit. There is no one to wrinkle their brow in disapproval. You can basically do as you please and as long as you don’t draw undue attention to yourself, the rest of the world will leave you alone. However, the downside is that the rest of the world leaves you alone. Being alone means having to support yourself. That is fine during the good times but it can become burdensome when things take a turn for the worst. This is what happened in Burnley. About a decade and a half ago, the economy of England went into a downturn. Many local business people in Burnley suffered through very hard times. Closing up shop and declaring bankruptcy was a very real possibility for much of Burnley’s local business sector. One man who managed to take advantage…in a good way…of the economic situation was Dave Fishwick. Dave owned an auto dealership that specialized in small passenger vans. Through a fortunate set of unusual circumstances, sales and leases of small vans soared and Dave’s business became highly profitable. Many people in Dave’s position would have simply pocketed the profit and enjoyed watching potential competitors falling by the wayside. But Dave was not motivated by wealth. Dave was a community-minded person. He lived on the same streets as many shopkeepers who were suffering. He socialized in the same pubs and restaurants as they did. He knew them as friends. He also knew that his community of Burnley thrived when everyone was succeeding to one degree or another so he came up with an idea. Using the philosophy that a rising tide lifts all boats, Dave started using the profits from his own business to advance loans to other independent business owners in the community. He charged little to no interest rates. He simply wanted his friends to survive the economic downturn until such time as they were able to get back on their feet again. In time, the people of Burnley began referring to Dave’s generosity as him being the “Bank of Dave”. 

Because of Dave’s selflessness, the economic situation in Burnley stabilized. As local businesses returned to good health and repaid their loans to Dave, he began wondering what else he could do for his community that would be helpful. Soon he began giving out loans and grants to schools, hospitals and local charities. The terms of repayment were always the same. In real life, Dave Fishwick has given millions and millions of pounds in loans and grants to local businesses and charitable organizations. In time, he began to think that his model of community-driven activist financing had some merit and deserved to be shared in other communities across the country so he applied to the financial regulatory commission in London to be formally designated as a real bank. There were various tax implications of incorporating himself as a financial institution that would further help maximize profits that could be redistributed into the local economy. However, as mentioned earlier, one of the perks of existing in isolation is that you get to do whatever you want and no one really cares so they leave you alone. But once Dave Fishwick drew attention to himself by applying for official status as a bank, the powers that be in London took notice. As you can well imagine, the banking system of most developed countries is highly regulated and structured in order to safeguard investments and deposits and help keep the national economy moving. The members of the financial regulatory commission had not approved the creation of a new bank in England for over 150 years and they weren’t about to do so for a van salesman from Burnley! 

The movie Bank of Dave is a lighthearted look at the personalities involved in this saga. It follows the legal battles that ensued as the “Big Banks” did their darndest to keep Dave Fishwick and his new take on banking at bay. As often happens in movies like this, there were some liberties taken with the truth. One part of the movie that did not happen in real life was the organization of a benefit concert to help raise money for Dave’s legal fees. In the movie there was such a concert. That concert was headlined by real life rock superstars Def Leppard. As you may be aware, Def Leppard formed in the late 1970s but really came to prominence in the 1980s with classic rock albums such as Pyromania and Hysteria from which came songs such as “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages”, “Bringing on the Heartbreak”, “Animal”, “Hysteria” and their biggest hit, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”.  As a band, they have sold over 100 million albums worldwide. So how did a small English movie acquire the services of a major rock n’ roll band? As it turns out, in real life, Dave Fishwick is a big music fan. He is known for enjoying karaoke and was a big fan of Def Leppard themselves, often using their songs as the ones he would sing when it was his turn with the microphone. In a classic case of his people calling Def Leppard’s people, the plot was explained to lead singer Joe Elliott who thought the feel of the plot reminded him of another small UK film that did surprisingly well called The Full Monty. He and the band thought it would be fun to be involved in a movie so they agreed to be written into the script in the benefit concert scene. Two of their songs ended up making the cut. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Animal” were filmed live at the fictitious benefit concert. All in all, the guys from Def Leppard thought that the whole experience was wonderful and they were happy to have been involved in the film.

As movies go, Bank of Dave is one of those classic small films. There are no explosions or fancy computer generated effects needed. There are good guys (Dave, the lawyers who come to rally around his cause and the ordinary people of Burnley) and there are bad guys (the London financial commissioners who use their financial clout and rule making capacity to stack the odds against Dave’s legal application for bank status). In the end, the sounds of Def Leppard’s deep basslines and drum beats punctuate the air as Dave appears to be victorious. In reality, the Lords of London continue to deny Dave Fishwick his banking license. The legal court challenges remain in progress as you read these words. Dave has gotten around his lack of legal standing in the financial community by advertising himself as a “peer-to-peer” lender. He doesn’t allow himself to be called the “Bank of Dave” in real life because he does not run an actual bank and doesn’t want to give the powers that be in London any grounds to dismiss his application on the basis of misleading advertising. Instead, Dave Fishwick simply says that “You can bank on Dave” to help his friends and neighbours to meet their needs, whatever those needs may be. 

It really says something about our society when you have to fight, tooth and nail, to simply be helpful and a good neighbour. Luckily, I get to live in a relatively small town in Ontario that still has good people running our local shops that provide many of the things my family and I need to get by. I will continue to shop locally whenever and wherever I can and I encourage you to do the same. From my way of thinking, it is a win-win situation when you are able to buy good products at reasonable prices from someone who may actually recognize your face and call you by name. There is value and worth in that thing called trust. One of the reasons that I still go home to Nova Scotia whenever I can is to have that opportunity to hook my heart up to an IV drip and inject as much humanity as possible into my veins. It always feels good to go home again because the people there remain so connected to each other and are so kind and willing to help. The essence of their values can be seen in those little Christmas messages that replace some of the commercialism at Christmas time. Those local greetings ground me. They help to restore my faith in the world. Finally, they serve to remind me that there are real people in our own communities who actually care about their customers and want the best for the towns in which they live. Whether it is in Nova Scotia or here in Ontario or across the pond in Burnley, England with a guy like Dave Fishwick, good people still exist. Thank goodness for us all!

The link to the video for the trailer to the film Bank of Dave can be found here.

The link to the real life official website for Dave Fishwick’s company called Burnley Savings and Loan can be found here. 

The link to the official website for Def Leppard can be found here.

The link to the video for the song “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard can be found here.  ***The lyrics version is here. ***A behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Def Leppard’s scene from Bank of Dave can be found here.

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