The Breakfast Club re-imagined as the 1960s' most influential music act. Most of their story is basically the Beatles' re-written. Something in me just imagined them as a rock band, so I'm gonna write this story. The events in this story take place from 1961 to 1969.
Characters
John Bender: vocalist and lead guitarist. Bender was born in Shermer, Illinois on November 13, 1942. He was brought up in an abusive household. His father would constantly physically and verbally abuse him under the influence of alcohol. Bender escaped home at age sixteen following the formation of the band that would become the genesis of the Breakfast Club, a rock and roll group called John Bender & The Criminals, in 1958, although they occasionally preformed as Alec Newbury & The Extracurricular Love Life (an astronomically long name for 1958 standards) to avoid confusion with another Criminals band in the same town. After the Criminals disbanded in 1961, he met two other students, Allison Reynolds and Brian Johnson, who were in a detention together and busked in the streets after finding an interest in music. Bender quickly reformed the Criminals, adding one of his older bandmates, Keith Nelson, as the rhythm guitarist. Nelson left in 1962 after choosing to pursue a chick in his class he liked.
Andrew Clark: rhythm guitarist. Clark was born on January 22, 1943 in Shermer, Illinois. He took up guitar in 1958 to rebel against his father who wanted him to become a state champion wrestler in high school after hearing Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. He played in various Shermer bands throughout 1959 to 1962 when he met Allison Reynolds at a Criminals gig backstage. Reynolds introduced him to Bender and Johnson, as they were looking for a replacement rhythm guitarist and Clark had told Reynolds he played that.
Brian Johnson: bassist. Johnson was born on June 19, 1943 in Shermer, Illinois. He began playing electric bass at 14 and became somewhat notable as he was the only local who ever played one at a point. He and Allison Reynolds had met via a Saturday detention in 1959, and shared interests with her in rock and roll. Soon, the two began busking in the Shermer streets, with Allison on tambourine and Brian on acoustic guitar. Bender met them via their busking just outside Shermer High in 1961.
Allison Reynolds, drummer. Reynolds was born on March 13, 1943 in Shermer, Illinois. Reynolds would describe her childhood as being very empty, with her parents almost completely ignoring her, which led her to become what she would dub a 'basket case'; doing outrageous, spastic things to get the attention she was lacking. After the detention in which she met Johnson, she began opening herself up to the world. Reynolds dealt with depression during her earlier years, going as far as to overdose on sedatives in 1966, but she recovered and has focused on poetry since the band's dissolution.
Claire Standish, keyboardist. Standish was born on August 19, 1943 in Shermer, Illinois. After World War II, her family profited in the economic boom and became raised in an upper-class manner, which led to her uncompromising popular girl attitude in school. That changed after meeting the Criminals in 1962, where she started by helping the band carry their equipment, to becoming full-time as their keyboardist, on an electric piano. She also became fascinated in the art of tape manipulation and formed a bond with Reynolds over it, which also led to a songwriting partnership. She also handled the band's finances due to their being managerless throughout most of their career, although they were briefly managed by John Hughes until he left to manage another Shermer band in 1963.
The Breakfast Club formed as they were in 1961, and Standish joined in mid 1962. Their first recordings were with rock and roll singer Ferris Bueller in December 1961, which were released in January 1962. The Breakfast Club released their first recordings as themselves in October 1962 and their first album came out in February 1963. They disbanded in December 1969 intentionally to end themselves along with the 1960s.
Next chapter will chronicle 1961.