Not to be confused with the The Hard Luck Bears.
The Hard Luck Bears Jamboree are three modified Rock-afire Explosion bands that currently operate at the Gulliver's theme parks in the United Kingdom.
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All three of these modified Rock-afire Explosion shows operated at the Gulliver's Kingdom, Gulliver's Land, and Gulliver's World amusement parks, located in Matlock Bath, Warrington and Milton Keynes.
Mitzi, Fatz, Dook, and Rolfe wear original Hard Luck Bears masks and have custom western themed cosmetics. Billy Bob, Looney Bird, Beach Bear, Choo-Choo, Earl, the Sun, and the Moon remained unchanged.
The characters' voices also sound very different than their Rock-Afire counterparts. Billy Bob was voiced by entertainer Roger Dunn, who also voices the park's mascot, Gully Mouse.
There are 4 Gulliver's theme parks but only 3 feature the show, the shows all have small differences between each park.
Gulliver's Kingdom in Matlock, Derbyshire has Choo-Choo in front of the center stage instead of next to Fatz and Dook, and also features a carousel behind Rolfe and Earl. It also has two small water fountains at the front of the stage.
Gulliver's Land in Milton Keynes has Choo-Choo in front of Beach Bear instead of next to Dook’s drums, Dook's Drum set has a standard Rock-afire cover instead of the custom Hard Luck Bear's cover, and no rain curtain on Rolfe’s stage.
Gulliver's also have a Billy Bob walkaround currently located at the Matlock Park, as well as “Billy Bob’s Bi-Planes” - a children’s airplane ride themed around Billy Bob and the gang.
From 2015-2017, all three shows stopped operation.
The theatre at Gulliver's World in Warrington was being used for a magic show and christmas 'Candy Cave' show with the show abandoned behind black curtains, whilst the theatre at Matlock was being used as an employee changing room. The theatre at Milton Keynes was being used for storage.
As of 2022, all 3 shows are being restored by Xan - (@xan_rock_afire_fan on instagram).
The Warrington Hard Luck Bears show had a soft opening on the 3rd and 4th of December 2022 with its grand opening expected in 2024.
In May 2023, the Matlock Hard Luck Bears had a public opening week, at which a various amount of fans attended.
Trivia[]
- The Hard Luck Bear's CEI Installation outfits later got replaced after Gulliver's ended up making their own outfits for the characters.
- As mentioned before, the characters wear masks taken from the original Hard Luck Bears Show. These masks were supplied by Creative Engineering when Gulliver’s bought the shows.
- Fatz has a brown-painted Billy Bill mask, Dook has a Billy Boy Mask, Mitzi has a modified Pete Thornsberry mask with makeup, and Rolfe has a Repete Thornsberry mask.
- Earl also has custom cosmetics but keeps the same mask and fur.
- There are several showtapes that were created for the show by Gulliver’s. Each has Gulliver’s employees voicing the characters. These showtapes, aside from two, have become lost media.
- The 2005 showtape features the songs “Hillbilly Rock, Hillbilly Roll“, “9 to 5”, “Let Your Love Flow”, “Rhinestone Cowboy”, and “Dance The Night Away”. Clips of this show appear on YouTube. The rest of the show was played at Gully Con, but people were asked not to record it
- The 2011 showtape features “Hillbilly Rock, Hillbilly Roll“, “Tell Me Ma”, “Big Rock Candy Mountain”, “Hoedown Throwdown”, “The Runaway Train” and “5,6,7,8”. This show can be found on YouTube, with both the 2011 programming and 2012 reprogram being viewable.
- The 2005 Christmas show features “Jingle Bells” and "Another Rock And Roll Christmas." Not much else is known about this showtape.
- The 2011 Christmas show features “We Need a Little Christmas“, “The Christmas Alphabet”, "Santa Baby", "Snowy White Snow" , "Sleigh Ride Line Dance", "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and "Once Upon A Christmas Song". This show was also reprogrammed in 2012 along with the main show.
- More showtapes exist, but not much is known about them.
- The shows have special signs and cosmetics for Christmas and Halloween.
- When Gulliver's bought the show in 1992, CEI supplied a fully programmed showtape. This was played during a livestream in February 2023. (Link Needed)
- Currently the Matlock show is in operation, and can be visited.
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