REVIEW: DUANE EDDY, JARVIS COCKER, RICHARD HAWLEY AND ELLIE GOULDING AT THE JACK DANIELS BIRTHDAY GIG (07/10/10)
What happens when you take a legendary old blues guitarist, a Britpop hero, a brooding northern crooner and a 20-something painfully shy pop starlet and put them on stage in front of a thousand JD drinkers? One of the best collaborations and most inspirational gigs of the year, that’s what!
To celebrate its 160th anniversary, Jack Daniels hosted this epic party at London’s Clapham Grand – one of the most underrated venues in the city if you ask me.
They flew a delightful Duane Eddy over from the Jack Daniels’ homeland of Tennessee to the badlands of Sheffield to hang out with two celebrity fans – former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and fellow ex-bandmate turned solo artist Richard Hawley. And by all accounts the three had a blast. And when they got to London, the trio were joined by Ms Goulding, Chas, of Chas and Dave fame, and Pete Molinari The concert itself was one of those seminal moments where you look at the talent on stage, musicians who have all created masterpieces in their own right (except maybe Goulding) and who manage to up their game even further when they join forces. It’s like musical Powerangers, or something. A motley crew of musicians (and I mean motley) coming together to fill the gaps in each others’ music. A seated Eddy played the twangtastic Rebel Rouser and First Love, among others and Hawley, who used to be in 90s indie band the Longpigs, played his signature 50s inspired music including the catchy Still is the Night and the beautiful soaring ballad Soldier On. While the set included an awesome Chas and Jarv cover of Elvis’ Memphis Tennessee, a Duane and Goulding duet of Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made For Walking and Pete Molinari doing a cover of Patti Page’s Tennessee Waltz (see a theme here?!) the biggest surprise of the evening was Jarvis Cocker singing one of the most iconic Pulp songs Something Changed while Duane Eddy added that distinctive guitar sound which JC (that’s Jarvis Cocker to you and me, though arguably as important to some people as the other JC) reckoned the song had been lacking. Rewind a couple of years and Jarvis was adamant he wouldn’t play Pulp songs at his solo gigs yet here he was treating a small and select group to a big slab of nostalgia. This left the ecstatic audience (which included 10 lucky 247 competition winners) with a glimmer of hope for a Pulp reunion and the man himself didn’t rule it out completely. Here’s hoping.
