Review by Joanne Marsland
Photos by Philip Goddard
Arriving at the venue we were greeted by the friendliest and most helpful employees before taking our seats in this magnificent building. The support act tonight was J S Ondara who stood alone in the spotlight with his acoustic guitar and treated us to around 30 minutes of his angelic voice.
Originally from Kenya, now living in the U.S, this talented singer has released his first album called Tales Of America which he joked “as soon as I moved there it turned to shit so I wrote a record about it”. He described his music as ‘folk songs to make you sad so Jack can cheer you all up later’ and if the words of his songs didn’t bring the tears out then his hauntingly beautiful voice surely would have.
Setlist:
Lebanon
Television Girl
Days Of Insanity
Torch Song
Saying Goodbye
Jack followed his band onto the stage to the intro of his successful single Candlelight and huge cheers from the crowd.
The song sounded epic, reminiscent of a Bond theme, with the dramatic orchestra complimenting Jacks voice and also the best acoustics of any building around. He sung many other tracks from his latest album Singing To Strangers as well as some old favourites, explaining that the night was mostly going to consist of songs saying he was sorry….. apart from What More Can I Do.
This song is about when he realised his wife had a bad side too, the audience giggled, probably with relief that even Jacks marriage isn’t all plain sailing. After playing a crowd favourite When We Were Lovers from his previous album Sleep No More the band left the stage leaving just Phil playing violin and Jack playing acoustic guitar and singing an emotional Soldiers Eyes from his first album Between The Minds, you could have heard a pin drop. He then went back to 2015 and his Written In Scars album for the beautiful songs Catapult, Home and Tie Me Down. By this point the whole crowd had risen from their seats and remained standing for the entire set.
Greatest Mistake was the highlight for me, a catchy pop song but with so much emotion that comes through when Jacks voice goes into gravelly mode. After Back Where I Belong they all leave the stage for what seems like the longest time before returning to the expectant crowd to end the night with two more songs Written In Scars and Knock Knock. Jack has certainly come a long way since I first saw him as a support act, he has grown in confidence, moving around the stage and engaging with the crowd. He also shows his individual respect for each member of his band during the show and showcases them as much as they do him. I could have listened to them all night, a truly amazing show.
Setlist:
Candlelight
Love Is on The line
We Are Bound
Dying For Your Love
Better Off Without Me
What More Can I Do
When We Were Lovers
Soldiers Eyes
Catapult
Home
Tie Me Down
Greatest Mistake
Youth And Love
The Other Side Of Love
Back Where I Belong
Written In Scars
Knock Knock
