Miscellaneous - ABC2, Glasgow, 20/4/2011

  by John Clarkson

published: 23 / 4 / 2011

intro

At a show sponsored by Jack Daniels in the ABC2 in Glasgow, John Clarkson watches Sharleen Spiteri, Ian McCulloch, Kate Nash, Steve Mason and new bands Ramona and Kid Adrift play a frequently excellent set of David Bowie covers.

“You don’t need introductions for these, do you? They are Bowie songs,” says Sharleen Spiteri to the audience at the start of Glasgow’s 2011 JD Set. “You know them all anyway.” Spiteri is the curator for tonight’s show, which, sponsored by Jack Daniels, is giving a group of competition winners the chance to see the Texas front woman play a gig with a handpicked bunch of musician friends in intimate circumstances. They are performing David Bowie covers, mainly from his breakthrough 1971 fourth album, ‘Hunky Dory’, and with a few other songs from the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Aladdin Sane’ innovator’s 1970’s and early 1980’s golden age also thrown in. This is the middle of three JD Set UK shows for this year. A JD Set in London in March curated by Ash front man Tim Wheeler featured Pixies tracks, and a forthcoming gig in Manchester in May will involve Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist Mani and other Mancurian musicians playing Smiths’ classics. A night such as this inevitably has hits and misses, and former Beta Band singer Steve Mason in particular has a bad time of it. His and Spiteri’s version of ‘Rebel Rebel’, the first duet of the evening, is heavy handed and rushed. During ‘Queen Bitch’ his vocals are also unfortunately muted underneath the strident house band for the night, which includes Texas’s Eddie Campbell on keyboards. An intense and clearly nervous Mason hugs Spiteri at the end of their number and is complimentary of the band as he leaves the stage, but one is left with the distinct impression from the beginning of his short performance that he hasn’t really wanted to be there in the first place. Overall, however, the good outweighs the disappointing. The ABC2, the smaller of the Sauchiehall Street venue’s two halls, holds 350 people. The JD Set provides a rare chance to see Spiteri and co. playing familiar, yet unfamiliar songs, and close-up, rather than from the back of a hall or halfway down a large field. With complimentary Jack Daniels being handed out on arrival, and free souvenir T-shirts at the end, this is a very special night for much of the audience there. Chart topper Kate Nash, who is dressed in a white cat suit, mangles ‘Oh You Pretty Things’, tittering and bellowing her way through it, but then offers up one of the highlights of the evening with a faultless and near operatic rendition of ‘Under Pressure’. Nash and Spiteri’s cover of ‘Life on Mars’, upon which the pair trade swooning vocal harmonies, is also gripping. Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch admits that he talks “a lot of rubbish” at gigs. He then proceeds to do so, rambling incomprehensively between numbers. Yet, just as one is beginning to suspect that he has helped himself to too much of the free Jack Daniels, he pulls off soaring, soulful versions of both ‘The Prettiest Star’ and ‘Jean Genie’. Spiteri, back in her native Glasgow after a long absence, is also on fine form. As well as participating in all the duets, she opens the night with a fiery ‘Ziggy Stardust’, and towards the end of the main set provides a wistful ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’. Best of all, however, are the two least known acts on the bill, Kid Adrift and Ramona. Kid Adrift are a young group based around 22 year old Ian Campbell, who comes from Clackmannanshire in central Scotland. They open their set with a haunting version of ‘Ashes to Ashes’, which finds Campbell sharing centre stage with his keyboardist Becky Wools. One of the more radical reinterpretations of the Bowie catalogue of the evening, this already ghostly number is given a further spookiness, with Campbell and Wools spikily bouncing lyrics off each other, one line at a time. For ‘Kooks’ Wools ousts Eddie Campbell from keyboards, and, while Ian sings the verses, she sings the choruses. ‘Kooks’ and ‘Andy Warhol’, which they close with, are two of Bowie’s more twee songs. As with ‘Ashes to Ashes’, as their floating harmonies jaggedly twine around each other, they, however, are also given an eeriness. Ramona, who come from Brighton, are managed by Spiteri and her songwriting partner, Texas guitarist, Johnny McElhone. They are the only act not to play a song from ‘Hunky Dory’, but opt instead for ‘Five Years’, the opening track from ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars’, and ‘The Man Who Sold the World’. Singer Karen Anne’s vocals on both are fragile and world weary, and of all the acts on the bill they are the ones who come the closest to tapping into the young Bowie’s frailty. Spiteri and Ian McCulloch bring the main set to an end with a rousing ‘Changes’. They then both return to the stage for encores, McCulloch playing a slightly extended version of the Bunnymen classic ‘Lips Like Sugar’, while Spiteri provides vibrant renditions of the Texas hits, ‘Black Eyed Boy’ and ‘Inner Smile’, closing what has been a memorable evening. SET LIST Sharleen Spiteri- Ziggy Stardust Sharleen Spiteri and Steve Mason- Rebel Rebel Steve Mason- Queen Bitch Kid Adrift -Ashes to Ashes Kid Adrift-Kooks Kid Adrift-Andy Warhol Ramona-Five Years Ramona-The Man Who Sold the World Kate Nash-Oh! You Pretty Things Kate Nash-Under Pressure Kate Nash and Sharleen Spiteri-Life on Mars Ian McCulloch-The Prettiest Star Ian McCulloch-Jean Genie Sharleen Spiteri-Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide Sharleen Spiteri and Ian McCulloch-Changes ENCORES: Ian McCulloch-Lips Like Sugar Texas-Black Eyed Boy Texas-Inner Smile More information can be found at the www.thejdset.co.uk.

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