3 posts tagged “just jack”

I've come to some musical conclusions recently.
Ever since I had my first MP3 player, about this time 2 years ago, I've been of the opinion that life should be set to music. Perhaps this is not how god or indeed science intended us to be, but if, like me, you can now no longer leave the house without your music playing device, there's little you can do to control it.
    Having an iPod means I will now do more things with my life; go to London on my own, (I would have had no one to talk to pre-iPod) walk (not cycle) down to the shop, go to the gym more often, (nothing, and I mean nothing is better than running on the treadmill to Tiesto or Pendulum) and unload the dishwasher, simply because I can now do them accompanied by the music I like.
    Where you go and what you do, however, requires different types of music. Walking or running requires fast paced techno or rap. Tieso, Pendulum, and Beatnuts are perfect for this cause. Nothing makes me feel more like I'm in an action movie than running to Pendulum's Slam. Try it. Buses, trains and planes need music with lyrics that you listen to and think about; Kate Nash, Just Jack and Jack Penate. The elliptical machine at the gym requires Ludacris, Chris Brown or other cheesy and terrible but fast-paced mainstream hip-hop. Any potentially noisy situation (the Tube, crowds) need my favourite old, tragic jazz or soul - Ella Fitzgerald, Muddy Waters, Erma Franklin, Louis Armstrong and Dionne Warwick.
    However, the two tracks I can't stop listening to this week are terrible. I'm ashamed. But they're so bad, they're good. The first is Nadia Oh's Egyptian Lover. It is the best walking, feeling a bit daring track ever. Promise. The second is some classic 90s trance. Yep, I like 90s trance. Given that I spent most of the 90s in pink frocks and leggings, jumping in puddles and singing to the Spice Girls, I feel I rather missed out on the trance scene, so I'm going back now, and this is my current favourite: Big Bass - What you do. Apologies to anyone with good taste. 

   

I decided to visit the capital properly since I have only been about twice since moving to England. I didn't actually do that well but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Here is the story of my gander, written (mostly) as it happened. Only the best for you, dear readers.

9:20 - arrive at bus stop.
9:22 - board bus.
9:23 - leave bus as have forgotten to get cash out.
9.40 - arrive back at bus stop with cash, trashy magazine and cough sweets.
9.50 - board bus successfully.
10.00 - congratulate self at evident success of outing.
10.02 - realise have forgotten map.
10.04 - have strange conversation with man about the state of public transport.
10.05 - offered petition to close Radcliffe Infirmary. Decline.
10.06 - sigh with relief when man leaves. Turned out he was with the BNP.
10.10 - realise do not know where anything in London is. Panic.
10.11 - remember that that is the point of the outing.
10.12 - see lots of kids with parents getting on buses to London as is half-term. Think nostalgic thoughts about youth etc. (We 16 year olds see everything from an older, much more adult perspective yah)
10.13 - reluctantly clear bag from adjacent seat as more people board the bus. Sulk.
10.14 - make it onto the A40. Feel smug as have an empty seat next to me and the Oxford High girl in front has to sit next to a very old, fat man.
10.15 - wonder why am writing in Bridget Jones style pronounless drivel. Cannot help the drivel.
10.20 - I hate those stupid adverts on loose bits of paper that are shoved in magazines. I managed to fling mine across the bus but a nice man in a yellow scarf helped me pick them up.
10.21 - I realised that my phone beeping, magazine explosion and paper scrunching do not a quiet passenger make. I turned my phone on silent, shoved everything in my bag and organised myself to be a friendly and respectful bus rider.
10.22 - jumped a mile at my phone vibrating in my pocket
10.23 - I would like to point out to all readers that I was up at 8.30 this morning. In the holidays.
10.24 - sitting in the window seat, listening to music and gazing outside wistfully makes me feel like I'm in a music video. (When I'm doing the same on a train I feel like I'm in a film. People in films never ride the bus)
10.29 - marvel at 7 year old in opposite row doing su-doku
10.30 - chuckle at van labelled  'Superloo' going past.
10.35 - play 'spot the EU country on a van.' Spot 23.
10.40 - smile at field of sheep.They don't smile back.
10.50 -  peer over at man in front's iPod. He seems to like French music.
10.51 - am very bored
10.54 - panic at su-doku child opposite. Not only can she do su-doku but she is doing it very quickly.
10.55 - panic over. She was looking at the answers in the back and copying them in. Um, cheating.
10.57 - wonder what 'spray possible ahead' motorway sign might mean
10.58 - arrive at Hillingdon Station. Sigh in relief as the end is now in sight
11.01 - get stuck in traffic.
11.40 - drive past Marble Arch. I have decided I want to go to Downing Street, the Tate Modern and Buckingham Palace.
[Will now be recording what I listened to and where, because it fascinates me. It might not fascinate you, but you're not the one writing this are you.]
11.52 - step off bus into sunny Victoria listening to Bright Eyes' First Day of My Life. How appropriate. Felt very happy
11.54 - there's something brilliant about walking around knowing nothing in the sun. Like being a tourist but without the shorts
11.57 - being at Victoria, seeing a particular Sainsburys Local brings back memories of staying in a hotel nearby years ago and instead of going out for dinner, my mum and I went to Sainsburys and ate English food. I think we had prawn cocktail crisps and peking duck wraps. But you couldn't get them abroad!

[I was in a state of iPoddy sunny bliss at this point and lost all track of time. It was about half twleveish though.]
I so rarely go anywhere without knowing where it is that it's very liberating to jut wander about without direction.
Saw a sign to Sloane Square and decided to follow it. I wandered through the smart furniture and antique shops on Pimlico Road of Westminster before ending up on Chelsea Bridge Road and walking up it. I was reminded of Suz telling me about how her mum used to take her to London in half term to get some culture. I need some of that.
I saw a bridge and two funnels from Chelsea Bridge and decided it was the Tate Modern, so I strolled along Chelsea Embankment in the sun listening to Just Jack and feeling cheerful. The wind was a-whipping, and there were some ducks bouncing about on the water. I smiled at them, but, like the sheep, they weren't interested. Ah well, nothing can spoil my mood. Getting closer to the bridge I decided it wasn't the Tate. Laugh not at my lack of knowledge of how London works, because none of you know your way round Athens or Vilnius, do you now. That's what I thought.
Houses along the Embankment are very posh, as are the people who live in them.    
I pottered up to the bridge which I had mistook for the footbridge which takes you to the Tate Modern and the Globe, I noticed it had a few exciting things around it:

A bit of physics for you on the above photograph: large groups of people cannot walk in step on suspension bridges because the repeated vibration will sway the bridge and eventually cause it to snap. My mum and I did this on a footbridge over the motorway on our way to Sainsburys and it was very very scary. Don't try it at home. Or on a bridge.

Realising I had just walked a mile to nowhere, I asked a man with a hard hat for directions to the nearest tube. (I have a love/hate relationship with the tube. It's fun the first time but then you realise it's not instant teleporting from one place to another, and filthy, so I lose interest.) I was directed to South Kensington tube up a street of what I always call Reihenhaueser. Row-houses, in German. Terraced, in English I suppose, but that doesn't make any sense to me. Anyway, there they are on your left.

I made it to Kings Road in Chelsea and pottered up it, looking at furniture shops and the fun architecture. Chelsea reminds me of a smart European Old Town, similar to the Gamla Stan in Stockholm because it has lots of old and new shops, all in different buildings. Very exciting stuff. This is what I saw:

Gig number two: Just Jack.
    Support, in my opinion, was a bit rubbish. They sounded and looked like Hard-Fi but much less charismatic and with only one song that sounded catchy enough to be released as a single. Nothing in the set was too dancey, there was an embarrassing lack of applause and we couldn't understand any of the frontman's words. The frontman and the disappointingly un-cute guitarist were very into their playing while pretending to slam into each other dance move, and spent at least three songs doing this, much to my confusement as it looked like they were repeatedly trying to get in there for a kiss. No, you may keep Radar (uninspired name to match the uninspired performance) as far as I am concerned.

      Just Jack bounced on stage, happy to be in Oxford and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Songs played included Snowflakes, Writers Block, Let's Get Really Honest, Symphony of Sirens, I Talk Too Much, Glory Days, Disco Friends and the inevitable Starz in Their Eyes. I'd only heard the first three non-single tracks before and thought that the set might be a bit slow and non-dancey, always a shame and a bit awkward as no one knows whether to slow dance, arm wave, or just stand and bob up and down. However, the music was sped up and Jack's cheerful and enthusiastic performance meant everyone was dancing. Also played was an unrecorded track called Goth in the Disco, funny and very dancey. Jack's lyrics range from misunderstood or unrequited love to depression to complaints about society to happy feelings, all performed in his unique rap style to surprisingly varied music, which didn't show so much in the recorded tracks but was really emphasised in the live set - songs ranged from funk to electro to pop, aided by a bassist who studied Egyptology at Oxford and a very cool Moby-alike on keyboard who provided a few robot vocals. There was also a lovely backing singer with a very sweet voice and cool 'I'm in the music biz' appearance. She brought lots to the performance and worked well with Jack on stage - acting out some of the songs and always smiling. 
 
 
    In my mind, nothing makes a good gig like a bit of entertaining banter between songs, and Jack provided this, talking about the support act, the places they had been, and how he had spent the afternoon drinking tea on an Oxford quad. Very giggley and cute, Just Jack ended the show by saying he would go out for an encore but he'd embarrassed himself too many times by leaving and then not getting called back on by the crowd, so he asked us to cheer before playing his last song, the immensely popular single Starz in their Eyes, which he confessed to being sick of. However much the rest of the crowd were, however, it didn't show as everyone jumped, danced and sang along, drowning out his vocals at many points, leaving him nothing but to bounce around on stage.
   
    Just Jack was well worth the money (an extravagant £7) and held a different crowd to the gigs I usually attend - mostly adult. This is good and bad - adults are a lot grumpier about people pushing in front but generally tend not to  spike you with their emo jewelery. Just Jack made the show very enjoyable though - he was obviously over the moon about his immense success and will be around for a few years yet - an older Jamie T with a slightly more sophisticated set of lyrics and a fun personality which shines out on stage. Good gig.