Joe Jackson came to fame through the English new wave movement, but very rapidly moved from the limitations of that sound towards his now signature piano-driven singer-songwriter melancholy. Like Elvis Costello, Jackson was always the thinking person’s punk, albeit slightly less angry. Now an anti-smoking-ban campaigner and writer, Jackson still has plenty to say, and some of that finds its expression in music, including a number of collaborations over the last few years, and a foray into classical music and film-scoring.
Unfortunately, like many of his ilk who still have a consistent or even prolific output, he is forever marked by the early fame and big hits, with most of the seated Palais audience expecting a dose of hits like Breaking Us in Two (from his classic 1982 album Night and Day). So although he’s touring on the back of a new album, the nostalgia crowd isn’t here to listen to that, and Joe has to sneak in the new tracks by alternating them with the fodder still getting regular airplay over at sponsor Gold 104. And he doesn’t disappoint on that front.
Joe has never been pop-star-gorgeous, but he hasn’t aged too badly. Still skinny and even more follicularly and melanin-challenged, he cuts a Thom Yorke-esque figure in his smart suit, sat at his baby grand piano accompanied by his more portly original band members on bass and drums. But his voice has aged – he struggles to reach some of those poignant high notes on the vocal-driven tracks which marked his rise to fame – the strain is particularly noticeable on Real Men, his plaintive, ambiguous ballad about gender politics. By contrast, he’s still a maestro on the piano. Classically trained, his skills on the old joanna are a treat to behold, and many of his old sequencer-fuelled hits, like Stepping Out, lose nothing in the translation from electric keyboard to unplugged baby grand.
A highlight of the show is a cover of ABBA’s Knowing Me Knowing You, to which he brings a slight snarl and a lush arrangement that’s completely his own. The songs from his new album, Rain, are hard to ignore, standing up well alongside the canon of classic tracks. Jackson has said he was aiming for a stripped back, elemental collection of tracks with a timeless quality, and songs like Wasted Time and the title track Rain cannot be written off as has-been rock. Of course, saying that, when Jackson leaves the stage without having played his signature tune Is She Really Going Out with Him, there are gasps of disbelief from the group of middle-aged women in the seats in front of us. And when he returns to his seat at the piano in under a minute, muttering ‘oh alright then’, it isn’t hard to guess what he is planning to play.
