Saint Jude
The 100 Club, London
There remains something distinctly old school about London’s 100 club, located in a basement on Oxford street. Fitting then that this famous venue should play host to Saint Jude, fronted by singer Lynne Jackaman. Wearing ‘spray-on’ leather-look leggings, Jackaman, petite beneath unkempt blonde tresses, looks every inch an old school ‘rock chick’. Fortunately for the crowd she sings the part as well as she looks. When Jackaman opens her mouth to sing Soul on Fire the audience surges towards the stage: it’s going to be a steamy night with more than a few surprises thrown in.
The first is Jackaman’s voice. Though she moves like a less awkward Janis Joplin her voice has more than a touch of Tina Turner during Turner’s Phil Spector-era prime about it. But Jackaman is not simply a belter, as she proves on The Way I Love You, a gorgeous track ground out with furious intensity by her all male 4 strong band, led by guitarist Adam Greene.
When she speaks, Jackaman sounds like any other polite young lady from the suburbs, but when she fills her lungs to sing, the sound can be very rude indeed. The only complaint I hear from the old blues-man swaying next to me is that the sound is not loud enough. I yell back into his one good ear that it sounds loud enough to me.
Despite the threat that mayhem might take hold at any moment, Jackaman retains complete control of the situation, and of her audience, never more so than on the bluesy ballad, Down and Out, sung in a voice which teeters on just the right side of heartache. At times there is an almost ecstatic, other-worldly quality to her performance, when you begin to wonder if she knows exactly where she is. And then to remind her that she’s actually in subterranean London on a wet weekend a legend enters the building, in the form of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. Seemingly anxious to forget about his well-documented domestic discord, Wood listens appreciatively for a few moments before seizing a guitar and taking to the stage. Lesser performers might be forgiven for a bit of a wobble in the presence of such rock n roll royalty but Saint Jude play on as if sharing a stage with a Rolling Stone is an everyday occurrence. And who knows, on this form one day it might just become one.
This is music as it should be, but all too often is not. Raw, powerful and compelling, but surprisingly graceful, thanks in no small part to Jackaman. Saint Jude are embryonic superstars. If you like your rock n roll down n dirty, catch them while you can. With new CD, Diary of a Soul Fiend out soon it could be many years before they play such intimate venues again. Just ask Ronnie Wood.
Cary Gee
