Southampton was a great, fun, brilliant show. The Brook is a real nice club; not smart or pretentious in any way, just an intimate space with a dancefloor and a balcony all round and a high stage so most everyone can see and the atmosphere is somehow just right.

And the Jukes revelled in it, right back on song and all playing the most marvellous stuff.

Setlist:

Take It Inside
Baby Don’t Lie
Won’t get Fooled Again (Ricky Byrd lv )
(bit of I Can see For Miles)
All Night Long
Dimples
I Played The Fool
Without Love
Talk To Me
No Easy Way Down
(Sinful intro)
She’s About A Mover
Coming Back
Walk Away Renee
Hang Down Your Head
New Coat Of Paint
Love On The Wrong Side
Gin-soaked Boy
This Time It’s For Real
Cadillac Jack
Night Train
(bit of I Don’t Want Her, You Can Have Her)
Roll Out The Barrel
The Fever
I Don’t Want To Go Home/Swansea (to tune of Swanee)

Happy
Shake, Rattle & Roll / Working Too Hard

Stagger Lee (Ed Manion l v)
Got To Be A Better Way Home

Tired Skin

No support tonight, just a lightening strike by Sean then the Jukes started wham-bam, with South trying to prise Ricky’s fingers from the guitar neck on Take It…; Joey and Eddie solos one after the other; and Ricky going into Pete Townshend windmills and Won’t Get Fooled (SJ interjecting a little See For Miles), and just sounding better and better on All Night Long. Then South went into some blues shouting and called for Dimples, the playing of which confirmed my belief that the Jukes are just the best working r’n'b band in the world right now. Fool was taken right down at the end, with the Jukes all singing the hook and the horn part played softly, really nice.

Without Love, sounding superb, was also taken right down for a while, till a huge crescendo brought the final horn part, which itself brought the house down. Talk To Me ended with South keeping Joey out front and singing a plea for him to serenade the lady for him, Cyrano-style, Joey echoing his vocal lines on tenor: “All she wants to hear / is a saxophone singing in her ear/ I have to make what I can out of these lemons/ I’m afraid she’ll go off with Clarence Clemons… I thought she was my boon companion/ but then she went off with Eddie Manion. I saw her going into a room with Joey Stann and Ed Manion… And she was my girl… But she wasn’t a girl. She looked like a girl; she looked so fine/ But she had an adam’s apple, and that’s where I draw the line.”

No Easy Way Down was marvellous, and then Ricky started Sinful but South turned it into She’s About A Mover, on which Chris took a hot solo, joining South at the mic to sing it and then playing it out – terrific. Renee included an improvisation about “I remember… Christmas in the Fireman’s Park in Ocean Grove, NJ, the lights, strung about… Now you’re in Malibu, the sun’s shining down on you / But when I think about the Christmases we used to have, I won’t be blue / ‘Cos you’re not to blame.”

New Coat of Paint had outstanding jazzy piano from Bobby, with lovely fills from Chris, a great Eddie solo and some truly great singing: the whole thing turned The Brook into Ronnie Scott’s for a moment. Gin-soaked Boy started quietly, and very effectively, South’s soft growling convincing you he really was gonna get rough. Ricky played some great slide, South played great harp and at the end we got some new verses:

“You came from the South of France
A fifth of gin and one of vodka’s all it took to get in your pants
Well, I got a quart of whiskey and it’s 30 below
So go on with your gin-soaked boy that you don’t know.
He had a big moustache and he wanted to fight
And I said, well, that’s all right
Hey hey hey hey
I got my gun and I blew him away
The cops came by, found him and the gun
They said, why’d you do that to him, son?
I said I don’t know, he came over the fence
I had to shoot him ’cause I don’t speak French.”

After a furious TTIFR, South called for Cadillac Jack but interrupted to intro Joe B and tell about how at the Glasgow Ferry, Joe played in a closet. “And the water came up and made his feet wet but he kept on playing (and Joe does); the water came over his feet and he couldn’t play the bass drum (Joe demonstrates); then it came over his knees and he couldn’t play the hi-hat (Joe demos again) – but he kept on playing cymbal – double-time (poor Joe hastily complying). The water came up and up till it reached his genital area – but he kept on playing – double-time. It reached his pockets and his cell phone and his ipod and he was electrocuted – but he kept on playing. Double-time. And it kept on coming up and up till it was over his chest, and over his hands, and up to his chin, and over his head – but he kept on playing that cymbal – double-time. And we couldn’t see what was happening because he was in this closet behind us, so finally we turned around, and… He died.” Wild applause for Joe, and from Ricky: “Excuse me. What song are we playing?” So we got the last verse of Cadillac, in a quiet, swinging version.

Then Ricky started Night Train, (Ricky now often starting things and not being deterred by South saying no like he does (and then grinning appreciatively at the defiance). South sang a line of “I don’t want her, you can have her, she’s too fat for me” and called for a polka, which ended up being a comedy Roll Out The Barrel. “Let’s see that Led Zeppelin band cover this” said the South, leading to some more instrumental quoting.

The Fever, introduced by “maestro” Bobby Lynch, had another great organ solo and a reflective solo from Neal, which led to a soft, reflective ending, including a story about Bruce bringing the song to the Jukes, “it was down at the Stone Pony, he was playing this on the piano, ‘I got a song for you’. I said ‘You should do it yourself’. He said ‘No, it doesn’t fit with me.’ I said (miming grab-and-run) ‘I’ll take it’.

IDWTGH ended with South saying “I don’t want to go back to – where is it I don’t wanna go back?” Ed said Wolverhampton and Ricky said Swansea. “Ah, Swansea, it’s like a dream come true. One of those dreams where you can’t remember your locker combination. You’re in high school, you’re in your underwear, the girl you like is in her underwear – and you can’t get your locker open.” Then a spontaneous Jukes chorus of “Swansea, how I love ya…” etc ended the set.

But there was more fun to come as they were called back 3 times. South announced that had CDs for sale, just shipped in (the initial batch having sold out, hooray!) “they’re untouched by human hand, especially Hood’s. They’re not our Cds, but they are for sale. We got t-shirts, socks…”

Then a riotous Happy and Working Too Hard, in which Ricky announced: “I got a problem”. “Just one?” It turned out to be the “I met a chick” routine again, except this time: “I thought she’d cure these guitar-playin’ blues/ But she only had eyes for Muddy Shews.” SJ added: “Chicks don’t go for no guitar-playing man/ They all wanna be with Joey Stann.” Ricky went: “In the 80s, the guitar was king”. SJ: “When I was growing up, it was the saxophone.” BL: “yeah, that was when YOU were growing up”. SJ: “When you’re grown up, you can tell us how it was.”
Someone called out: “Did my baby give you my shirt?” and South said “No, but she gave me something else” and did a bit of How Come … which turned into a finger-clicking Hit The Road Jack, with Eddie out front and ending with South and Eddie alone on stage.

They left but came back for Ed to do Stagger Lee, BL rocking out and SJ and Ed ending it singing half a line each, great. For the final encore SJ asked for the stage lights off as he had a special effect: “Have you seen War of the Worlds? The first one?” His equivalent turned out to be Ed behind the light on the harp amp… but despite the fooling we got a superb and moving Tired Skin to end on.

It really was a great night, and it was nice to say Hi to some of the guys afterwards, who were exceedingly gracious. Thank you, thank you again, guys.

We were SO Happy as we got back on the motorway!

I’m taking a break today, Wednesday, in honour of Liz’s birthday – happy one to you, Liz. And also of my slight exhaustion, but I can’t miss the Liz Party. All together now, WEEEEE’RE