LATER...with Jools Holland (18/04/2008 - Series 32, Show 3)

Two great shows this week - more guests performing on the live Tuesday show and a more eclectic line-up.

Tuesday live set

• The Last Shadow Puppets - Age Of The Understatement
• Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
• Lonnie & Eric from War - JH Chat
• Toumani Diabate - Ala Lake
• Devotchka - The Clockwise Witness
• Phil Campbell - Maps
• The Last Shadow Puppets - In My Room
• Portishead - Machine Gun

Friday set

• The Last Shadow Puppets - Age Of The Understatement
• Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings - Keep On Looking
• Portishead - Machine Gun
• Marshall Chess from Chess Records - JH Chat
• Devotchka - Head Honcho
• Toumani Diabate - Elyne Road
• The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made For You
• Portishead - The Rip
• Lonnie & Eric from War - JH Chat
• Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings - I’m Not Gonna Cry
• Phil Campbell - Maps
• Devotchka - The Clockwise Witness
• The Last Shadow Puppets - In My Room
• Portishead - We Carry On

The Tuesday set has everyone on the main show as a preview with The Last Shadow Puppets getting two slots. They are certainly band of the moment - the formation of Alex from Arctic Monkeys and Miles from The Rascals works incredibly well. Both play not as a band but as two lead singers, each taking turns in some wonderful vocal arrangements. The instrumentation is provided by electric (Alex) and acoustic (Miles) guitars and backed by the Metropolitan Orchestra. The music is definitely more mature than the singers’ bands and My Mistakes Were Made For You, in particular, plays like a modern Bond theme. I hope the album captures the vibrancy of the live sound.

Also impressive are Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings, who get three songs across both shows. The best - 100 days, 100 nights - is on the Tuesday show. I’m Not Gonna Cry is overwhelmed by too much brass but Jones’ voice and style is amazing.

To complete a great lead trio of artists is the best of the three - Portishead. Back with a new album after ten years away they are eager to showcase it and JH was only too happy to oblige. They close both the Tuesday set (we are teased right until the very end) and start the Friday show with the new single Machine Gun, all pounding drums and Beth Gibbons’ haunting vocals. The Rip and We Carry On are following the same formula - the band has learned how to end songs, typically with long(ish) instrumental pieces. It’s like all they have been listening to since 1998 is Radiohead albums. Again they steal the glory from The Last Shadow Puppets and end the show - after Gibbons has finished her vocal duty on We Carry On, she walks off set leaving her band to finish up. As the credits begin, only an empty microphone and stand remain. Chilling.

The support this week is provided by Devotchka, Toumani Diabate and Phil Campbell. Devotchka are a strange beast, from Denver in the US and fronted by Italian-American Nick Urata, the sound is an acquired taste. They owe a lot of their success to the sound of Gogol Bordello and the film Little Miss Sunshine. The best of the two songs The Clockwise Witness is very reminiscent of Arcade Fire and comes complete with sousaphone. Toumani Diabate is an African musician who plays a kara - a 21 string West African harp. It is a delightful sound adding some much needed ethnicity to the typical guitars, piano and big band sound. Phil Campbell, a singer songwriter who was poised for enormous success ten years ago before an attempt to live the rock lifestyle nearly ended it before it had begun, is back with a new album. It’s strange that he gets just one song and lead single Maps, performed on both shows. He clearly has much more to offer.

The only disappointment this week is the infamous ’Chat with Jools’ (usually across a table filled with glasses, or own-branded bottles, of beer). For some reason, none of the artists are interviewed. It would be great to hear from Portishead and Alex Turner to give us some truth amongst the wild speculation in the press but instead Jools interviews Marshall Chess from Chess Rcords and Lonnie & Eric from the reformed War. Rather than be informative and interesting the show has opted for a shameless plug of a Chess compilation CD (and new film) and announcement of an another old band reforming when they probably shouldn’t bother.