Bluesfest presents Jack Savoretti

Friday 27th October 2017

Indigo at The 02, Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

On the Friday evening before Halloween, we travelled to the entertainment complex known as The O2 Arena to see a headline concert by singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti who has recently re-released a deluxe edition of his latest album ‘Sleep No More’.   Having verbally fought through the passive aggressive staff at the box office and then witnessed a flustered Robert Elms stride over to the ticket window wearing a 1970s grey suit wanting to know where the Live Nation window was, we headed in.

The entry queue was long and winding for the Indigo as crowds of people all arrived at once for both Savoretti and an evening with Chic featuring Nile Rodgers and special guest Chaka Khan in the main O2 Arena thus making the necessary security checks longer.

At nine o’clock after a forty minute interval Robert Elms appeared with an introduction detailing when he first met Jack at BBC Radio London (he presents his own radio show you know?). The houselights went down and the applause and cheering echoed around the room.

Backed by a four-piece band, Jack Savoretti’s strong vocals on ‘Truth Or Dare’ proved why this venue was sold out as he played off his electric guitarist with his acoustic axe.

We were informed that this was Jack Savoretti’s last show of the year and that one of the first shows that he ever played was in this same room opening for Christopher Cross.   The fluid organ intro on ‘Tie Me Down’ blended with the purposeful drum fills meant that foot-stomping and clapping ensued.

“We are at a blues festival so we thought we would do something special for you.”  Would they do a Howlin Wolf song or a Bonnie Raitt classic? No you guessed it – ‘Midnight Rider’ by The Allman Brothers. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic song that suited Jack’s voice perfectly but it just felt out of place.

The heartfelt lyrics of the love song ‘I’m Yours’ were well-received whilst the punchy ‘Whiskey Tango’ let the band play out. Live favourite ‘Back Where I Belong’ got everyone dancing as the rich keyboard sound flowed.

It was the spellbinding ‘Catapult’ though that produced pure silence from the capacity crowd. This track has been championed by radio and television presenters including Graham Norton and because of this, Savoretti’s fanbase increased.

Closing the set with ‘When We Were Lovers’ (before the encore) I felt that whilst elements of the evening had punchy delivery overall it was quite lacklustre. The main set was finished in one hour and five minutes which for someone with several albums and radio-friendly singles really surprised me.

Having been touring the UK and Europe since September as John Legend’s special guest and only needing to do one half an hour each night I wonder if a mixture of tiredness and complacency set in when it came to the final show of the tour.

In conclusion, he does have a smooth pleasant voice and with tracks such as ‘Home’ and ‘Written In Scars’ he does deserve the recognition he has received but compared to the last three shows I have seen from him (Cornbury Festival 2017, Royal Festival Hall, London and Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith) this was not Jack Savoretti firing on all cylinders and it was definitely not blues.

Glenn Sargeant