Jack White at Bridlington Spa

My last gig review before I left Scarborough was Jack White on a solo tour in Bridlington. And there was a misunderstanding by security which echoed events at The Darkness gig in 2004.

I was happily snapping away during the first song when suddenly I was accosted by the jobsworth who made me stop shooting.

He actually thought I was shooting a video when actually I was taking stills. But It took almost all of the second song to prove my innocence.

Needless to say the number of shots from the gig was vastly reduced – but at least I got this pic which I quite like.

Oh and it was the night I told my editor, who was also at the gig and had been off work that week, that I was leaving to move north to Carlisle.

I have always had a lot of time for Jack White since I first heard one of the early White Stripes albums more than a decade ago.

Even though there was just him and Meg they made one hell of a racket and I have followed his solo side projects – including The Raconteurs and the Dead Weather – with interest.

Sunday’s gig got off to a blinding start with a set from support act Willy Moon. If appearances were to be believed he was a 1950s-style crooner but he came across as a demented lounge lizard who prowled the stage like a panther – imagine a bizarre vocal mash up of Screaming Jay Hawkins and Captain Beefheart.

After a short wait it was time for the main man to confidently stride on stage alongside his new solo band.

They immediately launched into the surprisingly short opening track and White Stripes classic Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.

The band were fairly tight and they gave some of the White Stripes tracks a fuller sound complete with double bass, slightly off-kilter keyboards, fiddle and slide guitar.

They reminded me in parts of that foot stomping bar room blues-era Stones especially when Jack slowed proceedings down and swapped his guitar for keyboards.

It was good to hear his new solo Blunderbuss material mixed in with older White Stripes tracks as well as new interpretations of material from his other projects.

Highlights included instant crowd-pleasers such as a belting version of Steady As She Goes as well as My Doorbell.

And he could not leave without playing the White Stripes’ best known track – Seven Nation Army – making sure that a capacity crowd left the Bridlington Spa very happy indeed.

From The Scarborough News on Thursday, November 8, 2012.