Manchester Carling Apollo, 23 June 2004

It was all too easy for me to put Jamie Cullum in the ‘new, young, highly hyped, upstart’ file. With BBC Radio 2 plugging mainstream/pop/jazz like there’s no tomorrow, and helping albums from the few lucky recipients of this bonhomie to the top of the sales charts, I was sceptical. Cullum’s album sold like hotcakes despite it being pretty pedestrian with just a couple of standout tracks. But I’m always willing to be convinced and how better than to watch the lad live (and, as it turned out, very dangerous) at Manchester’s excellent Carling Apollo venue.

Main Cullum support for the show was a more mature UK singer/songwriter called Tom Baxter, who’s very recent E.P. blew me away - big time. Heavy rain and strong winds followed me all the way from Wrexham to Manchester, and on arriving was unsurprised to find a sold-out show. Punters were mainly mums and dads, plus a liberal sprinkling of young ladies, many of whom had dragged along their boyfriends for the show. In six short months, Cullum has become a household word and with the support of his record label could just be on course for world domination…

But everything is dependent on how good he really is, and especially as a live performer in large venues like the Apollo, playing to a capacity audience.

Tom Baxter

After a brief performance by the opening band (who I didn’t know from Adam but who sported a powerful female singer) came my first opportunity to witness Tom Baxter. Over the last few years, the UK has been blessed with a number of highly talented new singer/songwriters, including the wonderful Tom McRae and strikingly original Carina Round. Baxter has been performing for a few years and in that time has been gradually building a strong, albeit underground, fan base. I received his E.P. recently and within the space of the three tracks, including a live rendition from one of his low-key concerts, I was hooked.

The live track on the E.P. is called Half A Man and I’ve seldom heard a song or performance that has moved me so much. With a voice which reminds me of Jeff Buckley, Baxter is capable of raising the most mountainous goose-bumps with his expressive vocal quality, and intelligent, melodious, haunting songs. And so it was to prove on the night…

Baxter looked an unassuming, ordinary, and life-worn character as he stood centre-stage with his guitar, dissecting the space occupied by his sparse accompaniment of bass guitar and piano. Of course, 99.9% of the audience didn’t know who the hell he was, but after just one song you could feel and hear the interest stirring.

Baxter’s way is to let the music unfold and tell the story, without animation or drama on his part. The first song I recognised was My Declaration which was performed in the latter half of the show. While it possesses obvious pop sensibilities, with Baxter conveying the messages it also became intense and involving. By the time he sang this song, I was standing at the side of the venue and able to observe an audience respond in the strongest way to a song which if released as a single, with airplay support, should fly. The other two songs from the E.P. were also sung and of these I was especially taken with Half A Man and the inspiring sounds created by the backing instrumentalists. The understated performance was a triumph and I now look forward to hearing his debut album, hopefully in time to stop me wearing out his superb E.P….

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Jamie Cullum

So how is it that a young man of around twenty-one years of age can garner such massive consumer support in such a short time? Well part of the reason is that he has been launched on a market already softened up by BBC Radio 2 with music from Eva Cassidy, Michael Buble, and more recently Kate Melua. In the case of Cassidy, interest had already been generated a few years earlier via audiophile magazines who had discovered Cassidy’s vocal quality through the equipment auditioning and testing processes. But it is also true that there has been a vacuum in the market for quality solo artists for a long time, and it’s one that Radio 2 began to recognise and fill. The result is that Radio 2 has captured the more mature audience and in the process relegated its pop sister, Radio 1, to second spot in the ratings, while sales of the aforementioned artists has gone stratospheric.

In reality, Cullum (unlike Melua, who was plucked out of performance school by the cunning pop maestro Mike Batt) has reached stardom following years of performing to anyone who would listen. And I was to learn that if anyone deserves to succeed through natural talent, love for his craft, dedication and enthusiasm, it’s Cullum.

With live performance experience comes stage savvy, and after the star’s band entered the arena he slowly moved in for the kill. Calculatedly (and almost seductively) wandering to the centre of the stage, he proceeded to sing unaccompanied before moving to the side of the stage to remove his leather jacket, and boots! The audience roared approval and effectively any ice that existed melted away. It was masterful.

Backing Cullum on piano was a bassist, guitarist; tenor sax, trombone and horn players; and drummer. Several of the players hailed from Scandinavia, a region heavily populated by excellent jazz musicians. Opening with Fly Me To The Moon I was struck by Cullum’s intuitive, raw playing, and a distinctive voice that was rough at the edges but all the better for it. He’s a short, fresh-faced young man who I felt was natural, genuine and sincere; the sort of young adult parents would like to own or see their daughters dating.

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My camera lens loved him to hell and after the regulatory three-song picture-taking stint I was able to sit back and assess the performance in more detail. And the news is mostly excellent. Next up was a self-composed song that was pretty good, followed by an excellent interpretation of Old Devil Moon which turned out to be one of my highlights of the evening. Chat, stories and explanations flowed thick and fast from the young performer who showed performance maturity beyond his years, together with boundless energy. He explained that the arrangement was by his bass player before leaving his piano to commence the song at the front of the stage, backed by a wonderful brass section that almost stole the song. And as if he recognised this, he then returned to his piano to provide an accomplished keyboard performance.

Then came another standard in What A Difference A Day Makes which was sung with lazy, fluid ease, and excellent vocal intonation. At one point the band stopped playing allowing the audience to savour keys and voice in total harmony. It was another strong show highlight.

In between every song, Cullum talked effortlessly with his audience, and on this occasion he explained that the next song, Why Do Today What You can Do Tomorrow? was written while in his final year at university, echoing the all-pervading student ambience. Forsaking his piano for an acoustic guitar, he went back to stage-front and performed the song with humour and enthusiasm. Yup, you guessed, it was another highlight in a performance that was gathering strength and quality with each song.

Seated at his piano he then introduced another self-composition that resonated extremely well with the audience, and I suspect is played at every show. Composed early in his career, I Wanna Be A Pop Star proved to be extremely funny, and especially the line, “Maybe I’ll be gay and sell more records that way…” The audience response was massive and it was at that point that I started to wonder whether his audience regarded him as pop star rather than a jazz player… Then came one of those special moments that crop up in any quality performance. Getting up from his stool, he looked over the audience and asked, “Is there anyone from Yamaha in the building. I hope not…” He then proceeded to close various piano lids before performing the opening of his next song by beating percussive notes from every part of it; on the top, underneath, the sides, inside; with sonically interesting results.

Then arrived one of the very few blemishes in a vibrant and exciting performance. Jeff Buckley’s Lover, You Should’ve Come Over is a song that no-one should try to reprise. It’s a highly introspective, atmospheric and unique song from Buckley’s classic GRACE album, and to try to interpret it is playing with fire. While Cullum gave a sincere and passionate rendition of the song, it just didn’t work. After performing it, he admitted that there was one passage in the song that he had to leave out as it was just too difficult to try. He also acknowledged that GRACE was his all-time favourite album. Punter reaction to his rendition of the song drew one of the night’s largest audience responses, which in itself said something about how Cullum is perceived. Consider that GRACE was released in 1997 and has so far sold less than half the number of copies (worldwide) that Cullan’s debut album achieved in six short months. I concluded that few of the people in the audience would have known the song, and I was left with the impression that if he had sung an imbecilic nursery rhyme, the reaction would still have been strong. Cullum is a gifted and highly individual musician but my concern is that such blind support could dissolve in the same way that substantially less talented pop stars go out of favour. This would be criminal and represents a challenge to Cullum and his record company in planning the artist’s national and international future.

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Cullum then described his early musical experiences at the tender age of sixteen, and his love for the music of Jimi Hendrix (as well as telling us that he had earned good money playing on cruise ships). An excellent (although overlong) version of The Wind Cried Mary, with a rampant drum intro, followed and inspired cheers from the audience for a truly superb cover. Then it was Radiohead’s turn for the Cullum treatment and a rendition of the album track that has attracted much critical praise. During the song, he wandered through the audience while including a brief and enchanting spell of Singing In The Rain. It was a bravado performance that seemed to go for a lifetime, and eventually concluded the show.

The 3,000 plus audience stood in unison to applaud this quite extraordinary young talent, and in return were treated to two more songs: hit single These Are The Days and I Could Have Danced All Night (during which Cullum sought and received total audience participation in the choruses).

In a performance lasting one and a half hours, Jamie Cullum proved to be an intuitive, talented and distinctive musician, with that rare skill of being able to quickly engage his audience and then impose a vice-like grip. He also proved to be modest in acknowledging that the success he has enjoyed in the last six months had both surprised and excited him. For me, this live and extrovert performance dwarfed the quality of his debut album, and I look forward to seeing this talented young individual recording more of his own material (hopefully with a harder, edgier feel in tune with some of his declared musical heroes). On one wet and windy night in Manchester Tom Baxter and Jamie Cullum proved that genuine and distinctive UK talent sometimes does shine through.