Jack Savoretti at the Roundhouse

A few years ago someone in the industry told Anglo-Italian Jack Savoretti that he should try and play by the rules. He defiantly tells the audience tonight in Camden’s Roundhouse that he took some of those rules, put them in a bag and smashed them. Maybe his intransigence has resulted in less commercial success than fellow, raspy singer-songwriters Paolo Nutini and James Morrison, and even a confusion between them for the uninitiated. The bulging walls here suggest that he has enough people in the know to at least fill up an acclaimed venue.

Savoretti’s half-hearted attempt at flamenco guitar in the opening bars of Written in Scars is forgotten once he begins singing animatedly about revolution. There is no getting away from the attractiveness of his throaty delivery in this (or for that matter his appealing genes) and numbers like Back to Me and Broken Glass — an a cappella performance would be almost as satisfactory. Smoky, white lights wave gently around the room, as laid-back and easy as the songs he puts out. The sometimes soft sounds of which let leak the enduring murmurings coming off the crowd from start to finish.

The band exit the stage momentarily, leaving Savoretti alone to showcase his solo skills that includes a cover of a Bob Dylan’s Nobody ‘Cept You, with an anecdote about how he discovered this song that, he insists, saved his life. Back to full power with the return of his group, the danceable The Other Side of Love and rousing Tie Me Down lift the mood before it has a chance to stall, bogged down in seriousness.

“This is what they call an overnight success,” he quips during the encore, mindfully joshing that he’s probably not as big as he could be after all these years. As long as he has his humour about him, he’ll carry on pulling in interest.  

Steven White
Photos: Nick Bennett

For further information about Jack Savoretti and future events visit here.

 

Watch the video for Back Where I Belong here: