Having recruited Lucy as fellow Jeays-advocate, we rounded up as many friends as we could muster for his show at the Battersea Barge on 3 March 2005 and booked a table for eight (the gig isn't on the official list, but I promise you it happened).
It's always a responsibility persuading people to shell out to see someone they've never heard of, and this time we had six Jeays virgins so things could have turned nasty if they rounded on us. He started, as does this album, with Death Bed. By the second line, he'd won over most our party:
I'm sorry for all the girls I've made cry
I'm sorry there weren't just one or two more
I love that selfish twist of sentiment. By the time he reached the lines, "Fuck you, you were shit, Philip Jeays" near the end of the songs, our friends were lapping up every last bit and braying for more.
Cut to last week, and I had a brief chat with a respected musician and DJ, who I knew liked Jeays, and asked him why he (Jeays, you fool!) wasn't more successful. His answer was that the CDs don't live up to the live experience: on one level they're a faithful document of what the songs sound like, but they don't capture the provocation, the seduction or the rage that you feel when Jeays is in front of you, spitting it out.
I kind of see what he's saying. Certainly my attempts at Jeays-advocacy have fallen flat when I've just leant people CDs or directed them to listen at the website.
Perhaps you need to see him live. Which we do two or three times a year. Here's Lucy's attempt at evangelism following the last show we saw. She always fancies singers.
Once you've seen the show, you'll want the CD to remind you of the experience.
| Listen to the whole album, read the lyrics and buy it |
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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