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Elly Roberts reviews
Broken Boy Soldiers: 
Its official. 31 year-old John Anthony Gillis, aka Jack White,is the new guitar god. This gig rubber-stamped his undisputable class. Temporarilysidelining ex-missus Meg of the White Stripes, Jack Whites other projectcontinues to flourish.
Americas new super group The Raconteurs threw down the gauntlet to theirpeers at the Apollo in Manchester. Right now, theres no-one to challenge them.
A chock-a-bloc Apollo witnessed the blockbusting band pull out all the stopsin a magnificent set of classic ’70s style rock, with White dropping theStripes childlike aesthetic for amore mature sound. If anything, White andco are going in the Led Zep direction.
With hit single Steady As She Goes and classic album Broken BoySoldiers in the bag, the quartet, expanded to a quintet for the night,showed the music muscle they are now flexing. Co-writer and vocalist BrendonBenson has also dumped his solo work to unite with White, bassist JackLawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler.
Their relatively short set of just over 60 minutes, included all their debutalbum tracks bar one, plus three newies, 5 On The 5, Christian Lifeand Bang Bang, showing theres much more in their songwriting arsenal.Coming on in darkness to the opening sequence of Level, the crowdraised the atmosphere, soon followed by his trademark wiry picks.
In truth, its Jack they were here to see. Without him, there would be noRaconteurs. Nevertheless, for a man with such a reputation with the WhiteStripes, there was no attempt to hog the limelight, though he did having hisodd showboating moments as he fronted the stage for Yellow Sun.
For the most part, he was happy to blend in with his new-found band mates, heproved a worthy team player. Raucous Hands soon followed segued by amonstrous rocker 5 On The 5 with screaming solos by White. Eventuallyan introduction, “Are you out there? Youre so far away. Good evening,were the Raconteurs from Nashville Tennessee Im Brendon Benson, thanksfor having us.”
Thereafter, more album tracks: a genteel acoustic-led Together showcasedBenson and Whites vocal ranges as did new song Christian Life, whereas abluesy Store Bought Bones (yes, White likes to collect ancient humanbones) was more of a traditional exploratory jam a la Led Zeppelin.
A three song encore brought, “Thanks for having us Manchester, its goodto see you again, those of you I can see”, followed by IntimateSecretary, Steady As She Goes which predictably raised the roof, closinga glorious night for rocks future with a pulsating Broken Boy Soldiers.
Weblinks:theraconteurs.com /xlrecordings.com
Review – copyright Elly Roberts, 2006.
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.