Review: Noble Jacks, Lost Horizon – ‘Huge heaps of collective joy’

Should you be able to have this much fun on Good Friday? Is there some sort of moral or philosophical law against smiling and manically jumping up and down two days before Easter Sunday?

If there is a big chap sitting on a cloud up there, did he look down as Noble Jacks whirled Lost Horizon around their little fingers, and go “Yeah. Fair play. That looks like fun”? Because, you know, he really should have.

The fun started early with Josh Gleaves and his lovely, laid-back set of sunshine-y, strumm-y country. Eight songs, two voices, two acoustic guitars and not a misstep between them, Gleaves, and his wife Chloe, made music the sort of music that just sort of exists between time.

The sort of music that you always want in your life. The title track of his forthcoming EP, Cathedral Town, is a case in point, it’s simple, toe-tappin’ country, the sort of thing that you used to hear spilling from pubs in Camden on a Sunday afternoon. The sort of thing that makes life better.

Making life better seems to be the motto for Noble Jacks. The four-piece from Brighton are firm festival favourites and a guaranteed good night out.

From the moment that Never Been Here Before, from their latest album Last of the Wild, roared into gear the template for the evening was set.

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Massive splashy drums, big rock power chords and a scorching fiddle all played at such a pace that even thinking of standing still was laughable.

There might be the tiniest hint of Americana lurking in some of these songs but, mostly, Noble Jacks smash the Levellers-esque folk rock very hard indeed.

Gun Hill is a breakneck hoe-down, inspiring massed clapping and, at this early stage in the set, a tentative jig, or two. By the end of the evening those jigs will have been replaced by crazed do-si-dos and rubber-limbed Charlestons, dancers nicely warmed up by relentless good vibes.

By the time Morning Light comes around Will Page has, momentarily, ditched his fiddle, taken up an acoustic guitar and his mind is turning towards festivals, musing on his love for those beautiful days.

Surely a glorious summer evening as the sun sinks is the natural home for Noble Jacks and Morning Light rolls delightfully along, reminding us all that “it’s love that makes us whole”.

It’s not that this lot are hippies, more that they are experts at bringing a room full of people together find huge heaps of collective joy.

The joy is unconfined for fan favourite, Better Man. Page’s fiddle is back at the foreground, forcing enormous amounts of bouncing, bass and drums lending further impetuous to those leaping feet.

Faces and Late Night Train just keep the whole thing rolling along, the crowd, by now, a gleeful mess. At one stage Page says “we were going to put a slower one in here but…nah…” and then pulls his bow across his fiddle and the devil sweeps across the room again, kicking up his hooves.

You can tell a lot about a band by their choice of cover version. In the case of Noble Jacks, they’ve pretty much nailed it. Was there ever a doubt that Charlie Daniels’ Devil Went Down to Georgia wouldn’t be the sort of thing they’d choose?

The story of a young man “sawin’ on a fiddle, playin’ it hot” sums up everything that was seen this evening. Needless to say, riotous dancefloor mayhem was merely seconds away. Page showcasing exactly why the devil would be left in his dust.

All of which only left The Blacksmith’s Stomp to see a gloriously, fun-filled Good Friday to a close. An absolute barnstormer of a thing, any tentative jigs were a thing of the past, this was strictly music to leap around to.

In loads of ways Noble Jacks aren’t the most original band in the world – the debt to The Levellers is just too great – but when life is this good, who cares?

If that big chap was sitting on his cloud, looking down, then he’d have been smiling. Just like the rest of us.

Main photo: Gavin McNamara

Read next:

• Review; Unthank : Smith, Trinity – ‘A master class in song’
• Review: Hack Poets Guild, The Folk House – ‘Invention, innovation and intimate storytelling’
• Review: The Haar, Downend Folk & Roots – ‘More than a little intense’

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