The Hour

Forget W. B. Yeats, Heaney and Hughes.  Never mind Dylan, Cohen and Cash.  Jack is back.  Well, maybe not quite.

Jack Allsopp, aka Just Jack, the singer behind Starz in their Eyes; a celebrity culture critique initially inspired by the rise and fall of Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus, is back with a new album, All Night Cinema, after a two year absence from the charts.

Allsopp is cheerful in interview, his toothy smile remaining irrepressible throughout.  He speaks softy and despite urban stylings is disarmingly mild-mannered.  He certainly doesn’t adhere to essential pop rules-of-thumb. 

Jack posses none of the primordial-soup swagger of his rap contemporaries; none of the machismo that, sadly, is a prevailing feature of much urban and garage music. 

Sitting in the studio he never preens, poses or peacocks – he is no Bowie or Bolan – physically he is reserved and sensible; not a man who is cultivating his mythology.

In this way he doesn’t quite seem to sit comfortably in the sprawl of modern music: a bedroom singer/songwriter whose credentials have been raised by a number of high-profile television appearances and a collaboration with Kylie. 

He has peaked at number two in the charts and yet would remain anonymous, unspotted, in a room.

Just Jack’s lyrics may be clunky (drag myself outta bed/around twenty past six/get my kids up make breakfast/one egg two toast three Weetabix) and he wears none of the romance and flair of this rivals but Allsopp has a quiet, grounded charm that means he will continue to have a following, no doubt, for years yet.

The reason; he isn’t an over-styled stereotype, he is Just Jack.  And for his fans that seems to be enough.