Jonquil O2 Academy, Oxford 12/5/10
4/5
By: Liane Escorza
I want to believe that headline bands choose their support acts based on their musical talents rather than any pre-existing camaraderie or friendship. More often than not, it doesn’t happen that way. But this is not the case with tonight’s headliners, Foals. They have been and still are particularly involved in the thriving Oxford scene, as evidenced by their extremely vocal admiration of the now sadly defunct Youthmovies. This time, it’s Jonquil who are accompanying them on tour.
Even though this Oxford based sextet have been playing for ever so long, releasing two full albums alongside various EPs and additional collaborations, they’re not exactly household names. And this is quite unfair, as they’re far from a dull bunch. Jonquil are original in name and original in sound, a kind of rainbow-pop, a calypso tropicalia, but without bongos. It’s miles away from the twitchy, trotting style of their headlining buddies, yet their happy-go-lucky quirkiness does not fall far behind in terms of mood and execution.
Jonquil are multi-tasking musicians incorporating trumpet, keyboards, synths, drums, bass, two guitars and one hell of a naturally baritone-voiced singer. Hugo Manuel is the epicentre of it all, veering the ship through waters of Caribbean-infused themes such as ‘Get Up’, displays of lyrical bravado in ‘Magdalen Bridge’, dreamy explorations in ‘Parasol’, and spells of nostalgia in the pub chants of ‘Whistle Low’ and ‘Lions’.
Each one of Jonquil’s members has an earthy weight of their own, gluing and collecting all the aforementioned, disparate pieces together. They’re there for their fun and for your fun – let’s hope that this high profile support tour announces that fact to a few more people.
Artists in this article: Jonquil
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