Jacques Brel

We attracted our biggest crowd yet when we paid tribute to Belgian chanteur Jacques Brel. There were some fantastic covers with Tom Mckean & The Emperors, Adam Donen and Nat the Hammer all daring to sing in French. The Emperors played “Amsterdam”, Adam Donen “Quand On N’a Que L’amour” and Nat (interspersing the french with brief translations) “Le Moribond”. Orlando Seale and the Swell broke the record for the most amount of musicians to play onstage at UTI, with cellos, double bass players, string and flute players all joining the party. In sharp contrast RuffJohn, played completely unplugged. Stripped down to nothing but his guitar and voice he practically played in the crowd and had the audience eating out of his hand. Sgt Buzfuz broke all the rules and demonstrated why Jacques Brel is such an influence on so many songwriters by insisting on playing three Brel songs and none of his own, at one point memorably daring to turn his back on the audience to utilise the Boogaloo’s piano. Paul Hawkins brought his unique humour and world view to Brel’s material with a unique rendition of “Ne Me Quitte Pas” and newcomer Paolo Zanelli kicked the night off with his delicate and soothing tones.

Check out more performances of original songs and from other acts on our YouTube channel