Beck surprises London with intimate solo gig

Last night (30th June), Beck played a last-minute surprise solo set at The Social in London to a crowd of just around 100.

The gig, hosted by Faber Social (Faber & Faber having published his ‘Song Reader’ sheet music collection back in 2012) featured the somewhat ‘expected’ - the already stripped-back ’Lost Cause’, ‘Blue Moon’, ‘Blackbird Chain’, his version of ‘Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes’ - as well as some surprises.

The fan-requested ‘Rowboat’ ends in fits of laughter as Beck forgets how it goes; equally, his attempt to cover Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’ descends quickly enough, stopping to read the lyrics from a sheet. There’s also time for mocking his own work, as the invented song titles featured in ‘Song Reader’ elicit laughter from both him and the crowd. ‘The smell of pot pourri went to Jethro’s head’, anyone?

The mouth-organ stomp ’One Foot in the Grave’ made a showing, as did what Beck introduced as “my trusty little friend, his name’s Korg”. The rudimentary synth beats accompanied the night’s heaviest numbers - ‘Modern Guilt’ number ‘Gamma Ray’ and an inevitably sing-a-long closer, ‘Loser’.