"Versatile singer-songwriter" John Shuttleworth wears stardom as comfortably as his imitation-leather car coat. Selling out the Pleasance One theatre on the strength of his radio fame, he now positively bops behind his Yamaha keyboard while playing a selection of cheesy favourites. His song arrangements have become increasingly front-room disco, and his "visual stimuli" now include not only his favourite plastic wiggly snake but a small wind-up Santa Claus. Yet his patter remains easy and intimate, and we lap it up; an encore medley of classics had several hundred people singing along to the rock ballad "Pigeons in Flight". Graham Fellows has once and for all laid the ghost of old persona Jilted John to rest.
Written for The Independent.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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