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The Review - grooves with CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 21 September 2006
 
Lemar
Lemar goes down a storm at the Café

REVIEW - LEMAR
Jazz Café

SNOOPY died out years ago. There’s probably kids around today who’ve never even heard of him.
But, after a very successful career as a funny dog, he went underground, bought himself some well-tailored suits, found a decent barber, sat around listening to a lot of old soul, and launched a new career as... Lemar.
And that, my friends, is a Grooves exclusive.
What? Don’t you think Lemar looks like Snoopy?
I never thought I’d find a dog sexy (actually, let’s not go there) but Lemar is hot stuff, even if he is wonky faced – hey, it’s the little imperfections, right?
During his sell-out residency last week at the Jazz Café, possibly a step closer to genuine credibility, he brought out all the hits; 50/50, Dance With You, If There’s Any Justice, and It’s Not That Easy, which he rather obviously did as an encore. But it was his crowd-pleasing skills that really impressed.
While he has a pleasant but slightly weak voice, wearing his ‘DJ for the night’ hat went down a storm with the crowd, who loved his Luther cover, performed at their request.
A real showman, had he actually been wearing a hat (I’m talking about an imaginary one folks) he would have thrown it to them after he’d sweated it up a bit.
Bigging up Marvin, Sam and Otis, his old-school hat doffing has also stood him in good stead.
The old school sound he’s rocking seems to be working out for him, and even songs from his new album The Truth About Love, which entered the charts at number three this week, were well received by the sell-out crowd.
Never has a reality star so proved the worth of the rubbish TV, Lemar was the one to watch in the BBC’s Fame Academy, and even though he didn’t win it – which is the kiss of death anyway (who can remember who won it in 2002?) – it was a poorer show from the moment he made his exit.
My only nitpick would be that after three albums a set should be longer than an hour.
Surely he’d have more material than that? Although it actually only worked out at 33p a minute, which is actually quite good value I guess.
Anyway, as a Spurs fan, the man can do no wrong.


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