Teen pop star of a smarter stripe
British indie musician Jake Bugg is as close to being a hype- free artist as anyone can get
Jake Bugg
Friday, 8 p. m. | Vogue Theatre
Tickets: Sold out
In July last year, backstage at Scottish music festival T in the Park, a crowd gathered around the ping- pong table. The weather was particularly inclement, and bands, tour managers and hangers- on were sheltering from the incessant rain wherever possible.
In the artists’ area, this meant the tent with the bar, coffee maker, doughnuts, sofas, on- site hairdresser and ping- pong. But there was another reason for the hubbub.
A mop- topped kid has taken up residence on the table. Paddle in hand, his hair unruffled and his air unflappable, he is dispatching all comers.
Why is he so good at table tennis? “I’ve just left school,” came the shrugged reply. “I spent a lot of time in the common room.”
This was Jake Bugg’s first run of summer festival appearances. The 18- year- old singer- songwriter from Nottingham is way down the bill, and no wonder. He’s yet to have a proper hit single, his song Lightning Bolt having only reached No. 26 a couple of months previously. By the end of summer last year, the teenager had released five singles, none of them besting that chart position. But he certainly looks the part, with his heavylidded Liam Gallagher insouciance.
Less than a year later, Bugg was backstage at the April 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival near Los Angeles.
Again, a crowd had gathered around him, but this time for a very different reason.
Last October, Bugg’s first album entered the U. K. album charts at No. 1, dethroning the all- conquering Mumford & Sons. At the age of 18 years and eight months, he was the youngest British male to premiere at the top of the charts with his debut album. His eponymous debut album was recently nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize, whose previous winners include Portishead, PJ Harvey, Foals and The xx.
For all of their radio ubiquity, none of his singles was a stand- alone hit. Instead, Bugg achieved something much more valuable. His old- fashioned, skiffle- flavoured rock ’ n’ roll had created an impressive word of mouth success that has led to him playing bigger venues and selling more albums.
To date, his self- titled album has sold over 430,000 copies. He has toured North America with Noel Gallagher and Snow Patrol, was a special musical guest at Russell Brand’s Give It Up concert for Comic Relief at Wembley Stadium, supported the Stone Roses at an invitation- only show, and this summer he played Glastonbury.
Bugg picked up guitar at the relatively late age of 12, wrote his first songs at 14, left school at 16, and shortly thereafter uploaded a song to the BBC Introducing website. It resulted in a slot at the broadcaster’s new- talent tent at Glastonbury 2011, after which he secured a record deal.
Then, throughout the first nine months of last year, the drip, drip, drip of his fistful of radio- friendly singles set up his album’s impressive first- week sales.
It’s as close to a hype- free, undermarketed artist launch as you can get these days. And Bugg’s “just keep my cool” approach only served to underpin his appeal as a teenage — and teen- friendly — pop star of a different, smarter stripe.
He might have 300,000 Twitter followers, but this is one youth who isn’t obsessively gripped by the need to overshare on social media. He’ll tweet blandly informative stuff, but he’s not about to spill the beans on his life or proffer opinions.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “Some fans are like, ‘ Why aren’t you tweeting?’ I just do what’s necessary. But yeah, Twitter’s a strange thing, it’s very quick and very reactive.” As with everything, Bugg decided, “It’s about moderation.”
By the same token, Bugg won’t perform drunk and he doesn’t behave badly: “It is my job and I gotta be professional.”
Bugg was brought up in Clifton, at one time the biggest public housing project in Europe. His mother is an IT worker and his father a nurse. And yes, Bugg is his real name.
When he was 12, Bugg’s uncle gave him a guitar and taught him a few chords. It seems he had old ears, preferring folkies and troubadours to grime and hip hop. One artist he repeatedly references is Don McLean.
Bugg found that he loved the storytelling of American Pie, McLean’s “very melodic” skills and his way with a “cool,” albeit baffling, lyric. McLean was the first — and still the best — celebrity that Bugg ever met, outside a stage door in Sheffield when he was 14.
Bugg knows most of his generation would consider McLean cheesy, but he is stoutly unfazed by this. There is only one day’s age difference between Justin Bieber and Bugg but, culturally, they’re eons apart. One likes Eminem’s Slim Shady; the other, country and western singer Slim Whitman.
“I’m nothing special, mate,” Bugg said. “People are always asking me, ‘ How did you get where you are?’ The truth is … I just used to sit there and practise in my bedroom ’ cause I had nothing else.”