Banter boys steal the thunder and turn up the heat

Cue the lights, assemble the Palm Trees, bring in the crowds and prepare for what is surely one of the best live shows Preston, or any other city, has seen for a long, long time.

The Jackpot Golden Boys have won over hoards of followers since wowing audiences with their outrageous antics and haphazard yet immaculately compiled collage of sound, verse and unadulterated fun.

Grabbing the limelight

The band innocently thrive on being different and grabbing the limelight. This was their chance to make their biggest impact yet - and they did it in style (or complete lack of it, whichever way you look at it.)

Cardboard Palm Trees were reeled in to add some colour to an afternoon darkened by the weather and the Jackpots entertained and amused wherever possible, getting the audience laughing as well as tapping their feet.

Fuzzy fairground rock

Starting with their fuzzy fairground rock trademark opener with the imaginative chorus line ‘Jackpot, Jackpot, Jackpot’, the band followed with new song Newcombe High in which Alex gave up guitar duties allowing his miracle third and fourth arms (see pic left) to do the business for him. The Jackpots never fail to interact impeccably with the crowd and threw down chocolate éclairs before launching into, you guessed it, Chocolate Éclair.

The set was cut short to fit in with council time restrictions, leaving Jackpot Alex (Molyneux) to give the crowd a choice for the closing number, although it became clear he had no intention of doing anything other than Sneaky - allowing him to sport his umpteenth silly hat of the afternoon and dance, prance, tip-toe and roll around the stage to bring the afternoon’s most impressive performance to a chaotic climax.

Written by Dan Jeoffroy

Photography: Dan Jeoffroy