Later... with Jools Holland: the 25 best performances
As Later... With Jools Holland celebrates 25 years on BBC Two, we look back at the show's 25 greatest performances
1. Shane MacGowan and Nick Cave: What a Wonderful World (1992)
Possibly the bleakest ever rendition of Louis Armstrong's timeless ballad. Together, king of the goths Cave and the Pogues' perennially sozzled frontman MacGowan create an atmosphere that's half late-night karaoke, half Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. And yet, somehow, it hangs together works perfectly.
2. Leonard Cohen: The Future (1993)
The highlight of the show's second series. For Cohen's only appearance on Later, he performed the dark and groovy title track of his 1992 album, The Future. Swaying from side to side, beginning with his eyes closed, he sing-speaks his lyrics with magnetic conviction, sounding more than ever like a lascivious Old Testament preacher. Powerful stuff.
3. Portishead: Glory Box (1994)
Trip hop arrives on Later, and it's glorious. Beth Gibbons's sultry vocal performance sounds even better here than it does on record. It's hard to imagine quite how fresh Glory Box must have sounded in 1994, before it was borrowed for countless TV adverts.
4. Scott Walker: Rosary (1995)
Ever the showman, Holland made the last-minute decision to dim the lights ("Can we have a lighting mood change, please?") as the Sixties-pop-star turned avant-garde-maverick took the stage to perform the last track from his challenging 1995 album Tilt. The song was weird and abrasive, but Walker's performance made it seem fragile, lonely and strangely moving.
It was the first time he had sung in front of an audience since 1978, and he hasn't performed live since. Fittingly enough, the last words he sang were "I I gotta quit." And with that, he disappeared back into the shadows.
5. Pulp: Disco 2000 (1995)
Pulp seemed burst out of nowhere in the mid-1990s (though they had, in fact, been on the indie fringes since 1978). When they played Later in 1995, fresh from headlining that summer's Glastonbury festival, the band's transformation from perennial nearly-men to bona fide pop legends was complete. Enjoying his brief moment as a pin-up, Jarvis Cocker ditched his glasses and reigned in his gawky, angular dance moves for this cooler-than-cool performance.
6. Radiohead: The Bends (1995)
Thom Yorke gave an uncharacteristically sneering, punked-up performance for his first appearance on Later, all rough edges and raw energy. The band became a regular feature on Later as they evolved (their 2009 version of Paranoid Android is also well worth catching). Jools is clearly a fan: they are the only band to have been invited to be given two feature-length Later specials all to themselves (in 2001 and 2007).
7. Björk: So Broken (1998)
Scandi-pop met flamenco in Björk's fourth Later gig, in which the eccentric singer-songwriter teamed up with Spanish guitarist Raimundo Amador, wandering around barefoot as she sang. It's the kind of stripped-back performance that succeeds in making the Later set feel more like a cool jazz club than the souless TV production studio that it is.
8. At the Drive In: One Armed Scissor (2000)
A few older BBC Two viewers would certainly have been thrown into a tizzy by this sudden arrival of emo (remember emo?) on Later. Screaming like their lives depended on it, the Texas punk rockers seemed in danger of genuinely damaging the set, jumping around and flinging bits of furniture willy-nilly. A marmite performance, but undeniably a memorable one.
9. The White Stripes: Fell In Love with A Girl / Let's Shake Hands (2001)
If you want to know why John Peel called the White Stripes the most exciting live act since Hendrix, look no further than their Later debut. It starts off with their hit single at the time, Fell in Love with a Girl, but just one minute into the song Jack White decides he's had enough of it, and – after a raw, unhinged guitar solo – he ditches the song completely to play an obscure early track, Let's Shake Hands. It's The White Stripes at their wild, improvisatory best.
10. Patti Smith: Because the Night (2002)
Smith is one of those rare artists whose voice has only improved with age. The singer and poet showed it off to remarkable effect here, in her second appearance on the show, performing her biggest hit backed only by an acoustic guitar.
11. The Libertines: Up the Bracket (2002)
Proof that occasionally Later manages to capture the zeitgeist: The Libertines made their first appearance on the show little over a month after the release of their breakthrough single, Up the Bracket, and they gave it a raucous, energetic rendition here. It's the sound of the band at their peak, and they've rarely been more in tune with one another; over the following months, Pete Doherty's well-documented drug addiction (and his prickly relationship with fellow frontman Carl Barat) would create an insuperable divide within the band.
12. The Desert Sessions: I Wanna Make it Wit Chu (2003)
A smooth, slinky outing for Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme's side-project, a supergroup with a rotating cast of members. This time, he was paired with PJ Harvey, for a song of seduction so irresistibly cool he recorded it twice (later reworking it for his next Queens album).
13. Amy Winehouse: Stronger Than Me (2003)
Later gave Winehouse a platform from the very beginning - she made her debut just weeks after the release of her first album Frank. This rendition of Stronger Than Me not only introduced her voice to the world; it also proved that she was a nifty guitarist, to boot. Holland seemed to bond with the singer as a fellow jazzer, and in her introductory interview – in which they play a duet at a piano – she sounded charmed and at ease (unlike her more prickly conversations with less empathetic interviewers, later in her career).
14. KT Tunstall: Black Horse and a Cherry Tree (2004)
Oh, so that's what a loop pedal is for. This catchy, bluesy solo performance – in which Tunstall cleverly loops her own acoustic guitar over a background of infections handclaps – can be credited with launching her career. It was the beginning of an enduring relationship with the show: over the years, she returned for eight further sessions.
15. Arctic Monkeys: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (2005)
In an unprecedented move, Arctic Monkeys refused to appear on Top of the Pops when their debut single reached number one in the charts, snubbing the chance to lip-sync on that show in favour of a genuine live performance on Later. And what a performance: Alex Turner snarls his lyrics with untrammelled gusto.
16. Sigur Rós: Hoppipolla (2005)
Another song sadly ruined through overuse: it seems to be the go-to track for any TV producer looking to score an an "uplifting" segment on triumph over adversity. But back in 2005, these ethereal Reykjavík rockers were like an icy blast of fresh air.
17. Seasick Steve: Dog House (2006)
Unarguably the highlight of the 2006 New Year's Hootenanny. "I'd like to introduce my band here," quipped the bearded bluesman, sat alone on stage. He introduced us to "the Mississippi drum machine" a wooden crate, before launching into a powerful "three-string trance boogie". It's since transpired that his hobo backstory wasn't entirely true, but Seasick Steve is still a non pareil showman – and Later can be credited with kickstarting his career.
18. Grinderman: No Pussy Blues (2007)
Nick Cave's sideproject wasn't really a band, so much as a mid-life crisis, and a wickedly wry satire on the male ego. "My face is finished, my body's gone," he growled from beneath a Seventies porn-star 'tache. His spoken-word introduction felt like he was raising a mocking eyebrow at the Later crowd: "Standing up here in all this applause" (there wasn't any, yet), "and gazing down on the young and the beautiful with their questioning eyes..."
Yes, it's a one-note punk song, with a chorus that's just feedback and Cave screaming the word "Damn!". But it's also one of the funniest ballads to sexual frustration ever penned, performed here with an anxiously jiggling leg. "I sent her every type of flower/ I played guitar by the hour/ I petted her revolting little chihuahua,/ But still she just didn't want to." Damn!
19. Bon Iver: Skinny Love (2008)
While Nick Cave offered an ironic take on romantic desire, indie songwriter Justin Vernon tackled the same theme with heartbreaking sincerity. Strumming on a steel-bodied guitar, Vernon gave many TV viewers their first taste of the pained falsetto that would soundtrack a thousand teenage break-ups.
20. Camille O'Sullivan: In These Shoes (2008)
After a near-fatal car crash in 2009, architect Camille O'Sullivan decided to restart her life as a torch singer. By 2008, she was already a cult legend on the cabaret circuit, playing to sold-out crowds at the Edinburgh Fringe. After this funny, sexy performance of Kirsty MacColl's 2000 hit, Jools Holland invited her to hit the road with him, supporting his band on tour.
21. Wild Beasts: All the King's Men (2009)
From the outset, Wild Beasts sounded refreshingly different to every other indie band around. For this song from their debut album Limbo, Panto, regular frontman Hayden Thorpe was demoted to wordless, chanting backing vocals, allowing bandmate Tom Fleming to take the lead, hopping between a smooth baritone and howling falsetto, in this odd love-song to "girls from Hounslow, girls from Whitby".
22. Florence + The Machine: Dog Days are Over (2009)
Florence Welch's Later debut was impressive, but it was this second performance – at the 2009 Hootenanny – that her star potential really showed through. Taking the stage in a dazzling gold dress, she gave a full-throated, theatrical rendition of her second single that made it clear she was a major talent. Suddenly, the idea that her band would one day headline Glastnbury didn't seem so far-fetched.
23. Kanye West: New Slaves (2013)
"I know that we the new slaves/ I see the blood on the leaves." Accompanied by a grand piano, and the aching soul vocals of backing singer Charlie Wilson, West gave a tragic, haunting rendition of this 2013 track. Excellent camerawork (with West and Wilson framed in low light, their faces emerging from the darkness) made this a spine-tingling performance. It was hip-hop as high poetry.
24. Future Islands: Seasons (Waiting on You) (2014)
Future Islands frontman Samuel T Herring may look like a retired accountant, but he sings and dances like a wild animal. After his performance of Seasons on David Letterman's chat show went viral in early 2014, he was swiftly booked to perform it on Later, where his passionate vocals and idiosyncratic dance moves made viewers sit up and notice
25. Oumou Sangaré: Djoukourou (2017)
One of the strengths of Later is its enduring commitment to world music, championing less well known artists from Africa and South America alongside that week's chart-topping rockers. Oumou Sangaré is a case in point: the Malian Grammy-winner has been invited on the show no fewer than four times, and her funk-tinged vocals just seem to get better and better with each performance.
