Jack Lukeman

Cutting his teeth on the bohemian busking circuit around Europe Jack Lukeman first came to prominence in the summer of 1995 when he and The Black Romantics took up a residence at The Da Club (Dublin Arts Club) in Dublin. The band played mostly Jacques Brel songs, with one or two of Jack’s own, and recorded the album Wax in 1995.

His first solo album, released in 1999, called Metropolis Blue was universally lauded and went platinum in Ireland. John Walshe of Hot Press magazine states “Lukeman’s voice is powerful and fluid. His range too is impressive, from the deep baritone resonance of ‘When The Moon Is High’ to the aching falsetto of the magnificent ‘Rooftop Lullaby’ … this is a timeless collection of fine songs, beautifully delivered, from an artist as unique as Ireland has ever produced”.

This was followed in 2001 by the album Universe; Hotpress’ John Walshe had the following to say, “… it is as if his older albums were made in black and white and Universe has been recorded in glorious technicolour”. 2006 saw the release of ‘Broken Songs’,with such classics as Open your borders, many quoted Broken Songs Jack’s best album yet.

It was closely followed by ‘Burn On’ in 2008 featuring the songs of the great Randy Newman. In 2009, Jack released hi ‘milestone’ album ‘The Story So Far’ featuring many unreleased tracks and live recordings.
Lukeman has appeared with Nick Cave and writer Patrick McCabe in a series of performances mixing spoken word, poetry reading and song. His powerfully expressive vocals have been compared to such disparate types as David Bowie, Tom Waits, and Frank Sinatra.

In 2010, Jack performed a ‘Month of Mondays’ at the Spiegel tent in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Theatre Festival where he received a host of 5 Star reviews. And spotlight best music award. 2011 saw Jack taking to the airwaves with a 26 part series on lyric and radio 1 called High Fidelity the history of song. Scrolling forward the focus has had to switch from mainly concentrating on the Irish market when he is asked to open across 20+ shows with Imelda May in the UK. That was quickly followed by numerous small headline shows across the UK. His indefinable style then lead him to be asked to do opening slots for Neil Sedaka (6 shows) Hazel O Connor (6 shows) The Stylistics (6 shows) Graham Gouldman (10 shows) Jools Holland (10 shows) all in 2017 in the UK and not forgetting opening for Placebo and Aerosmith in Florence.

Jack wasn’t home much last year ..2018 continues in the same vein, following two sold out shows in Dublin’s National Concert hall he will be playing two shows at Vicar Street in Dublin along with numerous shows around Ireland. At the end of this year he has been selected to open on the long awaited Proclaimer’s UK tour currently (approx 40 shows)
The current album Magic Days is indeed a good indication of what Jack is experiencing.