T in the Park review: Beerjacket

SINGER-songwriter Beerjacket, or Peter Kelly to give him his Sunday name, suffered slightly from his early slot on the T Break stage, with a rather disappointing crowd turning up. To Kelly’s credit, he gave it his all - although one suspects that he would put in 100% whether he was playing to five or five thousand - at his first T in the Park appearance.

Beerjacket - T Break Stage

Rating: *****

Deciding to abandon his music career back in 2004, Kelly has released six albums since. A farewell show turned out to be the start of ‘Beerjacket’, to the benefit of the Scottish alt-folk scene. A rich yet fragile voice has drawn inevitable comparisons with the late Elliott Smith, but Kelly is more than a carbon copy of the American singer-songwriter. Songs such as the tender ‘Drum’ or ‘Ballads of the Book’ showcase not only Kelly’s guitar technique but his powerful voice.

For a man who has released six albums, 30 minutes seems almost too short to make an impact, but the crowd’s reception indicates that Beerjacket has done more than enough. Given that Kelly does his own PR, has no manager or publicist and, in his own words, has ‘no other band members to thank or blame.’

Kelly’s music is simple without being dumbed down, and this particular one-man band can expect to continue his rise to the top.