Songkick want Jai Paul to perform live as much as you do
Last week Songkick sent out an email with “Do You Want To See Jai Paul Live?” in the subject line, which to many is a question that ranks around the same level as a question like “Would You Fancy A Trip To The Moon?”, or “Would You Like To Go Clothes Shopping With Zomby?” in the “duh” stakes.
The email was drumming up promotion for the site’s recently launched offshoot Detour, a ‘Kickstarter for gigs’-style system in which fans can pledge money towards a ticket for an artist they’d love to see play in the UK. If enough tickets are pledged, then Songkick will go about making the gig a reality with a promoter – and fans will only be charged if their pledge is successful. So far, Detour’s victories including bring Portland indie rockers The Thermals and cellist and composer Zoë Keating (no relation to Ronan) to the capital.
It feels like much of the time and energy dedicated to Jai Paul has been so focused on desiring for new music that few have stopped to ponder what a Jai gig might look like. Granted, from what little is genuinely known about the King Of Rayners Lane he doesn’t really come off as the type who’d be itching to get out on tour. So far the Jai Paul campaign stands at 69 pledged tickets. While you sense there might need to be a couple of zeros slapped on that figure before there was even an outside chance of this becoming a reality, crazier things have happened (like Jai’s laptop allegedly being stolen and an album of demos ending up online against his knowledge, for example).
Of course, there’s always the outside chance that Jai’s behind all of this himself. But as there’ll be no money taken out of your pocket if the gig doesn’t come to fruition, it could well be worth throwing your weight behind: you just never know. You can pledge a tickets here.
