One of their most well-known tunes, the indie anthem “Valerie” was written while the Zutons were touring in Florida, after frontman Dave McCabe met a makeup artist named Valerie Star, who was undergoing legal troubles, referenced in the lyrics “Did you have to go to jail? Put your house up for sale? Did you get a good lawyer?”

On producing the seminal Winehouse cover, Mark Ronson told The Guardian “Valerie was a song Amy loved whenever they played it at her local. We cut a slowed-down version that got the cool, Stonesy swagger. But just as we were packing up, I said: “Guys, you’ll want to kill me, but could we do just another version with a Motown backbeat?”

Speaking with The Independent, Singer McCabe recalls meeting Amy for the first time at a house party in Camden – upon telling a drunken guest to stop bothering him, Amy jumped to the defence of the hanger-on, who was her friend. Both McCabe and Winehouse told each other to “f**k off”, with McAbe storming out of the party, before realizing he had no way to get back home.

Amy then ran out of the party after McCabe, telling him “Come back! I love that song “Valerie”! I didn’t realise it was you who wrote that!’ They then went back to the party on better terms, and the next thing they know Amy had made a cover of their song.

Similarly to Winehouse, the Zutons singer has been in the throes of substance abuse – now sober, he attributes his bands inactivity partly to his former habits: “I was in a world of drug addiction, basically – for a f***ing long time! I had a lot of fun. But then, you know, it got the better of me. And it wasn’t fun anymore. And I started to realise I couldn’t really function outside of that.”

Winehouse and Ronson’s version of “Valerie” was an international hit, reaching the top 40 in multiple countries. When Winehouse passed in 2011, the song caught a second wind of success – McCabe remembers people tastelessly texting him money emojis upon the news of her untimely demise.

17 years after Amy Winehouse covered their song ‘Valerie’, The Zutons have premiered a cover of the late singer’s huge anthem ‘Back to Black’

Watch the video here https://t.co/ONwYw3Op6w

— Absolute Radio (@absoluteradio) December 6, 2024

In an interview with NME, the band said of the cover: “We’ve always been proud of how Amy made ‘Valerie’ her own, and to have the opportunity to honour her in this way feels really special.”

The Zutons are currently on tour supporting singer-songwriter Paul Heaton and have their own UK headline tour scheduled for spring. Tickets are available here.

The new album, You’ve Always Been Here, comprises of 11 covers, from Matt Bellamy’s fragment of ‘We’ll Meet Again’ to the wall of sound that is ‘Love’s Gone Bad’. The group carries Northern Soul into a new dimension, full of electric guitars, feedback, and the combined talent of musicians at the very top of their game.

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YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE IS OUT NOW We hope you all love it! Grateful for all your support up until this moment. Buy your copy of #YouveAlwaysBeenHere through the link in our bio!

A post shared by The Jaded Hearts Club (@thejadedheartsclub) on Oct 2, 2020 at 1:45am PDT

In case you missed it, The Jaded Hearts Club are a supergroup in every single sense of the word. They have the most stellar line-up – Miles Kane (The Last Shadow Puppets) and Nic Cester (Jet) as joint frontmen, Graham Coxon (Blur) and Jamie Davis playing guitar, Matt Bellamy (Muse) on bass and Sean Payne (the Zutons) as the drummer. Sometimes Abi Harding (The Zutons) joins them on the saxophone.

To prove it, The Jaded Hearts Club released a series of singles leading up to this release: ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ (see below), ‘This Love Starved Heart Of Mine (It’s Killing Me)’ and ‘Love’s Gone Bad’. It seems fair to say that all the energy and glamour of The Jaded Hearts Club is found among these three singles; while the rest of the album tracks are exciting, they don’t have the explosive enthusiasm of their early singles. They come with energetic, lockdown-appropriate, black-and-white music videos, and Matt Bellamy in different but equally intriguing Rule Britannia-esque accessories. It’s all very, very cool.

Following these, You’ve Always Been Here has the best intentions in the world. The band’s desire to reinvent Northern Soul is overpowering and infectious, and you can sense how eager they were to find out what their combined talents could do. A lot, is the answer. Sometimes it completely hits the mark. Sometimes, though, it falls flat, stripping the covers of their unique qualities, leaving behind something that is undeniably very talented, but a little soulless.

Ultimately the album is technically impressive, but it wants for a sense of cohesion. In many ways so does the group themselves; the six (sometimes seven) strong and talented personalities sort of blur together. There is absolutely no doubt that this group could tackle any song in the world with spades of ability, but You’ve Always Been Here could probably have done with a bit more of a story. The Jaded Hearts Club are easily the greatest cover band in the world, but we don’t quite know what makes them tick.

All three of the album’s singles are particular highlights, as are Nic Cester’s ‘Long and Lonesome Road’ and ‘I Put a Spell on You’. To my mind, this is the version of the line-up which delivers the most. Nic Cester doing the vocals, accompanied by powerful percussion and the familiar wind instruments of Northern Soul feels like the group’s greatest strength – and where they’re strong, they’re unstoppable.

Since 2017, the group have shared powerful, covers of everything from the Beatles (their starting point) to The Isley Brothers. According to Rough Trade, Davis wanted a Beatles band to play for his birthday. He’s quoted as saying: “I knew a bunch of 1/2 decent musician friends so I asked if they’d form an early ‘60s Beatles band. Everyone had such a good time that we decided to do it again.” Their website declares that they “have been described as the ultimate Beatles cover band.”

Surely, in one of those dream dinner party games (six people on your ideal dinner table, dead or alive, you know the drill) you couldn’t come up with a better line-up. What we really want from The Jaded Hearts Club, though, is a bit of purpose – we all know that there’s a niche for them in this current moment, but none of us know why. When they do show us exactly what 21^st century Northern Soul can do, it’s completely unforgettable.

Taking place in Warrington’s Victoria Park from 28th-30th May next year, the line-up for the new day will include headliner Gerry Cinnamon, Circa Waves, The Zutons, Jade Bird, and Orla Gartland. To obtain tickets, head to the official website on Friday 11th September from 9.30am (BST). If fans have already purchased weekend tickets prior to Sunday 6th September, they are eligible to gain exclusive access to tickets from today.

For the first time ever #NBHDWKND21 will expand across 3 days with a huge main stage Friday eve lineup including @GerryCinnamon @CircaWaves @ZutonsThe @jadebird & @orlagartland

If you’ve already purchased a weekend ticket you will have exclusive access to the pre-sale! pic.twitter.com/jwj3LjM2A3

— NBHD Weekender (@nbhdweekender) September 7, 2020

Alongside the new acts, the festival will also see the likes of Ian Brown, Sam Fender, and Easy Life on Saturday, and Catfish and the Bottlemen, The Wombats, Tom Walker, Sea Girls, and Sports Team on Sunday. Indie-rock band Circa Waves commented, “We will be playing Neighbourhood Weekender May 2021!! We can’t wait to be playing live again!!”

We will be playing @nbhdweekender May 2021!! We can’t wait to be playing live again!! pic.twitter.com/wcsjunjYuj

— (@CircaWaves) September 7, 2020

The 2020 festival was sadly cancelled in just its third year due to Covid-19 guidelines, so bands, fans, and organisers are all incredibly excited to begin holding live shows again. Organisers released a statement which said, “We are delighted that the vast majority of artists playing at the festival have confirmed they will return. Everyone involved in the festival and the artists that are playing are working really hard to give you the festival you wanted.”

Neighbourhood Weekender Festival began in 2018 in Warrington as an expansion of Manchester’s festal of the same name. Past years have seen acts such as George Ezra, Primal Scream, and Richard Ashcroft.

Supergroup is absolutely the right term for the combined talent of Miles Kane (The Last Shadow Puppets) and Nic Cester (Jet) as joint frontmen, Graham Coxon (Blur) and Jamie Davis playing guitar, Matt Bellamy (Muse) on bass and Sean Payne (the Zutons) as the drummer. Sometimes Abi Harding (The Zutons) joins them on the saxophone. Musically, they are as fantastic as you’d hope – Kane and Cester have different but extremely powerful voices, and the rest of the band make their instruments look and sound like a natural extension of themselves.

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OCTOBER 2ND. PRE-ORDER NOW YouveAlwaysBeenHere link in bio.

A post shared by The Jaded Hearts Club (@thejadedheartsclub) on Aug 17, 2020 at 5:10am PDT

Currently, we’ve only seen the group publish covers – mainly incredible, stripped back, guitar-based versions of Northern soul classics. There is rumour of original music, and they play all sorts at their infamous live shows, but it doesn’t look like any of this will feature on their debut album. For now, having the band re-invigorate Northern soul classics is more than good enough! The singles they’ve released in 2020 include versions of ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ (July), ‘This Love Starved Heart of Mine (It’s Killing Me)’ (April) and short little version of ‘We’ll Meet Again’, sung by Matt Bellamy.

Regarding their newest track, Kane called it: “‘Love’s Gone Bad’, a rare northern soul stomper that we dug from the underground. We beefed it up and gave it golden wings with matching loafers! Be prepared to dance!” 

The video is so cool – it’s all in black and white, set in London’s Moth Club, and Matt Bellamy is wearing heart-shaped sunglasses. It’ll have you dancing, spinning, and probably online shopping for loafers and corduroy trousers. Mainly it’s Kane dancing with a partner. The other band members do show up though, playing their instruments while Kane and his partner leap about, spectacularly in time with each other. Although, of course, The Jaded Hearts Club offer a rock-based take on Northern soul, the video is very much in the spirit of the 1960s dancehalls where the genre really took off.

The group formed in 2017. According to Rough Trade, Davis wanted a Beatles band to play for his birthday, and he’s quoted as saying: “I knew a bunch of 1/2 decent musician friends so I asked if they’d form an early ‘60s Beatles band. Everyone had such a good time that we decided to do it again.” In 2019 they recorded a live album at London’s iconic ‘The 100 Club’. Their website declares that they “have been described as the ultimate Beatles cover band.”

It’s not so long to wait for their album now – but you should know that the 12” version, on marble patterned vinyl, is already sold out for pre-orders! The Jaded Hearts Club are so fantastically energetic, even these three-minute videos feel like a true taste of what they’re like live. Hopefully there will be more of that to come, following the release of You’ve Always Been Here.

Recognised as the key figure in founding a number of Liverpudlian bands including The Zutons, The Coral and multiple Miles Kane projects, Wills died last night after suffering severe head injuries as a result of a road incident that occurred on Thursday evening.

The founder of Deltasonic Records, Wills had first made his name as the drummer in Shack and Top before going to set up his own, Liverpool-based record company. Having worked with plenty of musicians on the Liverpool scene since setting up the label in a venture with Sony, Wills helped bring some of Liverpool’s finest young musicians into the wider consciousness and made The Coral into such a high profile band.

Wills was involved in a road crash on Thursday at approximately 8.30pm on East Prescot Road in the Page Moss area of Liverpool and passed away from the injuries suffered on the evening of Sunday 11th May.

Police are are appealing to anyone with information on the crash to come forward and contact them. Those with information can call Merseyside Police on 0151 777 5747 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.