MikePadgett.com

Arthur H: L’Abondanse

— None too serious: Arthur H follows in the footsteps of his funny family.”

H, the son and nephew respectively of eccentric singers Jacques Higelin and Brigitte Fontaine, is something of a musical lacuna himself. Throughout the course of thirteen albums, the Frenchman has pinballed between jazz, rock, pop and disco and on L’Homme du Monde his latest effort he’s done all of them.

Looking like a cross between Joe Strummer and Lieutenant Columbo, H gangled onto the stage in a shiny gold jacket several sizes too small. He was the instantly recognisable comic book kid who dances at school discos with neither care nor co-ordination, looping through uncool and winding up cool. His rasping, chalky voice interrupted itself with a rabid, cartoon falsetto; his musical sense of humour often strayed into serious funk.

Despite occasional minor slips, H’s band was game enough to rise to the occasion. The bassist (as in double and guitar) and drummer were tight, keyboard and electric were inventive and effective. Though many in the crowd took time to “get” H, he managed to get two encores out of them.

And he was comfortable in his monologues, joking about Belgian liquidity, singing the Marseillaise and reentering the stage midway through the set in the superhero suit from his video for the shameless I Wanna Dance With Madonna. Arthur H clearly has the balls to experiment with pop, even if his costume shows them off a bit too much.