By Eleanor Davies
Most bands nowadays, you will discover, have been plugging away trying to break into the music industry for years, often with little success.
But with the recent recession and loss of jobs everywhere there was never a better time to live the dream – and raise spirits – by forming a band.
One person who took advantage of this was Jack Kendall, lead singer of Essex based band The Coverup.
“The band is made up of five people,” he tells me. “There’s me, who is the lead singer, Neil Reed on guitar, Roberto Deliperi on bass, Alex Stewart the drummer and Joe Green the saxophone player.
“It came about when I got laid off from my job as a scaffolder a little while ago, I was getting short of money and spoke to Neil and he said why don’t we start a band, so we all got together and just clicked and we haven’t looked back since.”
Indeed, now the band play gigs at least five times a week in venues across the county, including at pubs, parties, weddings and even funerals.
“The strangest/most awkward place we have been asked to perform was at a funeral, they wanted us to play ‘House of Fun’ by Madness, whatever floats your boat!” he laughs.
Calling themselves a Rock/Ska/Indie/Punk band they have plenty of experience in their field, Jack has been ‘singing since I could talk’ and saxophonist Joe is the nephew of ex Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.
Yet despite being seasoned musicians they don’t perform their own material and prefer to do covers of UB40, Madness, The Jam, Small Faces and Bad Manners, as Jack explains.
“We’ve got a couple of our own songs, Neil writes tracks but he’s not very confident about them so won’t let us perform them and Joe writes some too but at the moment we just sing covers.
“For us it’s just about entertaining people and seeing people happy is the best thing about performing,” says the 26 year-old.
And they have no shortage of audience members waiting to see them sing live, with the next gigs including The Chequers in Billericay on 30 September and The Owl and the Pussycat in Basildon on 25 September.
“People can expect a loud, good time, we’re not perfect but it’s about having a good time,” says the father-of-two.
“It’s our last clutch really, well it is for Joe anyway,” he laughs.
For more information on the Coverup and their upcoming gigs across Essex, go to: www.thecoverup.co.uk