Jack Christopher Allsopp (born 1975), known by the stage name Just Jack, is an English musician from

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

, London. He first came to prominence with the release of his 2007 single " Starz in Their Eyes", which reached number two on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. He has also since been known for the songs "

Embers ''Embers'' is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957. First broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959, the play won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia awards later that year. Donald McWhinnie directed Jack ...

", peaking at number 17, and "

The Day I Died "The Day I Died" is the second single from electronic music artist Just Jack taken from his third studio album ''All Night Cinema''. It was released on 17 August 2009. The song made the Radio 1 A-list, and XFM B-list, before the single was offi ...

", which peaked at number 11, and the track "

Writer's Block Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...

Background

Born in Camden, Allsopp grew up listening to dance music including

breakdance Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...

, electro hip hop and

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

. An amateur breakdancer at eight, he started DJing at the age of 15 and he soon became submerged in DJ culture and UK garage. After completing a degree in furniture design at

Kingston University , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...

, he enrolled in a community music production course, so that he could better his awareness of sampling and its potential for use. He went on to practice on perfecting his sound by night and to take on a series of jobs by day.

Career

Allsopp's debut album, titled ''

The Outer Marker ''The Outer Marker'' is the debut album by the British recording artist Just Jack Jack Christopher Allsopp (born 1975), known by the stage name Just Jack, is an English musician from Camden Town, London. He first came to prominence with the ...

'', released in 2002 by the independent label RGR Records, was a collection of songs about modern life, relationships, and the pressures of social situations. The album spawned three singles "Paradise (Lost & Found)", "Snowflakes" and "Triple Tone Eyes". "Snowflakes", his first song to enter the charts at number 164, samples The Cure's song "

Lullaby A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowled ...

" from their album '' Disintegration''. He did not gain fame until 2007, following his TV debut on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's '' Later... with Jools Holland'', and then on the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

show ''

The Friday Night Project ''The Sunday Night Project'' is a British comedy-variety show by Princess Productions that first aired on Channel 4 in February 2005 under the title ''The Friday Night Project''. Originally broadcast on Friday nights, the show moved to Sunday n ...

'', where he performed the single " Starz in Their Eyes", which reached number two in the

. The following three singles from the album ''

Overtones An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. (An overtone may or may not be a harmonic) In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental i ...

'', " Glory Days", "

" and " No Time" did not make the top thirty. "Starz In Their Eyes" was also featured in the

Dolce & Gabbana Dolce & Gabbana (), also known by initials D&G, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1985 in Legnano by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. The house specializes in ready-to-wear, handbags, accessories, and cosmetic ...

Summer 2008 fashion show, and the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

Kinect Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flig ...

game ''

Kinect Sports ''Kinect Sports'' is a sports video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. The game utilizes the Kinect motion-sensing peripheral and was released in North America on 4 November 2010 as a launch title ...

''. He also collaborated with

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

on the song "I Talk Too Much", for the American release of ''Overtones''. Allsopp performed at

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

, V Festival and

T4 on the Beach T4 on the Beach was an annual British one-day music event which was held on the beach at Weston-super-Mare and televised on Channel 4. The event began in 2003 as Pop Beach in Great Yarmouth, changing to the current title and venue in 2005. The d ...

in 2007 and again at

in 2009. He also performed at Guilfest in 2010. He released his third album ''All Night Cinema'' on 31 August 2009, preceded by its first single "

", which had its premiere on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

on 12 January 2009, and second single "

", which became Jack's second highest charting single on the

, peaking at number 11. Both singles peaked inside the top 20. The original choice for second single was "Doctor Doctor" but the single release was subsequently postponed. In August 2011, Jack announced on Facebook "So close to finishing a 5 track EP. Just need to find a home for it..." Though later didn't feel like the final track was completed, he released a statement in November 2011 saying "A bit of background info... As some of you will know I recently finished a 4-track EP of new songs. It was going to be 5, but the last song didn't feel properly finished and didn't really work with the others. I'll save it for a later date. Most of the music was recorded at home and, for the first time, I mixed the songs myself. They are a little lo-fi and intentionally not 'radio' or 'singles'. I tried to make them sound warm and natural and intimate, basically the kind of music I would listen to myself. I haven't found a label to put them out through yet, but I wanted you to hear them anyway. The first will be up on Monday (for a few days) via a link to my Soundcloud, and the others will go up on the following 3 Mondays. Over and out." This 4-track EP was later titled ''Rough/Ready'' and made available as a free download on 17 April 2012 through the newly designed official Just Jack website. In September 2014, Allsopp released a new EP titled ''Winning EP''. A third EP titled ''Life Lessons'' was released on 6 May 2016 through

The Rocket Record Company The Rocket Record Company was a record label founded by Elton John, along with Bernie Taupin, Gus Dudgeon, Steve Brown and others, in 1973. The company was named after the hit song " Rocket Man". The label was originally distributed in the ...

, his first album on a label since 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2016 He went on to release his fourth album, “What We Did Today” on 27 October in 2017. On 20 September 2019, he released a 7-track EP called ''Laughing & Crying'' which contained four new originals and three acoustic covers.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Notes

References

External links

Just Jack Official Website

Just Jack Facebook

Just Jack Instagram

Just Jack Twitter

Just Jack interview at mychemicaltoilet.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Just Jack TVT Records artists English dance musicians English male singers English pop singers English electronic musicians Living people Singers from London 1975 births