Beck gave British fans a first taste of his 2012 album ‘Song Reader‘ last night (July 4th) at a London Barbican gig, when he was joined by a host of special guests such as Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and members of Franz Ferdinand. Fan footage of a performance of ‘Rough On Rats‘, which closed the show, can be viewed below.
When first released last year, ‘Song Reader’ was merely a collection of twenty individual pieces of music, all at-the-time unrecorded and existing only in sheet music form. A portion of it was first brought to life in May when Beck played at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz, but yesterday’s show marked a more comprehensive unveiling of the LP, with other special guests including Beth Orton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Conor O’Brien and Michael Kiwanuka also invited along for the gig.
In addition, artwork exhibitions and amateur interpretations of the songs have been on display during the build-up to the concert itself.