DAVID BURKE
Joe Jackson doesn’t strike you as someone who’s all that bothered about anniversaries, preferring to remain in the present rather than return to the past. But 40 years after his debut album, Look Sharp!, perceptively described by eminent critic Greil Marcus as “clean, fresh and just a bit mean”, he’s decided to indulge himself in a spot of nostalgia – on his own terms, of course.
Firstly, there’s a rather brilliant new release, Fool, followed by a spring tour that will mine five albums – each representing a decade – for material. He’s also promised to “throw in a couple of songs from other albums and some new covers”. Jackson explains: “When I realised that it was going to be 40 years since the first album, I didn’t really know what to do because it was shocking.