Review from the Suffolk festival

She attracted 1,500 complaints for stripping naked in a career-defining appearance on Friday Night Live – but at Latitude, Jordan Gray proved she can be entertaining even with her clothes on.

Her banging showstopper would not have been out of place on the main Obelisk stage, frenetically clobbering away at her keyboard, her body at strange angles and her voice at full pelt. Not that she needs third-party validation of how gifted she is - that’s the lyrical point of Better Than You - and indeed her whole swaggering, vibrant ‘I’m so amazingly talented’ stage persona. 

She jokes that she’s ‘Russell Brand with tits’, and it’s not just down to the near-identical Essex accent - they share a similar charisma and showmanship, too.

That’s she’s trans is just one of her USPs – her chutzpah is arguably more important. There are jokes about, say, being a ‘sexual Swiss Army knife’ that utilise both and push the limits of mid-afternoon entertainment, even for an arty liberal festival.

Taking on the culture wars, she notes that the world ‘might have gone a bit mad on trans people’, which opens up into a song about the clickbait that lures the easily triggered gammon. 

More mainstream stuff includes the opening song about the gluten-intolerant, mildly bitch comments about 1990s stars on the wane and nostalgia for the four-colour pens of her youth. Mocking the lyrics of Sophie Ellis Bextor went down well, too, despite - or maybe because – Gray didn’t appear to know she was playing this festival. Or at least  didn’t mention it.

But all this pales in comparison to the proud, affirming celebration of herself that fizzes through this vibrant, barnstorming set.

Review date: 23 Jul 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett