V for veteran as city band get festival gig

Jon Short, aged 44, and 45-year-old Basil Hoult – aka karaoke band Rockaoke – will be rubbing shoulders at the V Festival with A-list performers including The Kooks, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, and Pink.

Even troubled songstress Amy Winehouse, and Pete Doherty’s band Babyshambles, are due to put in appearances – drug habits permitting – at the massive outdoor concert at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex.

Today Jon, a web designer and dad-of-three sons from Furness Road, High Green, said: “Both Basil and I are in our mid-40s and neither of us has ever even been to a festival, never mind played at one, so we are dead excited!

“Obviously, it is a great promotional opportunity for us and it should be great fun too. We are playing both Saturday and Sunday evenings in the Virgin Radio area. Other than that, we know nothing.”

The booking is the latest date in a whirlwind year for the covers backing band, a unique live karaoke outfit that lets members of the audience climb up on stage and become the group’s lead singer.

Last summer they landed a residency at Bar M in Ibiza – and were blown away when Ricky Wilson from The Kaiser Chiefs got up to sing one of his band’s biggest hits, I Predict A Riot.

Bass guitarist Jon and drummer Basil – a landscape gardener from Hawley Street in Sheffield city centre – are hoping to add even more big names to their list of co-stars this weekend.

Jon said: “We’re big fans of The Killers so it would be amazing if they sang with us, and our lead guitarist Danny Richardson – a 26-year-old guitar teacher from Leeds – is a massive fan of the Foo Fighters so he’s really excited.”

And Jon, who was in the year above lanky Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker at City School in Sheffield, is also hoping for a chance reunion with his old pal at the festival. Jarvis is scheduled to play a 40-minute set on the same stage as Primal Scream and Beverley Knight.

He said: “The last time I saw him was about five years ago at a school reunion. He was in the year below me but my wife was in same year and she was really big mates with him.”

Jon, whose band has a loyal Sheffield following from weekly gigs at city centre bar Walkabout on Carver Street, said: “All this success has just happened to us accidentally. It’s just started to work for us over the past 12 to 14 months.

“It’s so funny to see all the bands on TV, desperate to make it to V Festival, and here we are ready to go. I almost feel like a fraud.”