Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay looked totally different as he performed at Lytham Festival.
The 53 year old, who shot to fame alongside his band in the 1990s, took to the stage in a tracksuit and a trademark headdress for Wednesday night’s headline slot. The band earned a rapturous response from the crowd at the festival - held in the Lancashire town of Lytham St Annes - by belting out hits including Cosmic Girl, Love Foolosophy and Virtual Insanity.
Jay Kay, who was in a relationship with Denise Van Outen from 1998 until 2001, closed out the opening night of the event following performances from Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, and Stone Foundation. The Lancashire-born singer, real name Jason Luís Cheetham, made light of his time away from the spotlight and his age as their show began.
According to the Blackpool Gazette, he said: “I’m very excited to be here - hopefully this will stop people asking me ‘what’s happened to you?’ Seeing as I’m seven years off a bus pass, we’ll play some oldies.”
According to the Lancashire Evening Post, after finishing the set, Jay Kay added: “Lytham, you've been amazing. This is a lovely little festival.
“I hope you enjoy the next few nights. It's been great being in lovely Lancashire - I'm from here too."
Jamiroquai formed in 1992 and were prominent in the London-based funk and acid jazz movement of the 1990s. They went on to have three number one albums in the UK - Emergency on Planet Earth, Synkronized and A Funk Odyssey. Their 1998 single Deeper Underground was also number one in Britain.
They went on releasing records throughout the first decade of the 2000s but took a seven year break before putting out Automaton in 2017 - their eighth studio album. That year, Jay Kay was left 'unable to move' in hospital following painful spinal injections he had during the Automaton world tour.
At the time, he posted a video which showed him recovering in a hospital bed. Dressed in a white hospital gown, Jay Kay said: "I've just come out of the theatre where I had some stunningly painful injections to my spinal discs as it were."
Also in 2017, Jay Kay became locked in a bitter feud with singer Cheryl after he called the former X Factor judge "f*****g useless". Last year, meanwhile, his ex Denise Van Outen spilled the beans on their outrageous sex life.
The former couple met in 1998 when GQ Magazine asked Denise to interview the musician at Silverstone racetrack. They immediately hit it off and Jay invited Denise back to his house in Buckinghamshire.
Denise then ended up spending the whole weekend at Jay’s 11-bedroom house for their second date. But writing in her book A Bit of Me: From Basildon to Broadway and Back, she told how she was left scrabbling around for her underwear in the early hours of the morning, later realising Jay's pet dog had eaten them.
