The Jaded Hearts Club are a new band featuring frontmen Nic Cester (Jet) and Miles Kane (The Last Shadow Puppets), guitarists Graham Coxon (Blur) and Jamie Davis, plus Matt Bellamy (Muse) on bass and drummer Sean Payne (The Zutons). 

The group has shared their video for “We’ll Meet Again/Reach Out I’ll Be There,” which features Bellamy’s vocals on the Vera Lynn classic “We’ll Meet Again,” and Nic Cester lending his growling rock vocals to the Four Tops’ legendary 60’s Motown track “Reach out I’ll Be There.” The Jaded Hearts Club have also announced that they will be releasing their debut album, You’ve Always Been Here, on October 2nd via Helium-3/BMG/Infectious Music. Fans can pre-order the album from The Jaded Hearts Club’s official store.

Davis elaborates on the idea behind the video: “We were due to play a short UK tour in the spring, which didn’t happen due to lockdown – so we were all searching for something to feel good about and a way to connect musically – we needed a ray of sunshine.” 

Bellamy adds: “Jamie and I were FaceTiming a lot discussing how or even if we could carry on during lockdown, and we kept sending each other links to song ideas.  We eventually stumbled across the legendary live performance ‘Reach Out’ by The Four Tops in Paris in 1967 which touched a deep nerve. It was pure joy, and uplifting energy – exactly what we needed to hear during the darkest initial few weeks of lockdown so we decided to try and do a cover of it somehow with our band members spread across 3 countries.”  

So they started work on the track. Producer and bass player Bellamy got the track going with a bass groove, an Ennio Morricone-style intro and some orchestration, then passed it onto fellow Muse member Dom Howard who recorded drums outdoors on a mountain in Hollywood.  From there it was passed on to Coxon in London who added some angular guitar work, then on to Cester in Italy for lead vocals.  Bellamy & Cester shared backing vocal duties… Bellamy: “I couldn’t believe how complex the Backings vocals were! It was like Queen with diminished and classical harmonies plus emotional gospel notes bending added so it took a while to work it out.” 

Cester was living in Milan (Italy being the first place really hit badly with lockdown measures) and he was stuck in a small apartment with his family. The streets were heavily policed, not letting anyone out for even a walk.  When he finally got to the studio to record his vocal, he condensed all of that emotion into his performance.  Cester: “It was inspiring seeing all of these performances happening on balconies across Milan. It really lifted people’s spirits, so while both recording the vocals  & making the video we wanted to capture some of that unique moment in history.”