This is a bit of all White

Jack White of the White Stripes forms a new band and does it all over again.

One of rock's most restless creative spirits has already acted in the film Cold Mountain, formed a record label, produced an album for country star Loretta Lynn and last year got married to Bolton-born supermodel Karen Elson in a canoe in the middle of the Amazon.

Now 30-year-old White has found time to form the dreaded side-project, most often a byword for obtuse self-indulgence.

The Raconteurs are a four-piece band (plus touring keyboard player Dean Fertita) consisting of those on the Detroit music scene with whom White has not fallen out since his huge success.

Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler of the Greenhornes form the rhythm section, while White cowrites songs and shares vocals with guitarist Brendan Benson, of whose solo work White has long been a noisy supporter.

Will they become even bigger than their source, like Damon Albarn's Gorillaz, or flop with the precision of David Bowie's Tin Machine?

On the evidence of this debut London show they are good, very good indeed, but it will be surprising if they become anything more than a momentary break from the day job.

Many have already speculated that the limits White places on his work with the White Stripes (clothes only in red, white and black, prehistoric recording procedures, two musicians playing just guitar and drums) would eventually stifle a man of his vast talent.

His brown shoes seemed to symbolise a break for freedom, but there were other restrictions.

Songs such as Hands and Together had more in common with the breezy pop-rock of Benson's past work, with little room for the squalling guitar virtuosity that characterises a White Stripes show, although White still crammed some extraordinary fretwork into the supine groove of Level and the punk aggression of 5 On The 5.

He also had a setlist when usually lightning spontaneity provides much of the thrill.

Whereas his inspiration for the White Stripes came from Twenties bluesmen who spent too much time at crossroads, the Raconteurs have a mid-Sixties feel.

Great as it was, it was not an especially original sound, just as the band also looked like thousands of others.

Here White was just another rock star, which he seemed thrilled about.

When he is ready, hopefully he will return to being the outstanding rock star of his generation.

The Raconteurs