Jack White brought an early festival atmosphere to London with an impromptu gig celebrating the release of his latest solo album.
The rock star, 42, made a veiled slight at US President Donald Trump as he gave around 350 fans a surprise performance in the courtyard of a 17th-century coaching inn in London Bridge on Wednesday afternoon.
Taking to the stage at The George Inn just hours after the free gig was announced, White performed a number of tracks from his third solo record, Boarding House Reach, released last week, including Over And Over And Over – a song 13 years in the making – and Corporation.
“They want us to stop right now,” he said to jeers from the crowd 30 minutes into his set.
“I had a feeling if I told you that I would get a negative reaction … I salute your negative reaction and I agree with your negative reaction,” he added before rolling back the years with The White Stripes’ hits Fell In Love With A Girl and Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.
At one point, the US rocker made a veiled slight towards President Trump with a joke about the Republican’s alleged ties to Russia.
White has previously sold Icky Trump t-shirts, a play on the name of the final White Stripes album and last week told the Scottish Sun the President “symbolises everything that’s bad right now, especially in America”.
Referring to the Trump-inspired track Corporation, he added: “Corporation may be a household word in the house he grew up in, whereas in the houses most Americans grew up, that’s a pipe dream. You can’t just start a corporation.
“I thought it would be funny for someone on the street to be walking and talking to his friends and saying, ‘Hey, let’s start a corporation’. It’s hard enough for someone in America just to open a corner store or a liquor store.”
The surprise gig comes after White announced three performances at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in June.