Image: Video Mat
He’s got tracks you can listen to over and over and never kill. For whatever reason, I always come back to Jamie T. Even when I thought I’d forgot about him, someone busted out If You Got The Money on a random one and the nostalgia slapped me in the face like a tasty mackerel. The news of his comeback after a five year hiatus was, quite literally, music to many a tab. A British singer-songwriter and producer, Jamie’s work is difficult to push into a labelled corner, as his sound is influenced by rock, ska and hip hop alike, lacing beats with a well-rounded, distinct voice of Cockney cheek.
For his sold-out headline gig, Jamie asked those with review tickets to make a five quid donation to a charity helping those affected by infant mortality – as if there weren’t already enough reasons to like the charming bleeder. Rock City was packed out from the word go, and kicking off for him were garage punk duo Slaves. In front of huge, spindly letters reading their band name stood a bloke on a simple floor tom/snare drum set up, and a convulsing guitarist who plucked different variations of his instrument from a well-stacked rack.
Throaty words of “I wanna sell my soul but I haven’t got a soul to sell” were proclaimed before the pair launched into heavy heartbeat rattlers. The simplicity of their set up was no reflection of their music's layers - a defiant and assured delivery with a ranting tone that doesn’t take itself too seriously. A racket of the highest order. At first, I struggled to see where the alignment was with our headliner but, after watching the guitarist’s ankles dance and twist with his earthy riffs, I kinda got it. Funky sods. Highlights were Where’s Your Car Debbie? and, after the guitarist shared his passion for brawling females, Girl Fight.
If the room was packed before, it was sardine central when Mr Treays rolled in, on time down to the second. Equipped with a cap and trusty guitar, he stood side by side with his new band – backing singers and all - while still retaining focus of himsen as the star. One of the tracks he fired up his set with was Don’t You Find, a step back from his signature youthful sound, focused more heavily on atmospheric wispy warbling with an underlying bounce he’ll probably (and hopefully) never put down.
The tracks from new album Carry on the Grudge are no doubt different from his earlier material -more of a wise chat over a pint of mild than his earlier tequila-induced skanks. His lyricism is more sophisticated, although the brimming room made it difficult to decipher them from Jamie himself - every word was sung back to him with a surge of “thanks for coming back to us”. An immense atmosphere – churning mosh pit, arms flailing in every direction, and collective harmony. They Told Me It Rained properly tugged on a few heart strings.
Starting with Salvador, Jamie wove his old tracks into his new material throughout his set with a polished delivery that made the crowd glow with teenage memories. The reaction to his new material was something in itself, but his old stuff oozed this incredible emotional charge. He hit the nail on the head with that token happy bop, leaning into his microphone like he was smooching a beautiful woman. Meanwhile, the crowd-surfers were plucked off one by one with massive grins on their faces, punching the air in triumph that they’d finally got to see our kid.
For the encore, he burst out with his anthem Sheila, followed his newer hit Zombie - proof he still has many hits left in him. With a seasoning of life experience, Jamie T has not just maintained his talent but honed it into songs that sit by his old material quite comfortably. The kid in me wants to hear more of that raw, old style, but the majority of me knows that it’s time to move on – that stuff was amazing, but in order to progress, we have to change.
Although he’s playing by different rules, Jamie T is well and truly back in the game. It just goes to show that no matter how long we go away for, we can always come back – even bigger and better than what we were in the first place.
This review is dedicated to my beautiful sister.
Jamie T and Slaves played Rock City on Tuesday 4 November 2014
Jamie T website
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