Jamie T

Liverpool Olympia 17.11.16

Words: Gary Lambert

Photos: Gaz Jones

Back in 2007 this particular writer heard Sheila by Jamie T and instantly wrote him off as a one-hit wonder who would be confined to indie disco singalong moments and quiz show questions. Nine years later, and no less than four albums and who knows how many people performed in front of, I got to see if this one-hit wonder was all that everybody had told me he would be.

As a translator between my older-than-I-actually-am self and The Yoof of Today, I had my cousin alongside me who had already purchased a ticket for this event when it was on sale first time around. His words as we entered Liverpool Olympia “you won’t get over how different each song sounds” were the first description of Jamie T that I have heard that made me start to think that maybe this prejudice needs to be prepared for defeat. He could not have been more spot on if he had been a pimple on the tip of a witch’s nose.  I stopped keeping track of the different moods and styles within Jamie T’s arsenal of tracks once I had been given hints of Abba, Kiss, and Blondie as well as the usual selection of The Clash, Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines. He even performed with an acoustic bass guitar during his encore.

By the time the night had reached the encore, I had moved from a sensible, serious reviewer to a man who was wishing that this was not the first time he had seen Jamie T.  I can’t remember the last time I went to a gig where I was disappointed that I didn’t know the words to sing with the rest of the crowd. Instead I treated those nearby to a rendition of the most fantastic selection of la, ra and na type noises as I kept up with the tunes as best I could. I was a bit let down in fact that Jamie T’s back catalogue had not seeped into the public consciousness enough to allow me to know more of the songs like The Beautiful South for anybody in the nineties.

The only song I did know, Sheila, was the one song I chose not to join in with.  This was too good an opportunity to see a band and fanbase together as one. In fact the fans were as exciting as the act on stage. Everybody knows of the ultra-style following of The Courteeners, but that seems more a rite of passage as The Courteeners audience does not seem to age unlike the rest of the world; yet the audience for Jamie T provided the same intensity and love but without the pyro and laddish behaviour. When the backdrop of Solomon Eagle by Paul Falconer Poole (the cover art for Trick) came up, the roar was a natural battle cry, a shout to raise the hearts of all those hearing it and strike fear into the enemy. When Sheila screams, the responsive screams of the pit and those standing up in every aisle of the upper tiers were deafening.  It was so giddying, I wanted to just jump up and down as I felt clueless as to how I wanted to act.

Such was the excitement of the Jamie T fans to see their hero, support act Baby Strange were able to play in front of a very healthy sized audience.  The thick Glaswegian accent of Johnny Madden obviously invoked thoughts of Glasvegas at their most crowd pleasing moments rather than say the darkness of Daddy’s Gone. With a cover of Young Folk to entertain those who desired songs that they know the words to, it was certainly a set which may not have got the pulse racing like the headliner, but did the opening job well.  I’ve got a feeling that this might have been a good tour for the band to be on to play in front of a wider audience and give them a taster of what the future might hold.  With their biggest headline slot to date coming up at the ABC in Glasgow in December, the future might be stranger than you think.

The night belonged to Jamie T, or in the words of thousands of Jamie T fans all night long “Jamie, Jamie, Jamie fuckin’ T”.

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