Since Jamie T postponed his Brizzle gig a few
months ago, the hype has grown and grown. With oodles of radio play and hit
after hit, the popularity of the rhyme-spouting Londoner is sky high. This leg
of his Kings & Queens tour sold
out months ago and the crowd is a mass of chatters and giggles fueled by cider (or
should that really be Stella?). Up steps the man of the moment to an
appreciative roar, somewhere between chav and mod in uniform of Adidas trainers
and anorak. He launches into classics like Salvador
with gusto, to showcase the newer stuff like Sticks ‘n’ Stones later.
To experience
Jamie Treays in the flesh is a heady mix of clever wordsmithery, swagger, charm
and guts, in equal doses. Often described as hip-hop, his live voice is brutal
and tunes are laced with ska; short of shouting “Oi! Oi!” and sporting a mohican,
Jamie T couldn’t be any more punk.
He’s as boisterous as his fans, jumping on the back of his bassist and spraying
lager all over the place. At one point he even encourages the crowd to make a
circle pit.
The mood mellows
with acoustic guitar and ukulele from his band, The Pacemakers. This can only be new single, Emily’s Heart; so stark and stripped it takes some getting used to.
At times he’s witty, introducing his band with: “Watch him, he’ll probably
sleep with ya mum”! But no sooner has he partaken in a bit of bright and breezy
banter, than he’s dragging us back to the dirty Laandaaan streets for Shelia, an anthem-and-a-half if ever we
heard one. It’s a shame that beauties like Calm
Down Dearest are missed out altogether, not that we’re given time to
notice; he’s on to the next, chanting “Stone,
glass, concrete and gravel/All we’ve got to keep us together”. Tonight it
seems we’ve got the music to keep us together, and man, is it strong.
