Mystery Jets, Jamie T - Forum, Tunbridge Wells - Friday 2nd December 2005

A welcome, and long overdue return to Tunbridge Wells Forum, a mainstay of my weekend activity when I was 16. The place is a godsend to a town like Tunbridge Wells, run by a group of guys that very much do it for love as opposed to money. The place perennially struggles to break even, but is one of those places that must be helped to survive.

Their website front page gives an idea of the artists that have played there in their early careers - places like this give a leg up to so many deserving artists. They also prevent people growing up in places like Tunbridge Wells from getting too depressed at the lack of alternative culture there.

A group of about 20 of us descended on the 200-capacity venue to have a few drinks, and also to watch the Mystery Jets. They will be first on the bill at next year's NME Tour, so we all thought they would be worth a look in a much, much smaller venue. The Forum has changed little, if at all, from the time I last went - very comforting to see.

Right down to the groups of kids hanging around outside, trying to get in. Now that licencing laws prohibit under 16s being in a room with drunk adults, and given that the Forum is far too small to have any more than one room, under 16s are officially not allowed in without an adult. So, I became a responsible adult for 5 minutes, to blag a couple of 14-year-olds in to be ale to see the gig.

Jamie-T was the support artist, somebody I'd never heard before. For me, he was the undoubted highlight of the evening. Just one guy on stage alone, strumming an acoustic bass guitar, and singing/talking/rapping over the top. His guitar style was reminiscent of Willy Mason, but the words were far more like Mike Skinner. An interesting, and downright excellent combination.

Spent some of Jamie's set talking to the drummer from the Mystery Jets (you can do that sort of thing at TW Forum), who was a really nice guy, albeit very tired as he came to the end of a month-long tour.

The Mystery Jets started very strongly, playing the one song of theirs I knew early on. From about 20 minutes in, though, I though they started to falter a bit - the set got bogged down in some overly long songs, with strange instrumental parts. All picked up towards the end for a great finish, but I though they'd lost too much energy in the middle of the set. Still, I will definitely get to the NME Awards Tour gig early to catch them again.

A review of the gig from Artrocker is here.