Jamie T - Islington Academy, London - Wednesday 17th January 2007

The second free gig this week, this time thanks to XFM. I first saw Jamie T all the way back at the end of 2005, which seems like a bloomin' long time ago now. Back then, I thought that he upstaged the Mystery Jets, who he was supporting that night.

He has had a fairly quiet year since then, but now his album Panic Prevention is a week away from release, and is being touted as one of the potentially very big releases of 2007. Those that have heard it swear that this will be a huge mainstream crossover album, and are expecting the world to be surprised by how successful it becomes. Must be OK then, unless Virgin are spending their huge marketing budget in the mere hope of making it so.

Jamie T (and his band called the Pacemakers - hasn't there been a backing band called that before?) came on stage just before 9pm, and went straight into the opening track from their album, Brand New Bass Guitar. The audience, most of whom were lovely and white and middle class, but with a few chavs in evidence, seemed to approve. Jamie seemed to be playing up to them, and there was definitely a very enthusiastic hardcore at the front, constantly jumping around.

Obvious highlights of the set were the singles - Sheila, If You Got The Money, and new one Calm Down Dearest, as well as set closer Salvador. The recorded versions of each of these were familiar to me, and in most cases the live versions sounded even better - very mental and manic. Many of the less familiar songs sounded like lots of fast guitars with shouting over the top, but then the songs I knew would have sounded like that had I not previously known the well-produced and recorded versions. So I suspect that, when I am more familiar with the rest of the album, that I'd really like to see the songs again in a live setting.

Overall I really enjoyed the set. Many of the songs are pretty chaotic live, so it definitely helps if you know the recorded versions, so at least you can follow what is going on in all the live chaos! I suspect that the album tracks, if there are hopes of mainstream success, sound significantly different, probably quite a bit slower, and they probably make a better job of showcasing the very clever lyrics that many Jamie T songs have. But a great show, a UK tour to come, and I suspect that the album will be one of the first highlights of 2007.