G&T with Jamie T in the Ginglik

So, I’ve managed to talk a friend with T-Mobile to take me to a ‘street gig’ with Jamie T – at the rather intimate (boiling hot!) Ginglik Club (formerly a Victorian public convenience!) - Hurrah! She’s never even heard of Mr T or his minimalist, no frills approach to the performance ethic, but is happy enough to come see what I’ve been banging on about.

Tonight a cheeky, chatty Jamie is without his backing band (The Selfish Sons). Its just him on his stool at the front of the room, his music a hybrid of lo fi hip hop and folk (without samples or backing tapes). He, literally, lets his words do the talking* and leaves the articulate observant lyrics to cut their own way through the tiny claustrophobic room, painting rough verbal sketches of life lived at the edges. Or in Putney, as the case may be. A compelling combination of spoken songs (or is it sung poetry?) with a barely there backing of bass guitar, the verses practically trip over each other in an effort to get out and tell their bleak urban tales. All the while, deceptively cheerful rhyming couplets lend themselves to singalong choruses. The crowd holler along at appropriate moments.

He ends with biggest single so far, ‘Sheila’, and some more audience participation.

Altogether now:

“LAANDAHN!!!”



*I think the kids call it ‘flow’.