Jamie T - Rock City, Nottingham, January 19th 2010 Live Review 2010

Review of Jamie T live at Rock City in Nottingham on January 19th 2010

It's not often that you see any biggish gigs around at the start of the year. Everyone is skint after buying loved ones over priced presents that they don't even want. Jamie T however didn't plan this. Having had to cancel most of his November tour due to illness which boosted on paper a 'Sell Out' tour, January was the month of the rescheduled show for Rock City at Nottingham.

So on a Tuesday Night in the new decade of..

..the tens? Already running late it's time to walk up those sticky stairs up to the main room of Rock City, but the surprise is that it is a bit too easy to get a beer and around the bar areas on the sides of the venue it is actually quite empty. Maybe some people just didn't send their tickets back from the gig being rescheduled.

Anyhow, tonight is all about the return of Jamie T, the return of a man who unlike many smashed out a second album that was equal if not better than his debut. Yet many have dismissed or overlooked this fact.

With only two albums out Jamie T continues to accumulate a brilliant back catalogue of tunes, which could hinder you on what to choose from for the live shows. Mr T and The Selfish Sons seem unfazed as they take to the stage and kick the night off with 'Salvador'. On this alone Jamie T looks and sounds rejuvenated and it seems that postponing this show was the right thing to do. 'Ike And Tina' sounds just as fresh as the first time that you listened to it, and 'St Christopher' sends a shiver down your spine with it's intensity.

As great as 'Back In The Game' sounds in it's purest form stripped back with just his vocals and an acoustic guitar, the new stuff which seems to be more focused around the band offers much more to the listener, '368' is a perfect example of just that and naturally the single 'Chaka Demus' continues to highlight how well Jamie works with his backing band. One of the highlights could be said a bit controversial as 'Spiders Web' sounded brilliant with Jamie T rap style lyrics in this but for others this is just an album track. For me however it worked brilliantly.

As the night draws to the end before the encore you're trying to remember what wasn't played and then he starts singing 'Sheila goes out with her mate Stella' and the set is polished off with a sing a long.

The encore gives us a brilliant rendition of 'Sticks And Stones' which does get the Nottingham crowed going and leaving the venue in high spirits and looking forward to what else 2010 has in store for us all.

The thing about this is that Jamie T seems to have acclimatised his music to work better with the backing band on the road. It seems to be a winning formula but the rumour mill states that Jamie T will be taking a break from music, let's just hope that this is all just rumour. A great performance of 2010 and here is hoping this is just the beginning for music and not just for Jamie T.


8/10

Mark Moore