Jamie T at The Gaelic Club, Sydney

JAMIE T

The Gaelic Club, Sydney

03/01/10

It seems Jamie T is never away from Sydney, yet, far from the city growing tired of him, his performance at The Gaelic Club was greeted with the kind of hysteria that suggests he is always a welcome guest. Just like when he was at The Metro a couple of months back, a packed room sang every word back at the Londoner. Anyone who is familiar with Jamie Treays' high speed, slang-ridden vernacular will know that that is an achievement in itself.

Helped by the crisp and clear Gaelic sound, the set was a familiar and high-energy run-through of material from his two albums, highlights of which were So Lonely Was The Ballad and Pacemaker. Treays was his usual cheeky self, paying out the people who chose to stand at the back of the room rather than getting involved in the melee at the front. Indeed, for set closer Sheila, he dragged one of the "middle-aged men" from the back of the room onto the stage and took part in a dance-off with him. Maybe he did it to entertain himself during a song that he must have sung a zillion times, but in truth, to the rest of us Sheila still sounded as fresh as ever without the need for such - admittedly fun - gimmicks.

By the time he encored with Sticks 'n' Stones, the crowd - from which a lot of English accents could be picked out - were going mental, crowd surfing, climbing onto the stage an then throwing themselves back off it, and hollering every word as if their lives depended on it. Treays took such fervour in his stride. Just another night out for this talented geezer from the other side of the world.

Jamie T - Kings & Queens

When your debut record - an exhilarating, uncompromising mix of punk, indie and hip-hop - is so highly acclaimed, what do you do next? Well, if you’re Jamie T, you get into Bob Dylan and write a load of acoustic songs. Then you listen to some US hardcore punk and throw new influences and old together to come up with something similarly eclectic to your debut. Once again, you record it in your bedroom and in a shed.

And so, a couple of years after Panic Prevention, we have Kings & Queens, Jamie Treays’ potentially Difficult Second Album. Beginning with his Joe Strummeresque vocal barking its way into an infectious chorus hook, it seems he’s developed a real ear for a pop tune. Further evidence of this comes from Sticks 'n' Stones, which is a singalong anthem perfect for summer. The album is filled with upbeat songs based more around punky guitars than urban hip-hop as Treays - a cheeky London rapscallion - fires off colloquialisms about life in boozers and getting up to no good. There are some fine examples of his acoustic tangent, although the beautiful Emily’s Heart is more Doherty than Dylan.

This sophomore effort might not be as brilliantly barmy and uncompromising as Panic Prevention, but it is an effervescent, accessible record. Impressively, it manages to be observational while still brimming with summery songs that have all the fun, madness and Englishness of a night’s binge-drinking. Only with Kings & Queens you don’t suffer a hangover and you want to do the whole thing all over again as soon as you’re finished.

Jamie T at The Metro, Sydney

JAMIE T
ERNEST ELLIS
The Metro 16/09/09

Local fellow Ernest Ellis and his band offered grand folk-rock that clearly had American influences. His songs were sweeping and generally fairly classically structured, but aside from a vocal range that included an impressive falsetto there was nothing especially attention-grabbing about this warm-up set.

With a hood pulled over a baseball cap, Jamie T - Jamie Treays if we’re being formal - ambled onstage looking like the kind of dodgy youth you see stalking the streets of the less salubrious parts of London. However, Treays is no shady character but rather a chirpy troubadour and was soon ripping through a fun version of Brand New Bass Guitar. The high energy of this raw opener continued for the rest of the night, as Treays and his band, The Pacemakers, belted out a hectic mixture of hip-hop and punk. Between songs Treays chatted in his very English style, dedicating Earth, Wind & Fire to his Dad for being “a double-hard bastard,” and telling the crowd to “stop being pansies and start fucking dancing,” before newie Chaka Demus showed his newfound pop sensibilities.

Sans band, he led the all-ages crowd through a cacophonous version of Back In The Game as the singalongs got progressively louder. If You Got The Money almost ripped the roof off and every word of Sheila was roared back at the stage. By the evening’s finale, Sticks ‘n’ Stones, the crowd was going absolutely mental.

Surprisingly though, the set’s highlight was Emily’s Heart, an incongruously delicate opening to the encore. It’s a shame that large sections of the audience, who were clearly there to hear the singles and nothing else, were too busy talking really fucking loudly to notice the sheer beauty of this tiny acoustic song. Still, the main throng held lighters aloft and appreciated it for the heartbreakingly tender and sorrowful love song that it was. Ending by bursting into an epic crescendo of noise, with Treays screaming “This is what happens when you fuck around,” it showed a new, deeper dimension to the songwriter. On top of the urban punk thing that he does so well, tonight Jamie T proved he also has a knack for pop gems and gentle acoustic ballads. We wait with excitement to see which direction he goes in next.