. . .Jamie T?
Steal crazy:"I love going out on Saturday night and behaving like a prat," says Jamie Treays, a 21-year-old wideboy from Wimbledon. He also loves The Clash, Beastie Boys, Tom Waits and dub reggae, and his debut album, Panic Prevention, is like a wild and crazy night featuring all of the above and more. Jamie T makes no bones about it: he likes to nick other peoples' music, and if it weren't for copyright laws and other such pesky legal stuff, he'd happily lift his favourite tunes wholesale, tweak them a bit, and put them on his album. "Every song I write is all about some other song," admits Jamie. "If you listen to other things and use them, it's much easier - someone else has done half the work for you." On the track Alicia Quays, for instance, Jamie began with a piano line by the r'n'b diva, but "got fucking pissed" instead and ended up writing a whole new tune.
Bass-o-matic:Far from the street urchin image he projects on Panic Prevention, Jamie T is actually the product of a nice, well-to-do family. Given a bass guitar when he was a teenager, he joined a local punk band. (You can hear his nimble- fingered fretwork on the album's opening track, Brand New Bass Guitar). Although he enjoyed the gang mentality of being in a band, he secretly wanted to be a solo troubadour like his hero, Billy Bragg; since he couldn't play guitar, he got himself an acoustic bass and started playing in pubs around Wimbledon. The subject matter of his songs covered all aspects of life on the town, from pranging out at parties to throwing up outside chippers. He also began to make mix tapes of other people's tunes, which he'd hand out to friends, calling them Panic Prevention because, for Jamie, music was the best way of preventing panic attacks.
Clash city rocker:Jamie released his debut EP, Betty & the Selfish Sons, on his own Pacemaker label and began a residency at London's 12 Bar club, which attracted hundreds of eager punters. Among them was Radio One DJ Zane Lowe, who raved about this successor to Mike Skinner's geezer crown. He now has his own live band, The Pacemakers, and has bagged support slots with two of his heroes, Paul Simonon (The Good, the Bad & the Queen) and Billy Bragg.
Stella cast:Panic Prevention features such tracks as Sheila, a song about a girl who drinks too much; Stella, If You Got the Money, about a guy who uses his mate's money to steal his girlfriend; and Salvador, about a pissed-up predator whose Serengeti is the local nightclub. Any similarities to real events in Jamie's life are purely intentional. In between each song are snatches of recorded dialogue featuring Jamie's mates, just to give the album a bit of cheeky continuity. "I'm aware of how important it is to do things your own way," says Jamie. "Then if it backfires, you can only blame yourself."
