Jamie T, and Kirk

It's almost impossible to to mention The Streets when talking about Jamie T, but it's an unfair comparison and a lazy way out. In fairness though, with the upcoming single Sheila getting national airplay, and his Panic Prevention Disco Tour well underway, it does take a bit of effort to notice the differences.

Fair enough, he's young, he's got a decidedly geezer accent, and his tunes are chock-full of wry and laugh-along observations of the normal world we all live in. There are also some beats. So far, so Streets. But then you get tracks like El Salvador, his last release, which was criminally ignored by most of you. A zany, whirligig record with the sort of driving lo-fi beats and squirrelly vocals of Tom Vek, or a rough-edged Bloc Party, like a man who digs proper music, with instruments and stuff, played through a computer.

Similarities aside though, the man himself is not interested in comparisons; "I just like tunes. I'll write a tune and think 'briliant', and just write it for me. Anyone who talks shit about scenes is just making their own shit up. I never really read the NME anyway, I'm more interested in Mojo. Or Record Collector, with 18 pages about some rare piece of Marc Bolan on Japanese vinyl."

And while Skinner talks up life in the big city, Jamie T is far more interested in the outskirts, where the really weird ones live.
"I'm really interested in suburbia. It's just a weird atmosphere. I've got a mate in Northolt and when I went to see him, every single house near him looked exactly the same. And you can never, ever see in the windows. Doesn't that freak you out?"

Before you start thinking he's just another parochial wannabe geezer from the south-east of England, he prefers it outside London; "Yeah, I was really nervous about how I'd go down outside of London, but it was actually nice to BE out of London. Audiences in town are rubbish, that sort of 'Go on, impress me' nonsense, but out in the rest of the country they'll go bonkers if they like you, but just go to the bar if they think you're shit, rather than just being snide about it."

Beyond his recent trip north of the border, he has fond memories of his first trip to Tut's; "My brother used to live up there, and I'm looking forward to going back. They were wicked at Tut's. The promoter took us out to dinner and filled me full of wine, so by the time I got on stage I was absolutely fucked. Hope no-one else remembers that actually..."

Sheila is out on the 3rd of July, so if you never bought a Streets records because you just can't bring yourself to call it actual music, take yourself to the shops and get your life improved.