Jamie T

The ramshackle Wimbledon troubadour born Jamie Alexander Treays (8 January 1986) in Wimbledon, London, was drawn to music when he discovered that it calmed the panic attacks he suffered as a teenager. Making mixtapes and DIY beats in his bedroom, he started writing songs on an acoustic bass, telling stories about the characters he found in the spit and sawdust South London pubs where he'd started to play. As early single "Sheila" (2006) sang of binge-drinking tragedies, his drawled mockney raps about the rough end of society brought comparisons with Mike Skinner, Ian Dury and Billy Bragg. Drawing on hip-hop, ska and punk, debut album Panic Prevention (2007) shot to Number 4 in the UK charts, receiving great critical acclaim and gaining a Mercury Music Prize nomination. Second album Kings & Queens (2009) came swaggering back with more hooks and attitude, making it to Number 2 in the UK and spawning the alco-pop swilling joy of singles "Sticks 'n' Stones" and "Chaka Demus." After a five-year gap between albums, he returned with a triumphant new LP in 2014, Carry on the Grudge, which received widespread critical acclaim, noticeably from UK publication NME, who decribed the album 'as the greatest music moment of 2014', and crowned UK Top 40 single 'Zombie' best track and best video that same year. An EP, Magnolia Melancholia, followed in 2015 and Jamie T returned with his fourth LP, Trick, in 2016. Filling in the gaps with the B Sides (06-17) release in 2018, he retreated from the public eye after that, before making a comeback in 2022 with a candid, statement-making fifth LP, The Theory of Whatever. Considered by many to comprise some of the strongest material of his career, the 13-track LP went all the way to the top of the charts in the UK – giving Jamie T his first Number one album – aided by a motley cast of collaborators that included a writing credit from Misfits founder Glenn Danzig on "British Hell."