As long as St Christopher's here...

Jamie T, Leeds Academy, 25/01/10

I meant to write a few things before 2009 was out. There was a mighty fine Florence gig in December, which along with a I Can’t Believe It’s Not A Shit Opening Act support from Temper Trap was probably the best all out show I’d seen all year.

Florence herself was holding back, it being the beginning of the tour I guess she’d implode if she belted it out every night. Still, we got Lungs in its near entirety (plus b sides!!!!!!!!!), fairy lights in the rafters and the mostly female, older-than-usual audience made a refreshing change from the Topman clad pricks I’m usually surrounded by.

I was also planning to write some review-of-the-year business, but the moment’s passed. Fuck that decade. To the future!

And we begin with a gig that should have taken place back in October. But as that fell two days after Bloc Party and all the antics that surrounded that night, my stamina was glad of the reprieve that came when Jamie T was diagnosed with laryngitis and forced to cancel his tour.

After what felt like an eternity, Kings & Queens was finally given to us in the latter part of last year. I’ll be lying if I said I loved it, but it faced impossible competition. Panic Prevention WAS my final year in Lincoln. The people I met. The days and nights we had. Nothing was going to come close, perhaps mainly because that chapter of my life is (happily, mind) over, and as nice as nostalgia can be, there will be none of this living in the past.

So a gig that leans more towards the album I feel little connection to was always going to be a more sedate experience. Refreshingly, I was in the minority, as the kids in attendance knew all the words that evaded me, and joyfully kicked the shit out of each other why I just stood back and admired it all.

However, it was one of the most controversial sets I’ve ever witnessed. I’ve seen Radiohead gleefully ditch Creep like it ain’t no thang, but tonight Jamie didn’t play Salvador or Shelia, arguably his two biggest tunes. Yeah we got a couple of b sides and that’s always a giggle, but for someone with only around 35 songs released, it seems odd to be shutting that door so wilfully. Chakka Demus and Sticks n Stones seem to be the replacements, and they have the blokey singalong bits and the scumbag lyric bits…but it’s not the show I’ve seen him deliver before. Sometimes that’s a good thing. On this occasion, it wasn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s a fucking charmer that could cough his lungs up and it would still be entertaining as all sticky-floored hell, but almost three years to the day that I saw him do the most sensational of gigs, I can’t say this was the show I was hoping for.

After resorting to dancing in Revolution (seriously, don’t try going out in Leeds on a Monday night. One time I somehow ended up at this Minimal Techno evening. Terrifyingly vague music. The dry ice didn’t help matters) we went home and put on Panic Prevention. Cos really, nothing else compares.