{"id":875037,"date":"2026-10-08T10:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T10:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875037\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T10:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T10:44:11","slug":"jamie-t-i-cant-afford-to-tour-europe-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875037\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie T: ‘I can’t afford to tour Europe anymore’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early hours of 30\u00a0June 2023, Jamie T was hours away from playing the biggest gig of his career, a hometown headline celebration at North London\u2019s<\/a> Finsbury Park. It would be nerve-wracking for anyone \u2013 let alone someone who\u2019s battled panic disorder<\/a> for much of his life (hence the title of the Wimbledon-born singer-songwriter\u2019s Mercury-nominated 2007 debut album<\/a>,\u00a0Panic Prevention).<\/p>\n

Anyway. Up with both the lark and the fear, the musician, born Jamie Treays, tackled the situation head-on in the manner he knows best: writing a song. He had in his back-pocket a sample, of \u201cTallahassee\u201d by Canadian folk singer Leif Vollebekk.<\/p>\n

At this point, \u201cI\u2019d been thinking about sampling that song for a good year\u201d, says Treays. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t work out how to do it.\u201d Then, plagued with worries that he wasn\u2019t worthy of a huge gig in a London park, \u201ca lyric comes to me like a bolt of lightning:\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m Paul Heaton<\/a>, because the only thing you\u2019ll ever hear round here is magic\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The line is T to a t, both an homage and a fun bit of wordplay, referencing the sublime wonder of Heaton\u2019s songwriting chops and his catalogue\u2019s ubiquity on Magic FM. \u201cAs soon as I come up with that, I\u2019m like, yes, can\u2019t wait to finish this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ALBUM\u2018Ghosts (100 Days of Morning)\u2019 comes out this Friday <\/p>\n

Cue more hat-tips and more self-doubt:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m the soundtrack to your university years like Lily Allen\u2026 I\u2019m Liam Howlett in 1991, driving round Romford in a Ferrari Testarossa \/ Now that\u2019s iconic, but I\u2019m nothing like them \u2013 I\u2019m just a plagiarist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lily Allen<\/a> one is something I get a lot on the street or outside the pub,\u201d explains Treays as we speak, three years on, in a caf\u00e9 near his home in Hackney, East London. \u201cThat\u2019s the phrase people will say: \u2018I love your music; you\u2019re the soundtrack to my university years. You and Lily Allen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the mention of the Prodigy man: that derives from a story Treays thinks he was told by his long-standing manager Jonathan Dickins. Twenty years ago, he was Dickins\u2019 first client at September Management. \u201cAdele was the third or the fourth. It was Jack Pe\u00f1ate and her.\u201d The story goes that \u201cwhen the Prodigy had just kicked off, how cool it was for everyone in Essex that this kid, this boy done good, was driving around in a supercar, flaunting it with his bleached blonde hair and being cool as f***\u201d.<\/p>\n

That said: after the song \u2013 a lovely, Mike Skinner-coded elegy to those \u201ciconic\u201d moments, also called \u201cTallahassee\u201d \u2013 was released last month as the second single from Treays\u2019 sixth album,\u00a0Ghosts (100 Days of Morning), word reached the musician of Howlett\u2019s response. \u201cLiam said he loves it. But whatever car it was, it was not a f***ing Ferrarri Testarossa! That made me laugh!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"READING,Jamie T at Reading Festival 2026 (Photo: James Klug\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

Newly turned 40 and married since the release of his last album, 2022\u2019s chart-topping\u00a0The Theory of Whatever, Jamie T has been doing a lot of reflecting. He looks back with mixed emotions on the fag-end of the so-called indie-sleaze days in which he came up. \u201cI never felt part of a scene. But I was touring from early on, so I met bands and you\u2019re all stuck together to some degree\u2026 Big crowds, tiny gigs, sweaty places, dressing rooms, toilets \u2013 all that\u2019s not great when you\u2019re living with panic disorder. But also it was fun. The sense of satisfaction of getting through things was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

That panic disorder \u201cwas no joke. I would have to go to the pub for an hour and a half before I did something, to get the Dutch courage up\u201d. \u201cThat was a constant situation. Which was exhausting. I still suffer with quite bad anxiety and I still think about things before I go and do them. But I\u2019m in no way in the same shape I was then.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of a reckoning with life and career is all over the new album, from the punning title (that\u2019s 100 days of\u00a0mourning, too) inwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to grow up as a musician when you start so early and you\u2019re known for things you wrote when you were 17,\u201d says Treays, whose first single proper, \u201cSheila\u201d, was released when he was barely out of his teens (it\u2019s still his third-most streamed song; his rollicking 2009 banger \u201cSticks n Stones\u201d occupies the top spot). \u201cSo I was keen to make one last record that was looking back on those times. In order to tie it up in a bow, and maybe move on a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The push-pull is there in first single and album opener \u201c3310\u201d. It\u2019s a metaphorical ode to the tactile reassurance of an old-school Nokia 3310, a track that begins as folky acoustica before piling into a very meta, very Jamie T, syncopated indie-disco bop. Lyrically, though, it could have been another song entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,Jamie T performing at Brixton Academy in 2016 (Photo: Joseph Okpako\/WireImage)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was originally based on something quite different,\u201d he says, between occasional puffs on a Cola Ice-flavoured vape. (Two refills, Fruit Medley and Peach Ice, sit on the table between us: Treays has recently kicked a 25-year, 40-a-day cigarette habit.) \u201cDo you remember in the \u201990s that there was a recorded conversation that came out between Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles?\u201d<\/p>\n

Um, the leaked private phone call in which the future King wished he could be as close to his secret lover as a Tampax?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah! Me and my friends were discussing it. My mate was like, \u2018Oh my god, this is mental.\u2019 I was like, \u2018No, it\u2019s quite romantic. He\u2019s saucy, isn\u2019t he?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got me thinking about this whole idea of lust and obsession for someone,\u201d Treays continues. \u201cAnd wanting to be an inanimate object to them, anything to be close to them. So the song started off about that. But when I came back to it years later, I wasn\u2019t sure I wanted [to go with] that original idea. So I made it more about you how I\u2019ll always be there if you need me. Like the old Friends [theme].\u201d<\/p>\n

Treays has his own tight circle of musician pals and peers. The Maccabees are his ride-or-dies; the band\u2019s guitarist Hugo White is a sounding board for ideas and co-producer on the new album. Fred Again is a newer mate, an old-school fan for whom a Jamie T gig at Reading Festival was a formative experience. This year, the superstar producer paid it back by sampling Treays\u2019 2023 track \u201cHippodrome\u201d for \u201cLights Burn Dimmer\u201d. \u201cJust to be in his algorithm is f***ing mental,\u201d says Treays. \u201cI got a few phone calls from my friend: \u2018You\u2019re everywhere on streaming and social media.\u2019 I was like: \u2018It\u2019s not me, it\u2019s Fred!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NEW\u2018I\u2019ve been in it for 20 years. I\u2019m happy to still be here,\u2019 says Jamie T (Photo: Tom Beard)<\/p>\n

Only eight months since its release, \u201cLights Burn Dimmer\u201d is fast gaining on Jamie T tracks that are now two decades old. It might just add to his streaming income.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI get some royalty cheques, but they\u2019re not huge<\/a>. We do make money from [concert] tickets. That\u2019s the main bit.\u201d The main bit, but also an imperilled bit. \u201cGigging is expensive, because I\u2019ve got a band. I can\u2019t tour Europe anymore. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve been back there since Brexit.\u201d He\u2019d love to take\u00a0Ghosts\u2026\u00a0on the road beyond the UK, \u201cand we\u2019re having a look at it, but it\u2019s not adding up at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jamie T \u2013 domestically settled, lifestyle \u201cmoderated\u201d, hopes and homages given brilliant musical form on his new album \u2013 that lack of gigging options in particular is \u201creally frustrating\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to keep the band working, too. And albums don\u2019t go on as long as they used to. It feels like they get released and then disappear. Which is alright for me, because I mostly enjoy writing records these days. That\u2019s where I feel happiest. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it would be nice to tour more. But I\u2019m getting older now. I can\u2019t really complain. I\u2019ve been in it for 20 years. I\u2019m happy to still be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Ghosts (100 Days of Morning)\u2019 (Polydor) is released on 9\u00a0October\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the early hours of 30\u00a0June 2023, Jamie T was hours away from playing the biggest gig of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,304214,5450,216,136773],"class_list":["post-875037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-indie-music","tag-interviews","tag-music","tag-music-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}