You know what? I think ‘Salvador’ was the first song I ever heard by Jamie T. Just like many of the other songs I’ve written about through the years, its music video popped up one day on MTV2. Couldn’t tell you what the context was. Most likely it came under the ‘Brand New Spanking Music’ slot that would usually occur on the channel. Jamie T only appears in the video for the song’s intro, after which he’s replaced by this dramatic little kid who truly hams up his performance while lip-syncing. It’s an act that I found very cringy when I was younger. But looking at it now, you can’t lie, the kid’s got spirit. There also appears to be an alternative version of the video where Jamie T appears a couple more times, but that’s not the one I remember airing all those years ago.

If this was the first song/video of Jamie T’s that I ever saw, then I guess it must have been released as a single. According to the official UK singles website, the song didn’t chart. But he soon released ‘Sheila’ afterwards and things really started looking up. ‘Salvador’ was eventually released again, appearing as the second track on Jamie T’s debut Panic Prevention album – properly getting the momentum of the record going after the acoustic bass introduction of ‘Brand New Bass Guitar’. As its says on Wikipedia, most of the songs deal with aspects of modern youth culture in the UK. And with Salvador, the aspect of nights out on the dancefloor, particularly from the point of view of us desperate men looking for a fine lady to get close to, is the main focus here.

Sometimes, when this song appears out of the blue on my phone when I’ve got it on shuffle, I actually tempted to skip it. Jamie T’s howling vocal alongside the copied/pasted guitar chord that twangs out might not be the utmost pleasing sound to hear if you’re hearing it the first time. But it all changes when that two-note bass pattern comes in and the groove gets going. Can’t help but move my head to it, it gets me under its web. The same will probably happen to you too. The vocal take, words punctuated here and there by Jamie’s unapologetically British delivery, is one that I can’t help but exaggerate when I ‘sing’ along to it. Even being from the UK myself, I can’t match that singing style. And there are other little audio oddities within the track that may prick up your ears. But I’ll leave those for you to hear. And that’s that for Jamie T on the blog. But you can see any previous posts through the ‘Artist Archive’ link above.