So why give your time and attention to Jamie? It’s not as if there’s any obvious shortage of young singer-songwriters right now. Far from it. Wherever you turn, there’s yet another fresh-faced hopeful coming at you with a guitar and a claim on the future. But even in a crowded marketplace there will always be room for an artist who has what it takes to be better than the rest. And if you love music and have a heart and a pair of ears, you’ll recognise within the space of just one song that here is exactly that sort of someone. A musician and lyricist of uncommon and mature gift, and one blessed with a gloriously fluid and expressive voice. The back story? Jamie was born and raised in Plymouth in what was he says a resolutely non-musical household. “No-one sang or played anything. We didn’t have any records. My dad would listen to Radio 2 a bit but that was the extent of it. And this was back in the days before the station got really good. There was nothing in what I heard that spoke directly to me.” Then the elder of his two brothers hit adolescence and things began to change: “He got me into The Smiths, The Housemartins, the Jackson 5 …” A disparate trio of early influences, you might think, but Jamie says not really. “They’re all very big on melody. And Morrissey and the young Michael Jackson both have a real passion to the way they sing.” Aged eight, he asked for and received his first guitar. Early on in secondary school, he was invited to join his first band. “We were quite a dedicated little bunch, rehearsing every lunchtime when the rest of the class was out playing football.