Pool Of Sound - Jamie Webster

In 2019 Jamie Webster was working for the family business in his hometown of Liverpool as an electrician. His loves had always been football and music with his mum getting him classical guitar lessons from the age of 6 or 7 but he hated them and preferred playing football. Like most lads from Liverpool, Football and Music were a huge part of Jamie's life, but he had no idea how his passions were about to collide. Around the age of 14 though he fell in love with The Beatles and Oasis and  thankfully, remembering a couple of chords here and there, he essentially taught himself guitar. When he realised football wasn't happening he thought he wanted to get into music big time. Inspired by his working-class heroes, Jamie credits Liam Gallagher as an early influence stating, "I was too young for the Brit-Pop thing but Oasis fascinated me. When I read John Lennon was a big influence on Liam, I got into Lennon as well. Liam's voice just made me want to sing. His presence on stage and how he could hold an audience."
He formed his first band, 'Staring At The Stereo', when he was 15 with a line-up that included future 'The Vryll Society' guitarist Lewis McGuinness, but they split when Jamie discovered Bob Dylan. He continued playing with some of the lads who he had made mates with at the football and many started coming down to support him at the cover gigs he was playing. It was through LFC and their legendary BOSS nights during the 2012/13 season that Jamie's journey started to take off. He explains, "I started doing cover gigs round town for a bit of extra cash. Still writing my own songs but basically singing what people liked. Stuff by 'The Jam', 'Oasis', 'The Coral' and Dylan, but BOSS made me quite a popular lad in circles within Liverpool, especially at the match."

Jamie sings at Madrid Fan Zone

He had been told about the 'BOSS Nights' which had started as a place for Liverpool fans to go to listen to live music and, as Liverpool started to become more successful again, that served as the inspiration for more and more songs. It was 'Allez Allez Allez' which really put him on the map though, with all the proceeds going to a local charity. He remembers hearing the song for the first time in Porto. At the time, the song was a little slower, the rhythm was a bit different, and the hook wasn't as catchy but the lyrics were already there. A mate turned to him and suggested he turned that into the 'Ring of Fire' of this era which could be the song to spur the players on, to go all the way. That's what he wanted to do with it, that's what he did with it and thankfully since then, that song has taken him around the world playing music. 

His solo career really started in 2019 when he flew out to Madrid following Liverpool who were playing Real Madrid in the Champions League Final. Jamie recalls, "I met the CEO of my record label on the flight. He took a liking to me and was in the fan park that day.  I remember thinking 'there's 60,000 people in front of you here, just go and give it to them and enjoy it because you never know if something like that will ever come around again. It went by really quickly – it felt like a boxing match, with all the adrenaline. Every emotion in me came out on that stage. It was the best day of my life. He took my number and pretty much as soon as I walked off stage I got a text from him to say he'd like to make an album with me. So basically my full time music career started that day as well." 

After signing to the city's record label Modern Sky UK. and working with influential local producer Rich Turvey, they refashioned his songs to suit a full band and recorded them at the famous Parr Street Studios. His first original single, released in November 2019, 'Weekend in Paradise' was an immediate hit as it reached No 8 in the iTune and No 1 in the Singer-Songwriter charts, streaming over 100,000 times in the first week of release. Jamie launched the new single two days after its release at a packed out Zanzibar. Initially the gig was to be held at the Shipping Forecast but got upgraded almost instantly to The Zanzibar Club after it had sold out in minutes. Unfortunately for many, the upgraded venue sold out almost instantly again.

Further popular singles followed, culminating in the release of his debut album, 'We Get By' in August 2020. Even before 'We Get By' reached No 6 in the mainstream album chart in August, the Liverpool Echo had named Jamie the 11th most influential Merseysider in its 2020 Power List. His move into original songwriting has seen him pegged as a fresh new voice of the city. The album is removed from his football world and it views the world through a working-class lens. Alternately stark, and in a broader sense romantic, it is both scathing, affectionate and humorous as well. An example is on the track, 'Something's Gotta Give' where there is the line, 'Sick and tired of the bad news stories / Sick and tired of the crooked Tories.' Jamie describes the album as "a document of the joys, escapes and struggles of working-class life in a nutshell". With this album he became the first artist to top the newly created Official Folk Album Chart which stunned him but says his chronicling of people's experiences, like his hero Bob Dylan, belongs in the genre's lineage. He says, "My album documents the struggles, joys and escapes of working-class life – if that’s not folk then what is?"

He performs with a full band now, with 'Lightning Seeds' Tim Cunningham on bass, Jim Sharrock, nephew of 'The La's' Chris Sharrock on drums and Mick Head's 'Red Elastic Band' member Danny Murphy on guitar. 

Jamie's single 'Living for Yesterday' was released in February 2020 with more of his trademark witty and instantly relatable lyrics which made him the voice of the terraces and looking to secure his place on the world stage. Liverpool’s vast, 11,000 capacity M&S Bank Arena will ring with the people-powered, street-savvy tales of truth and ambition sung by Jamie Webster on Saturday the 19th of November 2022 as the high-charting singer-songwriter announces his biggest, ever live appearance.

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/03/pool-of-sound-bandit.html