Vivid storytelling from the vibrant streets and Britain’s remaining, close-knit neighborhoods flow freely from people’s poet singer-songwriter, Jamie Webster with the release of his latest single, North End Kid. The UK Album Top Ten and Number One UK Folk Chart-charting success story singing from Liverpool’s heart, Webster splashes colourful characters across the nation’s smudged canvas in heartfelt, metaphorical and literal depictions of struggle, injustice and the urge to overcome.
North End Kid follows recent single, Davey Kane and its ambitious video starring BBC One’s Time star, Jack McMullen, in supplying razor-sharp commentary set to layers of rich, full band instrumentation. After seeing his 2020 debut album, We Get By, stride into the top reaches of the charts, his follow-up, Moments shapes up to be an even more confident document of our times. By creating pin-sharp pictures of people he sees around him striving, and failing through no fault of their own, to make better lives, Webster is unambiguous in his motivations and inspirations.
Like the work of acerbic songbirds from the banks of the Mersey that have come before him, from Lee Mavers to Mick Head, North End Kid goes upbeat to make heroes of the downcast. This time it’s the tale of Tommy who dreams of Broadway from the fringes of a council estate, only to find real life and its hardships waiting for him when the sun rises, inspired in part by Billy Elliot and the conversational, smoky bar room swing of Billy Joel’s Piano Man.
Webster says: “Tommy is the North End Kid whose only means of escape is going and getting high in his bedroom and dreaming of being the person he wishes he could be, the person that he feels inside. But he doesn’t ever get past square one and the constant knock backs cause anger, which only lead him into finding trouble. My message is to call on people not end up like Tommy, to try for your dreams and ignore anyone’s opinions that get in the way of your own happiness.”
Webster goes into the end of the year looking ahead to a long-awaited, rescheduled and upgraded UK & Ireland Tour on top of his biggest show announcement to date, looking further ahead to a vast 11,000 capacity show at the M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool on Sat 19 November 2022. He also adds a brief run of seven, very special and intimate album launch shows, including an evening at the Cavern, to next year’s touring plans.
Including three, SOLD OUT shows at Liverpool’s Eventim Olympia just before Christmas, all of Jamie Webster’s confirmed 2021/2022 live dates are as follows:
Tue 30 Nov – Glasgow, SWG3 – SOLD OUT
Wed 1 Dec – Newcastle, Boilershop – SOLD OUT
Thu 2 Dec – Leeds, Beckett Student Union
Sat 4 Dec 2021 – Birmingham, Academy 2 – SOLD OUT
Tue 7 Dec 2021– Cardiff, Tramshed
Wed 8 Dec 2021– Bristol, Thekla – SOLD OUT
Thu 9 Dec 2021– London, Scala – SOLD OUT
Sat 11 Dec 2021 – Belfast, Limelight 1 – SOLD OUT
Mon 13 Dec 2021 – Dublin, Academy
Tue 14 Dec 2021– Manchester, O2 Ritz
Thu 16 Dec 2021 – Liverpool, Eventim Olympia – SOLD OUT
Fri 17 Dec 2021 – Liverpool, Eventim Olympia – SOLD OUT
Sat 18 Dec 2021 – Liverpool, Eventim Olympia – SOLD OUT
Sun 30 Jan 2021 – Chester, Live Rooms
Mon 31 Jan 2022 – Liverpool, Cavern
Tue 1 Feb 2022 – Sheffield, Leadmill
Wed 2 Feb 2022 – Hull, Social
Thu 3 Feb 2022 – Stoke, Sugarmill
Fri 4 Feb 2022 – Blackburn, Electric Club
Sat 5 Feb 2022 – Glasgow, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Sat 19 Nov 2022 – Liverpool, M&S Bank Arena
Tickets for Webster’s 2022 album launch shows are on general sale on Fri 26 November at 10am. To sign up for updates and for remaining tickets to all shows visit: www.jamiewebstermusic.com
