Born and raised in Glasgow, Jamie now lives on the outskirts of the city.  A graduate of Strathclyde University, he studied Town Planning on the vague notion that it would allow him to save the world.  Well OK, help the general public at least. 

Five years later and now working in a Council Planning Department, he still clings to the notion that one day he will indeed help someone. 

Jamie was into music at an early age, raiding his parents’ music collection and finding all sorts of records from The Beatles to Abba.  By the time he reached university during the Britpop years he still liked The Beatles but had gone off Abba.  Instead, he got into the likes of Radiohead, The Bluetones and Suede. 

Nowdays Jamie has a varied taste although he is a slave to melody and especially sad songs, which he thinks sound the best.  He likes solo artists a lot and favourites include Ryan Adams, Josh Rouse, Elliott Smith, Tom McRae and Ed Hardcourt.  Bands wise he still likes Radiohead though wishes they would release a record which didn’t use endless samples and loops.  He’s also into the likes of Interpol, Doves, The Smiths, Elbow and the Electric Soft Parade.  Being Glaswegian he also has a huge affection for ‘home’ bands like Teenage Fanclub, Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol and The Reindeer Section.

When he’s not listening to music or going to gigs Jamie’s other main love is the movies.  He likes to think that he can be high brow (one of his favourite movies of recent times is Punch-Drunk Love) but he can also recite the script to the seminal Dude, Where’s My Car? if so prompted. 

Jamie reads a lot too and likes the searing satire of Chris Brookmyre and Colin Bateman especially, although his favourite book is Iain Banks’ The Crow Road.  He tries not to watch too much crap on TV but probably does anyway.  For the record, he thinks The Simpsons is the greatest television programme ever made.