Jamie Webster on Weekender, Paul Mullins, and Northern artists

Having initially gotten his break performing in pubs across Merseyside, Jamie’s first festival was Neighbourhood Weekender in 2022, where he performed in the tent at the Victoria Park festival.

This year, however, Jamie graduates to the main stage, his first main stage at a festival so far.

On appearing in the tent last year in front of 1000s, the Liverpool singer-songwriter said that: “I wasn't expecting it to be honest and it was a great welcome and a great reception.

“So yeah, it was an amazing, amazing experience.

“Coming back this year on the main stage, it’s my first mainstage festival appearance so I've got a bit of a love affair with the ol' Weekender to be honest.”

In our discussion with Jamie, we talked at length about what distinguishes Northern artists from southern ones culturally – with Weekender considered by many to be a platform for up-and-coming Northern artists to make their name.

“I think the Northern spirit is distinctive. You know, the background of how they've come up is most of the time from a typical working-class family.

“A lot of people from the north have actually come from much, much more disparate situations, where they've come from a real rough background, and they've used music defiantly to get them out of that situation.

“You tend to be a bit more of a people person, and you tend to be able to conduct and command crowds because you've got a bit of bottle. You've got thicker skin, I suppose.

“The negative of being a northern artist is totally getting ignored by the radio stations in London and stuff like that. You’re ignored unless it's absolutely undeniable. So, Sam Fender, he is undeniable now. But before that he didn't get any play in the radio stations in London.”

Jamie’s music has become a symbol for many working class Liverpudlians, including  Wrexham AFC striker Paul Mullins.

Lyrics from one of the scouse singer’s songs appeared on Mullins boots in a controversial incident last year, the words “this city” accompanied with an outline of the Liverpool skyline.

The other boot was the one that caused the controversy, however, with “F**k the Tories” printed in Liverpool red and white.

Wrexham made the decision to not allow Mullins to wear the boots as a result, and Jamie opened up to us about the decision in the first interview on the subject since it occurred last October. First, he gave a beautiful story on his connection to Paul Mullins saying:

“Well, it's funny. There's a whole story around it. One of my Dad's cousins used to play for Liverpool, and he had a really bad injury just before he was about to play his debut for the first team, done his ligaments, and he ended up moving down the leagues and stuff like that.

When he first got into the league playing for Accrington he was playing left-back and Paul Mullins was playing up top against him. When I used to look out for the Acrrington results, or if they were on telly, I'd watch them because I knew someone who was a footballer, and I remember Paul Mullin used to score loads of goals and I actually went down once and he was there.

I've not even spoke to Paul about this. I was too starstruck to go over and say hello to him at the time because I was a young lad.”

“I saw the football boots and it was quite a sentimental moment. It was like wow, it's sort of come full circle.

“I think it's disgusting that he wasn't allowed to wear them because it's you know, it's his opinion.

“If I want to put a sticker on my guitar, I can do. If a footballer wants to put his family's name on his boots, or if he wanted to put a prayer or something like that on the boots, or a reading from the Bible or Quran, that'd obviously be acceptable. So, his political views shouldn't be different you know what I mean.

“He should be supported in his opinions; it doesn't mean that the club needs to support it. It doesn't mean that the rest of the players in the team have to support it.

To end the discussion, however, Webster did speak highly of the club run by Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, saying:

“At the same time, I do really like what's going on at Wrexham. That's part of why I didn't want to say too much about it too, I'm a big fan of what they're doing in the community and with It’s Always Sunny, I like the story.

“I suppose as Americans, they just have been advised to make that statement, I feel like if they understood it and the reasoning of it, they'd support it”.

Jamie Webster will be playing Neighbourhood Weekender on Saturday May 27.

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