He saw the advantages and disadvantages of the pop world at a very early age.

His Dad (Roger Odell a very very good drummer) is to this day in Shakatak.

Growing up in Finchingfield in Essex, after being dropped off at school in a Lotus Esprit Turbo he'd often get beaten up and called names like Shitattakk and Crapattak and variations on that theme.

Stevie Wonder was never off the record deck at home and therefore was an early influence on the young Jamie who at eight years old was bought his first instrument.

A synthesiser.

It was a little Yamaha tutorial thing with mini keys and worked by displaying flashing lights over the notes you were supposed to play. Jamie liked this much more than the actual piano lessons he received a couple of years later which hated so much he would wrap his arms round the piano legs and refuse to play.

It was mostly classical up until he went to Harlow College at 17 where he met a teacher called Andy Watson who played jazz and made him get a Real Book.

The Real Book is a book of jazz standards, if you didn't know, that you have to get if you want to play jazz and contains the music to about 500 tunes. It's not that expensive but the copywrite issues surrounding it are very fuzzy .

Very fuzzy indeed.

Jazz standards are stuff like "Autumn Leaves" and "A Foggy Day".

Which of course must have influenced him in his next career move which was to release a hardcore rave tune on his 18th birthday. It was called "Eruption" by "Flag" and enabled him to go out into clubs doing PAs with Gary and Angela who would dance around dressed in brightly painted neon harlequin outfits.

After that he went to Salford University in Manchester where he studied popular music and played lots of notes close together. Here he would perform in the usual collegey type funk bands and after doing gigs in town would walk past The Hacienda or Cream in Liverpool and look up to see steam literally coming off the roof. I've been there myself many times when after you've played to a half full semi-enthusiastic pub audience you walk past a nightclub where people at the front of the massive cues are literally fighting to get in and you think "hmm, time for a re-think".

So 1996 saw the beginning of the band Jimpster who performed at venues like Ronnie Scotts and The Berlin Jazz festival.

His DJing over the past 10 years however has taken him back into the clubs and on Tom Middleton's recommendation Jamie turned up for a gig with The Bays and hasn't looked back.