He has written and self-produced 4 albums between the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2005.

Top 100 love songs

His debut album, MIRAMAR, was recorded in London between August and November 2001 and includes several love song (s) that define Gray's unique juxtaposition to the mainstream; The Sand Dance and Lose Your Soul cover jazz and trip-hop with melancholy tinges of Chet Baker while Eternal Youth and the extraordinary Boom Cover Trade manage to reconcile Brecht with edgy electronica.

The classic song writing sensibility of Bacharach and Carol King also gets a look in with the Latin tinged A Thousand Miles and Valentino and Bowie's brooding presence is never far away; the Jamie and the Magic Torch Song theme is reminiscent of the clipped mutant funk of Ashes to Ashes.

Rock love song

Jamie moved to Hannover, Germany in the summer of 2002 and proceeded to work on what was to become his second album, SILENT STAR, eventually released September 2003.

Within days of arriving in Hannover, Jamie contacted Home Studio in Hamburg and began working on new, distinctly 'electro' material. he was introduced to Berlin-based Techno producer, Jens Wojnar and recorded a German language song, 'Kleiner'. Wojnar also produced a version of Gray's In Your Car which finally surfaced on SILENT STAR.

Gray's brushes with other producers also include a project with Depeche Mode/Yazoo/Erasure legend, Vince Clark, who produced the Gray composition The Cargo Cult for the former Big Fun singer Phil Creswick's Family Fantastic project in 2001.

SILENT STAR presents Gray's song writing skills at their most focused and pop-orientated. This is an album brimming with great choruses and musical hooks including the ultra-catchy Alone and unusually up tempo title track and opener, Silent Star. Other highlights include the electro-glam stomp of Mr. Wolf, which sounds like the Scissor Sisters doing a Slade cover, and Rich Girl's Toy, which could well be the first electro track to feature a Yiddish chorus.

Other tracks include the intense Misty Eyes which draws its inspiration from 80s pop legends The Human League and the melodic Moroder-esque Indecision, which bears all the melancholy-meets-disco beats trademarks of a forgotten Pet Shop Boys classic.

2003 also saw the beginning of Gray's musical partnership with pianist, Klaus Woessner. The two first worked together in July 2003 performing at Munich's CSD event in front of 25,000 people. Since then, they have gigged fairly continuously, clocking up around 30 live appearances, in and around Hannover and establishing themselves as one of the most unique and charismatic live acts in the region.

As a live act, Jamie and the Magic Torch Song have also attracted considerable press interest over the last 2 years.

Features include a 'portrait-interview' in both the Neue Presse ['Duestere Diva des Melancholie-Pops' by Markus Schmidt, 16 September 2004] and Hanover’s respected entertainment guide, Schaedelspalter ['Kreativ Isolation', January 2005]. Other features include the North German gay press, Hinnerk [Jamie in Concert, April 2004] and most recently an interview published in the free monthly listings guide, Megascene, [Heimspiel Live im Februar] which has a distribution of over 40,000.

Previous UK press coverage include pieces by London's Time Out magazine music editor, Laura Lee Davies who described Gray's music as “a mixture of synth glamour and soulful drama” as far back as 1998, and a review in the Buck's Free Press, Midweek, who were 'Hooked at the first listen' by Gray's former band, Miramar, in April 2001.

The first half of 2004 saw the long-overdue completion of KISS OFF 1, a staggering 17 track collection which brought together previously unreleased material recorded between 1997 and 2004. Apart from the sheer volume and consistent quality of the material, it's Gray's breathtaking talent for genre-hopping which ensures that the listener is constantly surprised and entertained.

Early 4 track recordings such as Beauty of Gas pt. 1 and Regret possess an almost unbearably claustrophobic intensity; influences from Dusty Springfield to Daft Punk are in evidence in Gray's solo material while tracks recorded with his former band (Take Me Away, So long Soho), Miramar, respectively betray a debt to Ziggy-era Bowie and Dog Man Star-era Suede.

Having exorcised his past with the KISS OFF album, Gray embarked upon his 4th and latest album, DARKNESS FALLS towards the end of 2004 eventually releasing it through Lo-fi Highs in January 2005.

Reviewing DARKING FALLS in January 2005, PRINZ magazine were quick to recognise Gray as Bowie’s "spiritual child", on a visual level at least, in alluding to the album's striking cover image; Gray's semi-naked lifeless body is found lying across some dimly lit marble stairs, his dying gaze fixed upon one final fleeting vision of ecstasy. Musically, PRINZ found Gray's "melancholy pathos" continuing in the tradition of British pop greats such as Roxy Music and The Pet Shop Boys.

True Love, the most obvious 'single' candidate scored immediate local radio support from Hanover’s alternative radio station, Radio Flora and is one of the most dreamily romantic melodies Gray has written so far. Peru, another melodic highlight makes use of the most minimal of arrangements and a delicate waltz-like tempo, whilst The Cold Grey Light of Day, Miramar and title track, Darkness Falls, sound like long lost Broadway classics, rediscovered, with all their retro-charm intact.

Valentine love song

With 4 albums, containing between them some 50 songs; numerous live engagements and consistent press interest, 2005 looks good for Jamie Gray. In the words of Swedish music journalist Anna Marie Stjarnel, in a recent review for DARKNESS FALLS, "he's got the songs, the look and the elusive 'it' quality". Who knows what the next few months may bring for Jamie and his magic torch song?

Imusic Songs