Ben's Brother is at The 12 Bar in Swindon on May 20

10:40am Saturday 9th May 2009

By Flicky Harrison

Ben’s Brother The 12 Bar, Westcott Place, Swindon May 20 Tickets: £12.50 in advance 01793 535713 Cockney singer Jamie Hartman has taken the leap from busking on the Portobello Road to writing jingles for Madonna and fronting his own band.

Jamie is the lead singer with Ben’s Brother, whose debut album went gold and who were recently added to the Radio Two playlist.

The singles released from the CD shot into the top 10 airplay positions and the band came second to Amy Winehouse in the Ivor Novello Awards.

The singer says he loves writing but there is nothing to compare with the buzz of performing live.

He once ran a production company in America, where he wrote promotional jingles for some of the big stars, like Madonna, who he describes as “a goddess”.

“I worked with a lot of people, but I always wanted to get out and play,” he said.

“The opportunity wasn’t there. It wasn’t until later in the game that I started performing.”

The musician has been through some testing times too, once working in a merchant bank for a while.

“I hated it,” he said. “Music is a calling, you have to give yourself to it to get the reward. I have lived very basically when busking and have seen both sides of the industry.”

The singer has written songs for Emma Bunton and Will Young, and co-wrote two or three numbers with Natalie Imbuglia.

“I write with a lot of people,” he said. “Natalie loved my version of Apologise.”

The song was released as a single this week on his own record label, Flat Cap Records, in collaboration with Island Records. It is taken from Ben’s Brother’s new album, Battling Giants, which is out on Monday.

The album reflects the effect of the credit crunch on the music industry. Ben’s Brother were one of the casualties of the beleaguered EMI Records - Battling Giants is a response to that, showing how the underdog can fight back. “It is about adversity, about being the little guy again squaring up to the monster,” said Jamie.

Joss Stone and Jason Mraz are guest singers on the album. “Joss was on my wish list as a duet,” he said.

The name of the band came about because Jamie’s real life brother Ben took one of the singer’s CDs to South Africa. He didn’t tell the people there the band’s name, so it became “Ben’s Brother’s CD” and the band became simply Ben’s Brother.