Biography
Jamie Archer is best known as Jamie ‘Afro’, a 33 year old pub singer from Putney in South-West London in England.
This multi-talented musician has worked in bars and supermarkets to make ends meet. His real passion though is music, which started at the age of 10. He’s a singer, songwriter, performer, guitarist and according to X-Factor judge and lead singer with girl group Girls Aloud, Cheryl Cole, ‘a natural born entertainer’. Together with his brother Stevo, Stephen Archer, both self taught musicians, Jamie heads up the band Jalexis 11 with long time friend, Anthony Reed. They routinely perform at the Walkabout, in Covent Garden, in Central London. Prior to hooking up with fellow musician Anthony Reed and forming Jalexis 11, Jamie and his brother were involved in a number of other bands.
Jamie’s musical tastes are wide and varied. He cites guitar hero Jimi Hendrix, Nick McCabe of The Verve, The Edge of U2 and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits as influences. His love of music transcends all musical boundaries. Jamie draws inspiration from many sources including Bob Marley, Led Zepplin, The Chemical Brothers, The Doors, Oasis, Blur, The King of Pop, Michael Jackson and wait for it… Luciano Pavarotti!
Jamie was used to playing in small venues and wanted to play to a bigger crowd. He also wanted what he considered could be one last chance to break into the music business. By his own admission, performing in front of the X-Factor judges and an audience in excess of 2,000, was the most important thing he’d ever done in his life and a dream come true. When asked by Simon Cowell why it hadn’t worked out so far, Jamie’s reply was to say that he was a musician and not a businessman and had no idea how to get into the business.
The song Jamie chose to sing was ‘Sex On Fire’, by 5 times 2009 MTV Europe Music Award nominees, the Kings of Leon; the smash hit single off their phenomenally successful 4th studio album, ‘Only By The Night’. Jamie’s rousing rendition had the X Factor audience up on their feet, dancing and singing along and by the end of the performance, they nearly had the roof off the studio such was the applause and cheering. Even the X-Factor judges were bowled over, especially Kylie Minogue’s younger sister Dannii Minogue. Simon Cowell summed it up nicely when he sent Jamie through to the next round (bootcamp) by uttering the immortal words, “two and a half thousand yeses, well done”.
Jamie set out to wow the judges and the audience. He certainly did that. He grabbed, with both hands, what he considered to be his last opportunity to become a professional musician and nailed it.
Since The X-Factor, Jamie has been in great demand and is regularly entertaining corporate audiences of all sizes.
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