The Jam Scrapbook Part One

My November 2020 post about Paul Weller, The Jam and Riot Stories was an incredibly special one for both Steve Hinders and me. As a result of us sharing our stories via this blog and on Twitter we were lucky enough to connect with yet more fellow fans. It wasn't long before a string of amazing Jam-related stories and snippets of memorabilia started landing in my inbox and it became clear a follow up post was called for. In fact to do justice to the treasure trove of information people have been kind enough to share with me I’ve decided to spread the goods over three posts.

So here goes… To kick off we’re rewinding the clocks right back to the early days of The Jam for instalment number one of “The Jam Scrapbook”. Enjoy!

EARLY DAYS

Prior to The Jam having the line-up we all knew and loved they underwent a series of personnel changes. Back in 1973 the line up was Paul Weller on bass, Rick Buckler on drums and Steve Brookes on rhythm/lead guitar. 

One of my favourite tracks on ‘In The City’ and B side of the debut single of the same name is ‘Takin’ My Love’. This, along with a track called ‘Blueberry Rock’ featured on the very first acetate recording by The Jam, which sold at a Christie's auction for a little over £4000 in 2007. Both tracks were co-written by Paul Weller and Steve Brookes.

Here is a brilliant video of Steve playing ‘Takin My Love’ live in 2010. The video was taken at a charity event in aid of a Woking hospice. Paul Weller guest starred too.

Although he left the band in 1975 Steve is a fine musician and still involved in the music scene. For more information you can find him on Facebook. 

He also wrote a book entitled 'Keeping The Flame' which was published in 1996. There is some fascinating information about the early days of The Jam included. 

The second acetate recorded by The Jam featured another Weller-Brookes composition called 'Making My Way Back Home'. More information can be found on the 45cat site.

The 1974/5 line-up of The Jam

1975 was a busy year for The Jam, with the vast majority of gigs taking place in Woking and Farborough. However they did play two gigs at the Fulham Greyhound during this year. Here’s a poster for one of them courtesy of Steve Hinders.

Back in 1993 I bought a copy of a book outlining Bruce and Rick's memories of the time they spent with The Jam called 'The Jam - Our Story'. The photo below appears in the book. Could this have been the band's first photo shoot? I wonder how many of us can relate to their photo booth antics (I've got my hand up!) The lengths we had to go to to take a selfie! 

I found this video which features a selection of recordings by The Jam from 1975 and 1976. You can see which direction things were taking. I particularly love the more bluesy feel of 'I Got By In Time' from a demo recorded at the Bob Potter Studios in Mytchett, Surrey in September 1976. One month later The Jam played what became a legendary impromptu open air gig in Soho market witnessed by members of The Clash, Mark Perry from Sniffin' Glue fanzine and Melody Maker journalist Caroline Coon. 

I'm not sure who took the picture below but it gives a real flavour of what the atmosphere must have been like. 

1977

My  knowledgeable Twitter friend Carolyn Perry found an article online giving the back story to how The Jam’s logos were created. Particular attention is paid to the iconic spray paint logo which adorned so many parkas, tee shirts, badges and school exercise books back in the day. 

The logo was the creation of Bill Smith, art director at Polydor records. Bill was asked by the head of A&R - Chris Parry - to go and check out The Jam when they played a gig at the Fulham Greyhound. 

He was immediately taken by the band's sharp image. The sight of their black suits, white shirts and thin black ties immediately started his creative juices flowing. He had a vision of a logo in black and white as if sprayed on a tiled wall. The rest is history.

You can read the full fascinating story here. Once you've read it you can't help but view In The City's cover in a different light!

Stephen Chivers shared the advert below, taken from the 14th May 1977 issue of Sounds. The tour dates listed at the bottom right of the advert were referring to The Clash's legendary 'White Riot' tour, where The Jam were scheduled to be one of the support acts. 

There was some kind of disagreement between the management of the two bands resulting in The Jam dropping out of the tour after a gig at The Rainbow in London on May 9th 1977. I guess it was too late to stop the advert from going to press. I wonder how many fans turned up expecting to see The Jam after reading it. But with Buzzcocks, The Slits Subway Sect and The Prefects also supporting throughout the tour there was still plenty to get excited about. And all for £2.20! 

The review below of In The City was written by Chas de Walley. It's interesting to read his comment of "In The City sounds like it has been  rushed. That the guys have been hurled into a studio before they're quite ready..." 

I suppose you could take his comment one of two ways. One of the things that has always appealed to me about this blistering debut album is its rawness. I don't know if “the guys” were hurled into a recording studio, but if they were -  it certainly worked! 

One of my favourite parts of Steve’s story in the last post was when he spoke about Paul Weller’s Nan – Mrs Milton - whose house he stayed at when he visited the UK to follow the band. Whilst at her house Steve noticed the poster below hanging on her wall. He commented on how much he liked it and Mrs Milton gave it to him to take away as a keepsake. It is from an August 1977 edition of teen magazine Pink.

Apparently Paul’s Nan’s favourite track by The Jam was ‘All Around The World’. The lady had very good taste in my opinion. The lyrics of this youth explosion of a track were also the inspiration behind the opening page of Kindred Spirit issue 2.

Whoever wrote the review of ‘All Around The World’ below clearly did not agree with Mrs Milton or thousands of fans of The Jam worldwide. The clip was sent by Dale Farrington, who instead of using his English exercise books for the purpose of writing essays did the sensible thing and turned them into scrapbooks for clippings about The Jam. There is more to come from those lined pages throughout this post.

The next two photos were kindly provided by Stephen Chivers from his extensive collection of Sounds magazines. If you would like to see some of the amazing stuff Stephen posts on Twitter he can be found here @SoundsClips 

The first image is an advert for This is The Modern World including tour dates.

Second is Chas de Walley’s review of the album. It is an interesting read.

Both appeared in the pages of Sounds in November 1977.

The next review of 'The Modern World' the single taken from Dale’s scrapbook, on the other hand is not quite so complimentary. 

A wide array of punk fanzines surfaced in 1977 one of which was named after the 'In The City' track 'Away From The Numbers'. This Scottish fanzine was produced by Brian Hogg and issue one featured a brilliant "Battle of the Bands" piece. Battling it out were The Jam versus The Damned, with The Damned nudging ahead by three points.

In December 1977 The Jam appeared on the front cover of Sounds. Stephen Chivers has kindly provided me with both the front cover and the feature written by Chas De Walley that appeared inside the paper.

Below is a review of one of The Jam's early gigs at the Nashville by Chas de Walley. It featured in a February 1977 issue of Sounds.

Another very knowledgeable Twitter friend of mine - Carolyn Perry  - shared some great information about a legendary gig The Jam played at The Marquee, London in January 1977, when they provided support to a band called Bearded Lady. I don't know anything about this band but the name immediately conjours up a certain image. 

The predominantly hippy audience were not quite so laid back they were horizontal, but they did remain seated and cross legged on the floor as The Jam exploded on the stage in front of them. This frustrated Paul Weller no end. In the finish he beckoned to three friends who were present and presumably not sat cross legged on the floor to join him on stage. One was  journalist and creator of the excellent 48 Thrills fanzine - Adrian Thrills, another was Shane McGowan (no introductions necessary) and the third was Claudio Magnani, also known as Chaotic Bass from punk band Launderettes. 

On the back cover of 'Dig The New Breed' Paul makes a reference to this gig.

The photo below from the Underestimator Punk Faces of the early punk scene page shows Claudio, Shane and Adrian when the Jam played at The Nashville in 1977. Can't you just imagine the look on the crossed legged audience's faces at the Marquee that night when they started pogoing all over the stage? Priceless!

There is a really interesting piece written by Adrian Thrills with more info about the Marquee gig and other Jam related stuff here.

Adrian featured The Jam in his 48 Thrills fanzine several times. Here's a review of In The City (the single) from issue three.

Anyone who has read my other blog posts will already have seen some of the amazing coloured and picture discs I've been priveleged to share courtesy of Pete. Here are three more from his collection. The third disc is a test pressing of a session The Jam recorded for the John Peel show and is very rare:

Pete is also a very gifted artist. If you haven't already seen the sketch he drew of Paul Weller that is included in my previous post it's well worth checking out. Here is another.

If you like what you see please tap one of the share buttons at the foot of the post to help spread the word. Many thanks!

1978

When Paul Pender was getting his Christmas decorations out of the loft he stumbled across a treasure trove of information tucked away behind the boxes of tinsel and Christmas tree toys. There will be much more to come from Paul in the next scrapbook but here is a NME cover from April 1978 plus a drawing of The Jam from an official fan club book.

In the previous post Steve Hinders told the story of how he was privileged to be present during the recording of Setting Sons. Whilst in the Townhouse Studios he met Tony Fletcher, the creator of the wonderful Jamming fanzine. 

The interview about The Jam that appeared in issue 5 of the fanzine in October 1978 is pictured below. It is a fantastic read. There was always something refreshingly honest about fanzine interviews although I admit I am a little biased! 

Every fanzine creator knows the real meaning of the term ‘cut and paste’. There was something strangely therapeutic about it. Here is a fine example from the pages of Jamming.

Fast forward five years and I was absolutely delighted when Kindred Spirit appeared in a top 10 fanzine chart in the pages of Sounds. To sit alongside of Tony Fletcher's Jamming in the chart was an honour indeed, although I personally think Jamming should have featured much higher.

A copy of News of the World signed by all three of the band and John Weller.

And an advert from the NME February 1978 for the single courtesy of Paul Pender.

More excerpts from Dale Farrington’s scrap book are pictured below in the form of letters from The Jam’s fan club. It was amazing what dropped on your mat after sending off a few postal orders and stamped addressed envelopes! The secretary for The Jam’s fan club was Paul’s sister Nicky.

The end of 1978 and the release of 'All Mod Cons' marked a shift in direction for The Jam. It was a game changer of an album and for many including myself a life changer too. Here is a selection of 'All Mod Cons' press cuttings from Sounds.

The two press cuttings below taken from Sounds show the dates of The Jam's Apocalypse tour. On 14th November they played at the Birmingham Odeon. Carolyn Perry was in the audience. She has kindly shared her recollections of that amazing night.

The rare photograph of The Jam on stage and the ticket were sent by Russ Hunt. He bought the photo from one of the local record shops several days after the gig.

I can still remember the excitement of getting the train from Stourbridge to Birmingham on the evening of 14 November 1978 to go and see The Jam play at The Odeon. They were one of my favourite bands, All Mod Cons had just come out, and it was the first time that I was going to see them live. 

I don’t know what I was wearing when I left the house, but by the time I was on the train I was wearing my new PVC zipped skirt from Kahn and Bell in Hurst Street Birmingham (which felt like the Midlands’ answer to the shops on the Kings Road), an old school blazer and a few badges including an enamel ‘Head Girl’ badge and button badges such as the famous ‘If it ain’t stiff’, ‘Take me to your leader’ and ‘Is that a pistol in your pocket?’ The look was completed with dayglo pink and blue eye make up in stripes up to the hairline. Back then, there weren’t many people in Stourbridge who wore anything that might be associated with punk or new wave, so although this sounds tame nowadays it was a bit risky, especially alongside my boyfriend with his blond spiked hair and a dog collar. 

When we got to The Ramp at New Street in Birmingham it was great to see all the other people who were going to the gig (you could spot them a mile off) making their way to the Odeon, ‘I’ll meet you on The Ramp’ was how things were organised back then. There was such a buzz, like we all belonged to the same club.

The Odeon was a seated venue with a ‘no dancing’ rule, though obviously people rushed to the front as soon as possible. Patrik Fitzgerald was on first. He seemed so small and exposed standing on the stage with just his guitar. I seem to remember that he got a mixed reception, though we thought he was pretty good. The Dickies were up next, I didn’t know much about them then, but recall them being fast and frenetic and it was a bit of a relief when I recognised the Banana Splits song. 

The tension and excitement were building and suddenly there they were, Paul, Bruce and Rick looking so formal in their shirts and ties. When they started to play I thought I was going to burst, they were just so good, such a tight sound and every song a gem. I started to feel a bit panicked – time was going too fast, I was trying to savour every moment, but it was all happening too quickly. There’s no recording of that night and I can’t remember the exact set list, but there is of the next night in Coventry which must have been very similar. I do remember how good it felt though, everyone going crazy when they played Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, Bruce’s jumps, and thinking (randomly) that The Jam were the first three piece that I had seen – less is sometimes more. The crowd nearly brought the house down at ‘A’ Bomb in Wardour Street and I’m sure I remember pyrotechnics at the final ‘Apocalypse’. Encores followed, with everyone singing along to David Watts. I didn’t want it to end, but it did, and with the theme from Batman. Later I looked back and thought how bizarre it was that I’d heard the Banana Splits song and the Batman theme in one night. 

The train journey home was a blur – I was on a high. And it was a ‘school’ night, so there was the added bonus of being able to go into Sixth Form the next day and tell everyone that I had actually seen The Jam. 

You can listen to the Coventry gig, Wednesday November 15th 1978, here.

And to round off the first of my Jam memorabilia posts here is something very special from Steve Hinders. 

When Steve spent time at the home of the Weller family in 1979, John Weller gave him this incredible photo taken of Paul live on stage in New York. 

Steve believes the photo was taken by Corinne Patrick at a gig in Marcy, Utica New York dated March, 20th, 1978 at The Four Acres Club. Radio station WOUR broadcast it live or as a tape delay. There is a terrific bootleg of the show on YouTube.

Here is another photo from the gig also taken by Corinne Patrick. I love the way these amazing black and white photos capture all the excitement and raw energy of a gig by The Jam.

I hope you have enjoyed this unashamed nostalgia trip. A massive thank you to Steve Hinders, Stephen Chivers, Dale Farrington, Pete, Carolyn Perry, Russ Hunt and Paul Pender for sharing their treasures with me. Stay tuned for more of the same in part two, which will cover the years 1979-1980. 

Kindred Spirit Fanzine    Jill Webb Words

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