Welcome to the final post in my trilogy of scrapbooks covering The Jam years 1981 and 1982.
I have been blown away by some of the information people have shared with me and the feedback I've received about the last two scrapbooks. I hope you will enjoy this wander down memory lane too.
Putting these posts together has really highlighted to me how dramatically things changed over the course of The Jam’s short but explosive career. With hindsight you can see the split was inevitable although it took many of us a while to accept it.
In the Desperately Seeking Paul podcast Steve Hinders and I took part in I spoke about how in the months after The Jam split, a group of friends and I started a petition asking them to reform. I know for certain there were many others who felt the same way. In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear there were petitions all over the country filled with signatures from heartbroken fans. With hindsight it is clear to see The Jam’s legacy is an important part of a much bigger picture.
In this post I have made every effort to include material that reflects the change of direction Paul was taking throughout The Jam's later years. The foundations were most definitely being laid for The Style Council and Paul’s later involvement with the Red Wedge movement.
So without further ado, let’s get started with a selection of press cuttings courtesy of Steve Hinders and Paul Pender.
Between 1978 and 1982 the BBC broadcast a programme specifically targeted at a late teens/young adult audience called ‘Something Else’. It provided a platform for young unknown presenters and featured bands such as Joy Division, Skids, The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Jam. If you were interested in punk/new wave music and youth culture it was essential viewing.
The ethos of the show was very much in line with that of Paul Weller’s Riot Stories publishing company.
In one of the letters Paul wrote to Steve Hinders he mentioned asking the BBC if he could create his own episode of Something Else. Robin Richards, Anne Clarke and Steve (Tufty) Carver were also involved in the making of the show. It was broadcast in October 1981 and included an interesting mix of features.
- A live performance by The Questions playing ‘Troubles’
- A feature about the class system from both sides of the street as seen through the eyes of young people.
- The Jam - Man In The Corner Shop
- Poetry by Aidan Cant.
- A feature about youth clubs.
- Dolly Mixture - Been Teen.
- Poetry by Anne Clark.
- A feature on books and publications specifically those written by and targeted at young people.
- The Jam - Funeral Pyre.
I clearly remember being riveted by the content of the show when I first watched it. In fact this episode of Something Else, combined with a purchase of a Riot Stories publication named ‘The Individual Spoke’ a year or so later played a big part in me taking the decision to start my own fanzine.
Throughout 1980 and 1981 Paul Weller published his own fanzine - ‘December Child’ through Riot Stories. There were three issues in total. The fanzines included poetry and other written pieces by a range of unknown young writers. Paul contributed his own poetry too. As with many Riot Stories publications, the fanzines were only available via mail order. They had small print runs, making them something of a collector’s item now.
Here are several pages from December Child issue three, published in 1981. The first image features poetry by Anne Clark and the next four are pieces of writing by Paul. I wonder what Weller's World Shuttle Flights might have sounded like put to music.
There is much more background about Riot Stories and December Child examples in my November 2020 blog post.
Someone who could well have been included in the pages of
Paul's Riot Stories publications (if he'd been born at the time!) is
writer Shaun Patrick Hand. Shaun was so influenced by the music of The Jam he
decided to write a book about it called ‘Pop Art Poems The Music Of The Jam'
I was fortunate to make a connection with Shaun on Twitter and I was keen to know more about how he came to write the book.
I’ll hand over to Shaun to explain…
I don’t remember a specific point where I
decided to write a book about The
I was 27, and it was just after Christmas 2011. That Christmas Eve, I’d been let go from a bar job I hated. It had been a tough few months: 13-hour shifts for minimum wage, being yelled at for using the wrong kind of spoon etc. I was exhausted and on anti-depressants. For a couple of days, I slept. Then, one morning, I stumbled on a picture of Paul Weller’s ‘Favourites of 1982’ from the NME, which mentioned the likes of Shalamar, Wham! and ‘In and Out’ by Willie Hutch. I was taken with the idea of how those kinds of sounds would’ve played into The Jam’s final days, and through that, I decided to make a start on the book.
I was unemployed for six weeks, so I spent a lot of time in the library and on Google, finding any references to The Jam I could and investigating any records, books, or films they mentioned. It gave me a project to focus on and a whole new angle to view my favourite band from.
The thing is, I’m a great procrastinator, and I’m also in a band myself, so the book didn’t get finished until summer 2016. I aimed to find a publisher, but one of the first people I asked to look at it was Ian Snowball, who told me he had a similar book coming out (Sounds from the Studio). Panicked, I decided to self-publish immediately, got my credit card out, and ordered 1000 copies. Thanks to a couple of social media shares from the likes of Stuart Deabill and Derek D’Souza (who I’d drunkenly messaged on Facebook, asking to use one of his pics for the cover), it got a decent amount of pre-orders and word-of-mouth started spreading. Then it got reviewed in All Mod Icon and Heavy Soul fanzines, which helped again.
At some point, I sent Dennis Munday a copy,
and he reviewed it on his Facebook page, which meant it sold 40 copies in one
day—the Post Office used to dread me walking in! When The Jam exhibition was in
For me, The Jam rarely get the credit they deserve as musicians—Bruce and Rick very much included; it all gets lost in mod targets and nostalgia. When you try and work out some of the bass lines and drum patterns, you quickly realise how clever they are. That musicianship, along with amazing lyrics, political commitment, and things like Riot Stories is what puts The Jam head-and-shoulders above all the shitty rent-a-Mod bands. Listen to, I dunno, ‘Scrape Away’ or ‘Shopping’, they were just fucking amazing. Pop Art Poems was partly my attempt, however small, at conveying that to people whether they’re musicians or not.
Some people have asked if I’ll be doing one on The Style Council. In some ways, that might be a more interesting book because the influences were even more diverse, but I don’t want to spend my life writing about the same artist(s), however great they are. That said, a Kindle version of Pop Art Poems is on my to-do list, which I’ll probably get round to in 2025!
Other stuff by me:
The Sadness of The King George (out Feb ’21) https://amzn.to/3rElWTo
The New Brutalism (out now) https://kateshillpress.com/product/the-new-brutalism-shaun-hand-and-tom-hicks/
My band: https://fabriktheband.bandcamp.com/
Let's hope we get to see the Kindle edition of Shaun's book at some point. I will certainly have my name down for a copy, but in the meantime here are one or two pages to give you a flavour of what it's all about.
Whilst we are talking about “Pop Art Poems”, it seems like an opportune moment to share some information about a rather short-lived 1980s publication called Flexipop. This legendary music magazine included a free coloured flexi disc with each issue.
The Jam featured on the front cover of issue 2. The magazine included a flexi disc of a rather unique track called… you’ve guessed it ‘Pop Art Poem’. This track was subsequently included in the 1992 Extras album.
If you thought Liza Radley and Shopping had a surreal, psychedelic feel about them, you have got to check this out! To bring things back down to earth, Boy About Town is included on the same disc.
Paul Pender dug deep into his box of treasures to provide me with this photo of the magazine and disc.
Paul Weller also featured in the pages of issue 4 of Flexipop where he gave his views on television programmes of the time.
Minder and Dangerous Davies got a thumbs up, but he was clearly not impressed by The Good Life and To The Manor Born.
David Bentley, who must surely have been a contender for The Jam fan of the year award shared these four Spanish singles.
Two 12 inch discs from Paul Pender's collection.
And a bootleg cassette tape recorded at Leicester de Montford Hall in March 1982 courtesy of Wiff Smith.
Several days earlier his friend Dave was at the Trenton War Memorial gig in New Jersey. He gave Steve the flyer below. I love the way The Jam were referred to as 'England's #1 rock and roll band' in the USA.
This next story is another of my personal favourites.
Back in December 1981 a Mod band from Burton on Trent called REACTION supported The Jam for a one off gig at the Hammersmith Palais.
I was lucky enough to make a connection with singer and bass guitarist Bruno Gallone who shared with me the unbelievable story of how the support slot came about.
A month after our very first gig in Dec 1980, I began writing to John Weller and also Dennis Munday at Polydor records asking for a gig. When I look back, it does make me laugh a little at the sheer “balls” and the nerve of my young 18 year old self but it was because I was such a massive Jam fan.
Then in late Sept 81, I phoned Polydor records and in a “mock London accent” I pretended I was John Weller’s brother (I don’t know if he actually had one), saying I was supposed to be coming to a wedding but had lost his phone number.
Bizarrely, they gave me his home phone number. I phoned and couldn’t believe it when Paul Weller answered! I composed myself and said “Can I speak to your dad please?” When John Weller came to the phone, I pretended to be the manager of REACTION and said that we had spoke at a recent Leicester De Montford Hall gig about REACTION supporting The Jam and that he gave me his number to chat about it.
I’m sure he must have thought it was true and told me to ring back a little later. I guess he dug out the letters and tapes I’d been sending over the last 6 months.
People have always asked how they treated us and in all honesty, they were amazing. John Weller and the rest of the band were so great to us and because they treated us like a band, it was very easy to chat with them before and after the gig.
One of my best memories was actually the sound check. The Jam sound checks are well documented and as a fan I had been to a lot of them, seeing them building from 6 or 7 only to around 40. By the time our soundcheck, there were more than 500 people so up until that night, it was once of the biggest audiences we performed in front of. Once we tested all the various sections, we played one of our songs called Can You See Me.
From the stage I could see John Weller standing with Bruce and Rick watching. At the side of the stage Paul Weller was playing cards with some of their roadies, when he suddenly stopped, looked over to his dad and gave a nod of approval. What a moment!
Their latest single is called ‘All Those Years Ago’ and is well worth a listen too. It has a cool melodic feel about it and I love the way it plays out with the Likely Lads. Really in keeping with the sentiments of the song. You can find it on Spotify.
I remember reading a review of a Jam gig at some point when I was scouring the music press for any snippet of information I could find. I can’t remember who wrote the review but what sticks in my head is how he/she said even though there were only three members of the band, the sheer energy of their live performance gave the impression there were many more people on the stage. That was the one thing that immediately struck me too when they broke into their first song, which if I recall correctly was 'Ghosts'. In fact the whole experience was so powerful it was overwhelming. I think I spent most of the gig staring wide eyed at the stage. Seeing and hearing all those songs I’d played in the privacy of my home being brought to life in a way I could never have imagined was a memorable and awe inspiring experience.
Highlights of the set for me were Pretty Green, Carnation and Away From The Numbers.
Someone else who was in the audience at this very gig was Paul Pender. Here is his ticket and programme.
In the letter below sent to Steve Hinders by Paul in December 1982, only 10 days after The Jam's final gig he mentions the work he is doing with Tracie and The Questions. (Who remembers The House That Jack Built?) These were just two of the artists to feature on Paul's Respond label.
This letter is a piece of treasure in my opinion. I am particularly fascinated by the line where he says "I'm really excited about my new prospects, (or even non prospects!) It will be a challenge either way."
It was a challenge that paid off Paul!
I always believed when Paul started his Respond label it was the musical equivalent of Riot Stories. He was giving new bands and artists a platform.
This advert taken from the Solid Bond In Your Heart programme marked the start of the next chapter in Paul Weller’s amazing story.
The second time I saw the Jam was on the Beat Surrender tour at Bridlington Spa in December 1982. This was an altogether different experience. There was an unmistakeable air of sadness hanging like a grey cloud over the crowd, but strangely it felt like a celebration at the same time. It was as if we were preparing to say goodbye to a dear friend.
I purposely wore black for the occasion and remember making myself a makeshift pendant with the words "The end is nigh" emblazoned across it. Thankfully I don't have any photographic evidence of this but it certainly summed up the mood of the crowd.
David Bentley blew a week's wages on tickets for all five shows at Wembley. It comes as no surprise to know they were all a sell out.
Through their music Paul, Bruce and Rick reached out and spoke to us in a way very few bands have been able to. They inspired us and made sense of things. The emotional attachment fans of The Jam have to the band is something that has withstood the test of time too. Some 38 years after they played their last gig in
He summed it up perfectly (as Steve always does). It's something that never leaves you.
In the Beat Surrender tour programme Paul, Bruce and Rick wrote farewell messages to the fans. Here they are:
This seems like the perfect place to draw things to a close.
It has been an absolute honour and a pleasure to be able to share all the wonderful memories and memorabilia people have been kind enough to share with me over the course of the three Jam scrapbooks. A massive thank you to everyone who has contributed. If you have enjoyed reading the scrapbooks even half as much as I’ve enjoyed compiling then I have achieved my aim.
If you would like to join me on Twitter here are the links.
Kindred Spirit Fanzine Jill Webb Words
If you have enjoyed what you've seen here, please feel free to share using one of the buttons below.
Love that picture of the entry to the Wembley gigs.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to go to one of those shows. My ticket is long lost, sadly, but this picture will suffice.
Thank you taking the time to chronicle all this.
A great band, made all the greater by the decision to stop when they did.