In the City (1977)
This Is the Modern World (1977)
All Mod Cons (1978)
Setting Sons (1979)
Sound Affects (1980)
The Gift (1982)
Live albums
Dig the New Breed (1982)
Live Jam (1993)
The Jam at the BBC (2002)
Compilations
Snap! (1983)
Compact Snap! (1985)
All The Choice Cuts (1990)
Greatest Hits (1991)
Extras (1992)
Wasteland (1992)
Beat Surrender (1993)
The Jam Collection (1996)
The Master Series (1997)
The Very Best of The Jam (1997)
The Sound of the Jam (2002)
The Best Of The Jam -
The Millennium Collection
(20th Century Masters) (2003)
Gold (2005)
The Jam Story (2006)
Box Sets
Direction Reaction Creation (1997)
45 rpm: The Singles 1977-1979 (2001)
45 rpm: The Singles 1980-1982 (2001)
For all Jam Fans there's a book by The Jam's Official Photographerand Friend, Twink.
Twink has published photo's of The Jam that until now have remained unseen.
(1972–1976)
The Jam formed in Woking, Surrey, England, in 1972. The line-up was fluid at this stage, consisting of Paul Weller on guitar and lead vocals together with various friends at Sheerwater Secondary School. They played their first gigs at Michael's, a local club. Mid 1970s saw Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton, guitarist Steve Brookes and drummer Rick Buckler. In their early years, their sets consisted of covers of early American rock and roll songs by the likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Eventually Steve Brookes left the band, and was not replaced. Up to this point Paul Weller had been playing bass and Bruce Foxton had been the band's second guitar player; Paul persuaded Bruce to take over on bass and developed a combined lead/rhythm guitar style influenced by The Who’s Pete Townshend as well as Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson. The line-up of Weller, Foxton, and Buckler would persist until the end of The Jam’s career. They were managed by Weller’s father, John Weller, who managed Paul’s career until he died in 2009.
In the following two years, The Jam gained a small following around London from playing minor gigs, becoming one of the new lights on the nascent punk scene. In many ways, however, they stood out from their punk peers. Though they shared an "angry young men" outlook, short hair, crushing volume and lightning-fast tempos, The Jam wore neatly tailored suits where others wore ripped clothes, played professionally where others were defiantly amateurish, and displayed clear 1960s rock influences where others were disdainful (at least ostensibly) of such music (which had been a major influence on the "stadium rock" and "prog rock" of the 1970s). Indeed, the band were tagged by some journalists as "revivalists". They were signed to Polydor Records by Chris Parry in early 1977.
(1977)
On 29 April 1977, Polydor released The Jam's debut single,"In the City", which charted in the Top 40 in England. In early May, the band released their debut album of the same name.
After the non-LP single "All Around the World" nearly reached the UK Top 10, The Jam, having achieved a notable following in such a short time, were pressed to produce more material quickly. Their second album, This Is the Modern World, was released later in 1977. When the late John Peel first heard the album, he played it in its entirety on one show, one song after the other.
(1978)
In March 1978, the Jam released "News of the World", a non-album single that was both written and sung by Foxton. It charted at 27 in the UK, and was the band's second biggest hit to date.
Returning to his hometown of Woking, Weller spent much of his time listening to albums by The Kinks and coming up with new songs. The Jam released their next single, the double A-side "David Watts"/"'A' Bomb in Wardour Street". "David Watts" was a cover of The Kinks classic; Weller and Foxton traded lead vocals throughout the song. "'A' Bomb In Wardour Street" was a Weller original. One of their hardest and most intense songs, Weller cursed the violent thugs that plagued the punk rock scene over a taut two-chord figure. It became their most successful 7" since "All Around the World".
It wasn't until their next single, "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", that The Jam really regained their former critical acclaim. The song was a dramatic account of being mugged by thugs who "smelled of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many right-wing meetings." Around this time, The Jam slimmed their team of two producers to one, Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, who helped develop the group's sound with harmonised guitars and acoustic textures.
In 1978, the Jam released their third LP, All Mod Cons, which included three previously released tracks among the 12 in total: "David Watts", "'A' Bomb In Wardour Street", and "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight". (It also contained two songs Polydor had previously rejected for single release, the manic "Billy Hunt" and the acoustic ballad "English Rose".)
(1979–1981)
Following two successful and critically acclaimed non-LP singles, "Strange Town" and "When You're Young", the band released "The Eton Rifles" in advance of their new album. It became their first top 10, rising to 3 on the UK charts.
November 1979 saw the release of the Setting Sons album, another massive UK hit, and their first chart entry in the U.S A notable song from the album was Bruce Foxton's "Smithers-Jones", originally a b-side to "When You're Young". The song is almost unanimously considered to be his greatest contribution to The Jam; the song was given a complete makeover, including a strings arrangement, for the album release.
The band's first single of 1980 was intended to be "Dreams of Children" Due to a labelling error, however, the a- and b-sides of the single were reversed, resulting in the more conventional "Going Underground", the single's planned flipside, getting much more airplay and attention than "Dreams of Children". As a result, only "Going Underground" was initially listed on the charts, although the single was eventually officially recognised (and listed) as a double A-side by the time the release reached 1 in the UK.
Sound Affects was released in 1980. Several of the songs recall Revolver-era swirling psychedelia, such as "Monday", "Man in the Corner Shop", and the acoustic "That's Entertainment". Paul Weller allegedly wrote "That's Entertainment" in around 15 minutes upon returning (under the influence) from the pub. Despite being only available as an import single, it peaked at 21 on the UK charts, an unprecedented feat. It is now arguably The Jam's most celebrated song. Despite the group's lack of commercial success in America, it even made American magazine Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
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"Start!", released before the album, became another 1 single. The album was a 2 hit in the UK and peaked at 72 on the US Billboard charts, their most successful American album.
(1981–1982)
Two non-LP singles, "Funeral Pyre" and "Absolute Beginners", abandoned the psychedelic pop of Sound Affects; "Absolute Beginners" (named after a cult novel of the same title) had a more R&B-flavoured sound, and "Funeral Pyre" was influenced by New Wave music. "Funeral Pyre" is built around Buckler's drumming, and is the only song in the group's catalogue that carries a joint Buckler/Foxton/Weller writing credit, aside from the Sound Affects track "Music for the Last Couple". ("Funeral Pyre" and "Music for the Last Couple" are the only songs for which Buckler receives any writing credit).
The 1982 release The Gift — the band's final LP — was a massive commercial success, peaking at 1 on the UK charts. When "Town Called Malice" reached number one the group had the honour of performing both it and its double A-side, "Precious" on TOTP - the only other band to be accorded this honour being the Beatles.
After the string-laden soul ballad "The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow)" peaked at 2, the band followed with their finale and another 1, "Beat Surrender". The Beat Surrender EP had success in the British charts, and both its graphic design and music resembles early Style Council releases.
After a farewell tour of the UK and appearances on Top of the Pops and The Tube to promote Beat Surrender, Weller disbanded the group.
After The Jam
Paul Weller, who felt he had done all he could with The Jam, then formed The Style Council with Mick Talbot of The Merton Parkas. After they split up in 1989, Weller went on to pursue a solo career.
In 1983, Bruce Foxton was for a short time involved in a band with Jake Burns and Dolphin Taylor, which released several demos. Arista Records offered Foxton a solo deal and he signed up for a solo album, Touch Sensitive, which was released in 1984. When Ali McMordie left Stiff Little Fingers shortly before they were due to go on tour, Foxton joined the band until January 2006, when he quit to pursue other projects.
After the Jam split, Rick Buckler formed Time UK with Tom Robinson Band guitarist Danny Kustow. They released three singles. In 1986, Buckler and Foxton released a single under the name Sharp.
A five-CD box set Direction Reaction Creation, featuring all of The Jam's studio material (plus a disc of rarities) peaked at 8 on the UK album charts upon its release in 1997; an unprecedented achievement for a box set. In 2002, Virgin Radio counted down the top 100 British music artists of all-time as polled by listeners and The Jam were 5 on the list. Weller made two other appearances in the poll; as part of The Style Council at 93 and as a solo artist at 21.[5]
In June 2006, it was reported that Weller and Foxton met backstage at The Who's Hyde Park concert, and a ten-minute conversation ended with an embrace.
Rick Buckler had not been playing for several years after The Jam quit, and he formed a band playing Jam material, The Gift. with Russell Hastings on lead guitar/vocals and Dave Moore on bass.
In 2006, Bruce Foxton performed on stage with Buckler at The Gift concerts in Chichester, Brighton and Birmingham, while he was still with The Casbah Club which rekindled rumours of a full or partial reunion of The Jam in 2007, for the 30th anniversary of the band’s signing.
Foxton stayed on with The Gift, causing a name change to From The Jam. In an official press release in 2007, Foxton and Buckler announced that they were working on a new album and UK tour [6], which sold out in ten days. Weller did not take part, and has publicly expressed his lack of interest in any type of reformation.In a 2006 interview with BBC Radio 6 Music, Weller stated that a Jam reunion would "never, ever happen", and that reformations are "sad". He said "Me and my children would have to be destitute and starving in the gutter before I'd even consider that, and I don't think that'll happen anyway ... [the Jam's music] still means something to people and a lot of that's because we stopped at the right time, it didn't go on and become embarrassing."
From The Jam toured the UK in autumn 2007, finishing with a concert at Brighton Centre on 21 December 2007 to mark the 25th anniversary of The Jam's final show. In February 2008, they toured the United States and Canada, selling out in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago and New York. In March 2008, they toured Australia and New Zealand - a first for Foxton and Buckler.
FROM THE JAM DVD RELEASED NOVEMBER 2008
A totally sold-out and rapturously-received From The Jam show was recorded in December 2007 at London’s Kentish Town Forum and was released as the “‘A First Class Return’ From The Jam”, DVD in November 2008 through Invisible Hands Music. It will be available to order at www.afirstclassreturn.com and all good music retailers.
This release captures the truly electric celebratory atmosphere, the band’s pervasive love of the songs plus the incredible crowd participation and feedback.
From The Jam perform all The Jam’s greatest hits and classic album tracks including Start, Going Underground, That’s Entertainment and other Jam originals written by Bruce Foxton including News of The World and Smithers-Jones.
After a sell out UK Tour in December 2008, Dave Moore played his last gig with From The Jam on 22nd December at The Hammersmith Apollo.
On Saturday, September 12, 2009 Rick Buckler announced he was leaving From The Jam "It is with some regret that I can no longer be involved with From The Jam, many thanks to the fans for all their support over the last few years and who have made it possible, it has been a pleasure and an honour".
From The Jam have continued with on Mark Brzezicki (formerly of Big Country and Casbah Club) on drums and will be touring December 2009.
Dave Moore has just completed his new album with Squire Circle - details to follow
Rick Buckler continues withThe Jam Fan website, Forum and Myspace as well as doing interviews around the country. Any new news reagrding Rick will be announced here, the website and The Jam Fan Forum
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