I initially didn’t like Beat Surrender. I couldn’t really bring myself to accept that The Jam were breaking up and the one band that I’d ever slept overnight outside the box office would never be becoming back again to the Glasgow Apollo. It was a real sore one to take.
I also didn’t like Beat Surrender as it was absolutely nothing like all my favourite Jam singles like Tube Station, Strange Town, When You’re Young etc. OK, it was a tad like Precious as it had trumpets on it and that was a song I’d grown more fond of the more I got used to it, but I just so had wanted the last single to be a throwback to the angry young man who wanted to tear down the oppressive systems.
That was November 1982….fast forward 15 weeks and the release the debut single by The Style Council, the new group formed by Paul Weller. He has been telling everyone via the music papers (which in those days was the only way you could get news and information out to fans) that the new band was not really like The Jam although you would spot a link from the later material from his former new wave/post-punk/mod combo if you listened close enough.
By this time, I had gotten over the break up of The Jam. There was enough happening out there in the early 80s to make any 19 year old think it was the most exciting time imaginable, both in terms of getting out to gigs and increasingly getting to hear things in a number of what were being described as ‘alternative’ discos (dance clubs had still to be invented!!) or on the sticky floors of various student unions.
So when I finally heard Speak Like A Child, I did so with a different mindset and an acceptance that whatever they were, TSC were not The Jam. It made it very easy to realise I was hearing a great pit of pop music….and to realise that I should go back and re-assess Beat Surrender as a pop record and not as a new wave release.
It’s coming up to the 32nd anniversary of the news that The Jam were breaking up (time flies) and both singles remain, all these years later, very very listenable and very very danceable:-
mp3 : The Jam – Beat Surrender
mp3 : The Style Council – Speak Like A Child
Enjoy
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Both of these are really good singles. TSC one possibly shades it.
Have to agree with SA. I must say, though, that Precious still grates on me a bit Villain.