Before getting on to the main business of the day, just an update on the Bastard Virus here at Villain Towers. I continue to feel very little in the way of symptoms and am hopeful that I’ll test negative tomorrow to get back on my feet and going about my business. Rachel did, as anticipated, test positive the other day and looks set to be confined indoors till after Easter.
Oh, and if anyone is interested, there are two tickets still going free for Luke Haines + Peter Buck at Hebden Bridge Trade Club tomorrow night.
This post was originally scheduled for yesterday, but I’ve let if drift for 24 hours and, as it turns out, is something of a companion piece,
It’s almost 42 years since the release of Sound Affects, the fifth studio album by The Jam.
It followed All Mod Cons and Setting Sons, as well as being on the back of what the success of Going Underground, a non-album #1 single.
It proved not to be immediate as these previous releases, lacking the fast, angry, raucous anthems that had made the band such an attraction to us teenage adolescents, germ-free or otherwise. It was, however, packed with different types of anthems, this time less frantic, with messages that the world was an unfair place, particularly if you were not from the landed gentry or the monied class, themes that would continue to be examined by Paul Weller in what time remained with his band and later with The Style Council.
The opening song on the album is proving to be timeless:-
mp3: The Jam – Pretty Green
Power is measured by the pound or the fist.
Aye…..Rishi Sunak and Vlad Putin will vouch for that.
Pretty Green reflected the existence of £1 notes as the main tender in circulation for most folk in 1980. Just eight years later, the note was withdrawn by the Bank of England in favour of a coin, although Scottish banks continued to print their own version of the £1 note until 2001, a fact on its own which indicates we’ve never been as well-off as many of those who live in the south-east pocket of the UK.
I looked up the cost of a £1 note on eBay just now. It’s fair to say it varies, from £3 to £10,000. Do folk believe their eBay listing will attract such a stupid bid?
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
£10,000, you say? I hope they have 2 for sale? What an investment *pops off to ebay*
Sunak and Putin; two sides of the same coin (I know).
I’ve had the album on tape, vinyl and CD over the years. Started playing it again (a lot) during the first lockdown. Seemed to tie in with the paranoia and claustrophobia of 2020. I could happily do without Set The House Ablaze but I’ll be listening to the rest of it on the way way to work today.
Gott Im Himmel!! I just woke up right now with “Pretty Green” coursing through my skull and logged into WordPress to see what had happened while I was asleep and this was what greeted me! It’s doubly fascinating since I have not owned a copy of “Sound Affects” since 1985! Does it get more “zeitgeisty” than this?
Sound Affects has The Best Song By The Jam Of All: ‘But I’m Different Now’. I’m sure all will agree. Look after Rachel!