Category: Jam

The first of the really big hits.

Released on 8 July 1977, it climbed all the way to #13 in the UK singles charts which was a ridiculously good performance for just the second 45 from the band.  The single came out as the band were in the middle of their first ever British headlining tour which took in 36 dates between 7 June and 24 July.

mp3 : The Jam – All Around The World
mp3 : The Jam – Carnaby Street

It would go onto be re-released as a 7″ single by Polydor Records on two more occasions – in 1980 and 1983  hitting #43 and #38 respectively.

Three additional recordings on offer today. The first being a very heavy bass-led version from the band’s second session for John Peel recorded on 19 July 1977 and broadcast six days later:-

mp3 : The Jam – All Around The World (Peel Session)

The second is the taken from the same session:-

mp3 : The Jam – Carnaby Street (Peel Session)

Then there’s a frantic and energetic live version that closed a gig at the Paris Theatre in London recorded for the BBC series Sight and Sound:-

mp3 : The Jam – All Around The World (live)

Enjoy

I’m assuming that all regular readers will be aware of The Jam and so I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by doing any potted history or bios. Instead, I’m going to use this new series as a way of giving myself a bit of an occasional rest by simply re-producing the sleeve, posting up the tracks and offering small bits of trivia and the occasional alternative version.

The debut single was released on 29 April 1977 and reached #40 in the singles charts, the first of 18 successive chart hits for the band.

It would go onto be re-released as a 7″ single by Polydor Records on three more occasions – in 1980, 1983 and 2002, hitting #40,, #47 and #36 respectively, meaning that its best chart performance was a full 25 years after its initial release.

mp3 : The Jam – In The City
mp3 : The Jam – Takin’ My Love

A live version, recorded at the 100 Club in London on 11 September 1977 was later made available on the live LP Dig The New Breed:-

mp3 : The Jam – In The City (live)

Two other versions on offer today.  The first is an alternative mix (possibly a demo) released as part of the Direction, Reaction Creation box set:-

mp3 : The Jam – In The City (version)

And finally, from a session recorded for John Peel on 26 April 1977 and broadcast six days later:-

mp3 : The Jam – In The City (Peel Session)

Enjoy

I mentioned a box set by The Clash the other day.  One of the few other box sets I own is Direction, Reaction, Creation which is a 5-disc released in 1996 and offering more than 100 tracks by The Jam.

It also came with lavish packaging and a great booklet which contained summary details of the band’s live performances.  That’s where I’m able to see that, having just got myself at the age 16 to get into the habit of getting to see as many live performances as possible at the Glasgow Apollo (I was still too young to see bands play in pubs or sttudent unions), that I caught The Jam for the first time on Saturday 8 December 1979 during their extensive UK tour to promote Setting Sons (29 gigs in 34 days).  I would also catch the band on the four subsequent times they played the venue before they broke up in 1982.

My love for the band had been re-ignited by the LP All Mod Cons.  I had bought and enjoyed In The City but having been bitterly disappointed by follow-up The Modern World had, in that teenage way where it is so easy to discard something or someone, decided I didn’t really like The Jam.

All Mod Cons was released in November 1978.  But it was during 1979 that The Jam really began to establish themselves as my favourite band on account of an astonishing run of singles:-.

First up in March was this:-

mp3 : The Jam – Strange Town
mp3 : The Jam – The Butterfly Collector

There can be no argument that this was and remains an incredible piece of plastic. The A-side is powerful and fast while the B-side is slow and hanting….but both contain really sad and moving lyrics. The A-side being the tale of someone lost, lonely and alienated having been lured to the capital by the bright lights and promises of streets paved with gold, while the B-side is sorry and lurid tale of a groupie whose best days are behind her, but not that she has cottoned onto that fact. It’s worth remembering that Paul Weller was a musician very much in love with a long-term girlfriend and this was his response to the sorts of offers that seemingly most famous young rock musicians get while they are out on tour.

That #15 hit was followed up in August with this:-

mp3 : The Jam – When You’re Young
mp3 : The Jam – Smithers-Jones

An anthem of and for disaffected youth backed with a bitter tale of middle-aged failure. Is it any wonder that so many discerning teenagers in particular latched onto The Jam and proclaimed them as the greatest, most exciting and most relevant band ever? I was 16 years of age when this single was released…and it just seemed to be the story of my whole existence. And as for the b-side…it was a throwback to some of the earlier and well-received Jam singles as it gave space to Bruce Foxton to sing one of his songs, and this I would argue was his finest in all his time with the band. I was 16 years of age when this b-side was released…and it just seemed to be a well-timed warning not to throw my lot in with any old corporation.

That #17 hit was followed up in December with this:-

mp3 : The Jam – The Eton Rifles
mp3 : The Jam – See-Saw

Personally, I thought the last of them was the weakest of the three, but it did give the band their first Top 10 single at the ninth attempt. Oh and every single afterwards (with the exception of the import-only That’s Entertainment) would also go Top 10.

And it was the NME Single Of The Year for 1979.

At the time of release, many thought that Paul Weller had written an autobiographical song, but in fact it was inspired by a happening from the previous year.

A ‘Right to Work’ march had gone through the town of Slough, an event that wasn’t universally received locally – particularly by a group of well-heeled scholars from the nearby Eton College. The marchers were jeered and ridiculed by the scholars which then developed into a situation of a stand-off between the two sides.

Some of the marchers from an organised far-left political party then led a charge into the scholars and a series of stand-up fights ensued…unfortunately many of the marchers got a kicking as the posh boys from Eton turned out to be younger, fitter and more than capable of looking after themselves. Reports indicated that those who had instigated the fight were the first to flee the scene when they realised they were going to get a hiding, thus some of Weller’s most scathing lines:-

” What a catalyst you turned out to be
Loaded the guns then you run off home for your tea
Left me standing like a guilty schoolboy.”

Paul Weller celebrated his 21st birthday in the calendar year of 1979.  He was an astonishingly prodigious talent.

With a tremendous title, lifted from a line in Jilted John, today’s friend electric is one of the longest-running out there, dating back to December 2006.

Crying All The Way to the Chip Shop delivers ‘the sentimental musings of an ageing expat in words, music, and pictures’ and in a way that is incredibly stylish, wonderfully laid-out and as easy to navigate your way around as the London Underground map. But then again, given that London Lee (LL) is a graphic designer by profession it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise.

It’s all very well for a blog or website to look great, but LL also pulls off the trick of coming up with the content to match. Here’s a gem from January 2010:-

The First Time I Felt Old

It was 7:15 in the evening on Friday the 3rd of December, 1982. I know because I still have the ticket.

I was at one the The Jam’s farewell shows at Wembley Arena and even though I was only 20 myself at the time I felt like one of the oldest people there as the hall seemed to be full of 14-year-old boys wearing cheap Parkas that looked like their Mum had bought them in Millets. It was like being in the audience for Crackerjack or an England Schoolboys football game, and for the first time in my life the words “bloody kids” came into my head and I had that awful feeling of smug superiority that I had been a Jam fan from way, way, way back, long before they were stadium-playing superstars – four years at least! Where were all these spotty little bandwagon-jumpers then, huh? Mucking about with their Tonka Toys probably. I had to fight the urge to grab one of them by the Parka and say “Of course, they were so much better at The Rainbow in ’78. I was there, you know” as if I was some grizzled old hippie droning on about Woodstock.

Several massive hit singles and a Mod revival had happened since that last gig and my mate and I both came to the the rather snotty conclusion that we understood why Weller was breaking up the group if this was their audience now — and selling out Wembley five nights in a row wasn’t very “punk” was it? — which is exactly the sort of condescending attitude you’d expect from a 20-year-old who thinks he knows it all (don’t they all?) But looking back now I feel bad for those kids, they were at the age when they were starting to get into music seriously and I can imagine how important The Jam were to them because I remember that feeling well myself. Paul Weller was your hero and you would hang on his every word for tips on what to wear, what to read, what old records to buy, even how to vote. And then — maybe in the same week you bought a George Orwell novel because Paul mentioned him in an NME interview — the bastard went and broke the band up. Who did that leave you with? Secret Affair??? That’s like losing a pound and finding a penny — well, 50p maybe.

I don’t remember much about the actual gig itself apart from Weller smashing up his guitar Pete Townsend-style after he tripped over his guitar lead and Bruce hanging around on the stage waving to the crowd at the end long after Paul had buggered off. But I do have a bootleg of the concert from the night before at Wembley which is about as close as I’ll ever get to recreating that magical night when I became an old git.

Download: Precious – The Jam (mp3)
Download: Move On Up – The Jam (mp3)
Download: Boy About Town – The Jam (mp3)
(Live at Wembley, December 2nd, 1982)

Another reason why I had no right to feel superior to those kids: When I was their age I was into ELO.

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Sadly, I don’t have the songs from the bootleg so instead I will offer versions from my own collection of music from the trio who, more than any other, turned me into a music obsessive:-

mp3 : The Jam – Precious (demo)
mp3 : The Jam – Move On Up (live on’The Tube’)
mp3 : The Jam – Boy About Town (flexidisc version)

LL has also taken some of his best postings and turned them into two volumes of books. Click here for more details. I’ve just placed an order for both of them….

More Friends Electric tomorrow