Any Fans of The Jam?

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 4:42 am

Agreed Otis -

I think they were really at their peak right around Setting Sons - and the singles surrounding it. Not only the When Your Young/Smithers Jones single, but Strangetown - and the absolute killer Going Underground/Dreams of Children -

Big time fame and fortune was elusive for them in the States - a combination of bad marketing and an unsophisticated public.

Chair - Pick up the dvd - it's a bargain!!

For those of you have seen it - Weller comes off as quite a git (part of my new vocabulary) in the interview with the nice young lady from Sweden, doesn't he?

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 5:17 am

I love Liza Radley too, I remember putting it on one of the Tower of Song's once and Otis questioning what it was then

.

I've probably mentioned this elsewhere but I saw Weller live last December and it was a top gig, still worth seeing.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 4:16 pm

Memory of an elephant! I'm beginning to embarrass myself. And the irony is, I have the Start 45'! That's why the title was naggingly familiar, but I think I played it once and dismissed it. I still have vinyl, but it was one of those with a flimsy insert in the middle that came out! Another reason to get Direction, Reaction, Creation. Surely someone here has that - it's a must for a Jam diehard. It has everything on it. 5 CDs, booklet, all their songs (inc. Liza Radley!), and two versions of So Sad About Us.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 05-6054861

I assume the asterisk means not previously released (on CD, at least).

It will provide me suitable compensation for turning 40 this summer...

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 6:25 am

Sorry - just bringing this back to the fore.

I still have some tapes if anyone's interested.

PM me. So far there are hundreds of satisfied customers (well 8 actually!)

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:33 am

"Lights out and a kick in the balls!"

A Town Called Malice was used to great effect in the movie Billy Elliot. The back street scenes shown
as it plays make me reminisce about parts of Sydney where I lived as a uni student (Balmain, and the
inner west).

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 4:19 pm

bambooneedle wrote:"Lights out and a kick in the balls!"

A Town Called Malice was used to great effect in the movie Billy Elliot. The back street scenes shown
as it plays make me reminisce about parts of Sydney where I lived as a uni student (Balmain, and the
inner west).

You must have been there quite some time ago... Balmain is hardly your typical working class suburb anymore - for the wealthy only these days I'm afraid

Don't know how much of Sydney you recall, but we live in Dulwich Hill (in the inner west and bounded by Marrickville and Petersham). Prior to that I lived in Marrickville, Enmore, and Newtown... so I am slowly moving from the innermost inner west to the outer perimieter of the inner west

A Town Called Malice brings back fond memories for me, because a band I was in used to cover it (that and Tube Station at Midnight).

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 3:36 pm

It was around '90ish, and more toward the Rozelle end, not so much towards the wharf. I went to what had been the Sydney College of the Arts buildings (SCA, they became part of UTS, now converted to ugly units btw, which proves your point), and I'd walk very similar streets and alleys with Victorian terraces etc. Even the sunlight looked the same.

I love the inner west and have lived at Petersham, Stanmore, St.Peters, and lastly Newtown (love strolling up and down King St)... it loses its charm around Croydon and Canterbury, I think, so you're still fine. Have recently moved to Merrylands, just off Parramatta, which is like living in another town altogether.

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:13 pm

Heh... and here I was answering your post based on an assumption that you no longer lived in Australia

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 4:57 am

Going to catch the Hoodoo Gurus? They have a few more local shows before they take off to Europe and the US. I just saw them at Revesby with Spiderbait.

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:39 pm

bambooneedle wrote:Going to catch the Hoodoo Gurus? They have a few more local shows before they take off to Europe and the US. I just saw them at Revesby with Spiderbait.

No, unfortunately my days of traipsing out to see bands has been seriously curtailed by having two young kiddies

How were they?

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu May 06, 2004 6:09 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Another reason to get Direction, Reaction, Creation. Surely someone here has that - it's a must for a Jam diehard. It has everything on it. 5 CDs, booklet, all their songs (inc. Liza Radley!), and two versions of So Sad About Us.

Yes, someone here has it: Otis of Westinghouse Mansions. I was getting so back into them with VG's lovely bootlegs (thanks again, mate!), I just couldn't resist. It sells for £38 on Amazon, but I got it for £22 on eBay, slightly showing signs of a previous owner who listened to it, but in pretty good condition. It is wonderful. The book is a treat, with loads of photos, posters, texts on the evolution of the band by different writers, chronological list of events throughot their career, UK discography, and gigography. Fun to know it was December 6 1980 when I saw them on the Sound Affects tour in Jersey, they were returning from mainland Europe, and about to do some more UK dates.

Nice packaging: proper box, 88 page book, and the CDs in their own individual gatefold card sleeves. The box and each sleeve has a photo of a different Rickenbacker in front of a vox amp. I assume the guitars are all from Paul's vaults. Two or three of them appear in photos on the inside gatefold of the CDs, e.g. a natty Lichtenstein one.

There's something quite fetishistic about box sets. Owning them is an act of reverence, measuring out your love in extra inches. I adore the talking Heads' Once In a Lifetime, almost perfect track selection (though sadly not a complete archive, as per the Jam's). As a friend quipped memorably, 'You'll have to get a special shelf built to accommodate that one!'

Have spent an odd evening rediscovering the In The City and This Is The Modern World LPs. It's been over 20 years, apart from the singles. Much of ITC is very ropey, but not bad for an 18 year old, with two bona fide classics in the immortal title track and Away From The Numbers.

I wanna dive in and hear Liza Radley, but the only permissible course of action with such a lovely artefact is to play it through from start to finish, so LR will have to wait!

So that's me mainlining Jam for the next few days/weeks...

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Fri May 07, 2004 11:47 am

Tim(e) wrote:How were they?

Not as good as at the Metro a few weeks earlier, where they had a more enthusiastic and tightly packed audience; Revesby was just the opposite -- a large sterile hall within a pokie heaven with bars to the left and right...

They played well, but in a way it made me sad... rock and roll is dead. Back when I first saw them at Coogee in the late 80's -- largely to do with changes in music more generally -- audiences liked to be won over and bands could be more attuned to the audience and vice versa. Reforming after an 8 year hiatus, the crowd were mostly either reticent older fans or young drunks that take any song they recognize as a cue to jump up and down uncontrollably and mouth the chorus...

Dave Faulkner at least seemed amused enough to joke out the side of his mouth to his bandmates "..if we do an encore..." (which they did). The second half was better, as they (esp. drummer Mark Kingsmill) forgot about the crowd and settled. Faulkner laughed when someone yelled out Tojo, the song he was about to start, as if to say, "Are we that predictable?". Early on they broke a couple of strings... maybe slackness in not changing them between gigs, though they did power through the first 5 songs. They only played 4 from their new album, I think. Ben Shepard is a great guitarist/showman... He and Faulkner looked right at home moving on stage, in ironic mock rockstar fashion, pulling off those indelible riffs.

Well worth seeing if the venue is right.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri May 07, 2004 1:57 pm

Mr Needle wins the prize for the board's longest-considered answer. And now back to The Jam... OK, so who recalls 'Innocent Man'?

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Fri May 07, 2004 3:42 pm

the c side of News of the World -

the best song from that ep is "Aunties & Uncles"

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri May 07, 2004 7:51 pm

It's ludicrous! Do you know every Jam song ever? What's the most obscure one you can think of? Are you jealous of my box set? Do you want to touch it?

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sat May 08, 2004 5:13 am

Otis - I pre-ordered the box set a few years ago. I would defer to VG to come up with the most obscure song. The one I don't have (I once had it, but lost it over the years) was French double single - one was Going Underground/Dreams of Children and the other was Modern World / Sweet Soul Music - Back In My Arms Again - live. I can't see that the latter two were ever re-released. The BBC sessions (do you have this one?) has a version of Sweet Soul Music, but it's from later on with horns - still a great version, but not the one I'm looking for.

Pop-Art Poem was pretty obscure, before it was released on B-Sides.

Jackson Monk · Post by **Jackson Monk** » Sat May 08, 2004 5:34 am

I have a Japanese version of the Jam singing "Annie I'm not your Daddy'

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sat May 08, 2004 5:41 am

Live from Bognor Regis?

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun May 09, 2004 3:53 pm

I see, you have it, but you kept quiet about it. So, not only a completist, but a modest one. don't have BBC, recall a version of Sweet, Soul Music from somewhere ages ago in my teens, so I guess me or my Jammate had it on tape off the BBC. Annie, I'm not Your Daddy! bizarre. Sounds as incongruous as EC doing Prince's Pop Life. Pop-Art Poem not on the box set, so VERY OBSCURE in my book. Bollocks, am well behind in the stakes.

At the moment I'm in a time warp, all the songs in my head are from The Jam. Sixteen Again, as Pete Shelley put it!

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Tue May 11, 2004 4:04 am

Otis - I suspect Jackson is winding you up

I know The Jam did Give Me Just A Little More Time at the Michael Sobell Sports Centre in December 1981 but I never got a tape of it.

The most obscure track...hmm. Probably Pop Art Poem. Utter drivel that was done for a short lived magazine called Flexipop. As I remember Paul Weller dressed up as a mad professor for the magazine.

But Direction... is a superb box set.

Has anyone got the similar Style Council one? I've never had the urge to get it.

Jackson Monk · Post by **Jackson Monk** » Tue May 11, 2004 11:16 am

Yeah...but can you just imaging how great it would be to hear Pawwwl singing:

"If I was in your Blaaad, then you wooden look so ugleeeee"

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue May 11, 2004 2:44 pm

Oh I'm so gullible. Well if he can wear an apron on TOTP he can cover anything. No thanks to Style Council box set. Never liked anything they did, though an old schoolfriend of mine was second keyboardist for them at one time. Sadly not someone I'm in touch with, so no juicy gossip to offer.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat May 29, 2004 12:35 pm

Calling any Jamheads who ain't been on the Trivia Quiz thread. You know the answer, course you do!

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:58 pm

A Rick Buckler Interview

http://www.peom.co.uk/rick_buckler.html

LittleFoole · Post by **LittleFoole** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:46 pm

Tim(e) wrote:......(along with the Only Ones' "Another Girl Another Planet" .

Holy CroMoly !!! I thought I was the only one who knew that song....LOL...One of my long time faves (love that lp, crappy production and all)) Whatever happened to the Only Ones ??? I have the first 2 (US) releases and an ep of some sort (Broken Arrows??....something...) see nothing on the web about them...