The Jam To Reform (Minus Weller)

This is on a par, obviously, of Creedence Clearwater Revival minus John Fogerty or The Kinks minus Ray Davies; in other words, very very hard to imagine, as drummer Rick Buckler and bassist Bruce Foxton


Other 80's groups, such as the Police, have reformed recently, but I honestly can't see anything good coming out of this, a lot of the material is dated toward the teenage/alienation from the modern world themse prevalent among many of the punk rock acts back in the day of the movement's formation. There are some great tunes in their catalog that still sound good over twenty years later, but the big problem, of course, is that the man who wrote those songs, Paul Weller, wants nothing to do with this reunion, and also has reportedly not spoken to the other two since the band's breakup in 1982.


I mean, honestly, Foxton's London Traffic, from the This Is The Modern World album, is a bad song on a bad album, and his song that became a single when Weller's creativity dried up between that album and its followup album, All Mod Cons , titled News Of The World is a very mediocre song about an obvious subject (i.e. the daily press). Gotta give credit where it's due though, Foxton's song Smithers-Jones is an excellent track, I just don't know if I wanna hear the balance of a "New Jam" set of Weller songs sung by a ringer. Very good luck to you Rick and Bruce.




BBC STORY