How to Buy Vinyl Records by Deerhunter

The Jam was an English rock band, which had their prime time during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They shared the "angry young men" style and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, however The Jam wore neatly tailored suits rather than ripped clothes and they actively used a number of mainstream 1960s rock influences, compared to lots of other bands that were active at that time, which them one of the leading bands of the mod revival movement.


The Jam had eighteen consecutive Top 40 singles in the UK, starting with their debut in 1977 till they eventually broke up in 1982. Four of these went the whole way to the top and till today's date "That's Entertainment" and "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?" remains the best selling import singles of all time in the UK. The band released on live album and six studio albums. The last one which was called The Gift reached number one on the UK album charts and when the group split up the first fifteen singles they released were re-released and all of them ended up within the top hundred.


The band had several stylistic influences during their career and as already slightly touched upon 1960s beat music were one of these. Additionally they were also heavily influenced by 1970s punk rock, pop punk and new wave. The band started the career of Paul Weller, who later went on to form the The Style Council and later had a successful solo career. Paul Weller wrote and sang most of The Jam's original compositions and he also played the lead guitar. The backing vocals and well-known baselines were provided by Bruce Foxton and together with Weller's contribution this was the foundation of many of the band's songs, including "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", "The Eton Rifles", "Going Underground" and "Town Called Malice".


The Jam was formed in Woking, Surrey, England, in 1972 and the band initially consisted of Weller on guitar and lead vocals together with various friends at Sheerwater Secondary School. First in the mid 1970s the line-up started to get more standardized with Weller, Foxton, guitarist Steve Brookes and drummer Rick Buckler. In the beginning their sets were made up of covers of early American rock and roll songs by such artists as Chuck Berry and Little Richard and they continued on this path until Weller discovered The Who's "My Generation" and became fascinated with mod music and lifestyle. The line-up that lasted till the end was eventually made up of Weller, Foxton, and Buckler.


In the years following the formation of the line-up that lasted to the end The Jam gained a small following around London from playing small gigs, which made them one of the new acts on the punk scene. By some the band was labeled as revivalists and they were signed by Chris Parry in early 1977 to Polydor Records. On April 29. 1977 The Jams's debut single "In the City" was released and made it to the top 40 in England and in early May the band released their debut album with the same name. In many ways it had the same sound as the albums released by such bands as The Clash and the Sex Pistols, but what made The Jam different was the more obvious prevalent 1960s rock influences.


When the bands second album was released in 1977 Weller was definitely established as the band's chief songwriter and The Jam started to display more stylistic variety than before, however, the this album, which was titled This Is The Modern World was not that appreciated.

Following this The Jam released the non-LP single "All Around the World", which almost reach the UK Top 10 and started to reach a notable following and with their single "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" they really started to gain praise from critics. The band eventually broke up and Weller started to purse an interesting solo career, but the The Jam toured the UK again in 2007 and finished with a concert at Brighton Centre on 21 December 2007 to mark the 25th anniversary of The Jam's final show.


Joe Boikowich writes about music formats and vinyl records. For more information about the band check out the site of Deerhunter at Nylvi.


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