What's next? The Clash reforming minus Joe Strummer?

My all-time favorite band, The Jam, have reunited.

Minus one guy, that is...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6376477.stm

Good lord.

 

They just followed the examples of Queen reforming minus Freddie Mercury, the Beach Boys continuing without Brian Wilson, Styx going on without Dennis DeYoung, Journey without Steve Perry, etc. ;D

 

Then it's definitely not the Jam. It's the Buckler-Foxton Experience. What a fucking joke....

The Clash without Joe would have more credibility than this. Is Topper Headon still with us? I thought I'd read somewhere that he'd died.

 

Member No. 3 of the SportsJournalists.com Jam Fan Club checking in.

If they'd stayed together through the 80s, MTV would have made them huge over here.

As it is, I'd stick with Weller solo rather than follow the other two. The other two can call themselves anything they want, but not The Jam.

Maybe they can get Ian Astbury to sing.

 

I think Topper's still alive.

This is indeed a travesty. Weller WAS The Jam. Foxton was actually pretty talented as well...managed to channel Entwhistle for a while there and hung with Weller during the latter's shift toward a more R&B/soul influenced sound toward the end. Buckler always seemed kind of disposable.

That book on The Jam by Paolo Hewitt (The Jam: A Beat Concerto) is great. A little too fawning, like most rock journalism projects, but a great chronice of an amazing band.

 

Horrible video quality on this, but it captures how The Jam were always a "punk" band live even though they weren't punk rockers themselves...I love the crowd singing along and pogo-ing...that is what punk was supposed to be about...energy and fun.

And now for something completely different...

 

I would gladly go see CSN&Y without CS and N.

 

The dynamic's a mile different. People's allegiances are to a team in sports. People's allegiances are to the main members in a rock band. So when a main member leaves, it's a much bigger deal than when an athlete leaves a team.

 

Jam fan Number 4. I'm sure there are others who've gone underground in a town called Malice.
May it work out as well as the Pixies reunion did (highly recommend "The Pixies at Newport" DVD, their complete first-ever acoustic performance at the '05 Newport Folk festival).

 

The Stones, Who, etc. were all talented enough throughout their lineup to go on minus an original member while still being the same band. The Jam without Weller is totally different.

He was the center of the band's creativity and talent, as well as their personality. Foxton and Buckler just kind of followed his lead...Weller went from being a Tory to a left-wing socialist (hi, JDV!)...from being a shaggy-haired rocker to a spiffy mod...musically he went from a Kinks-meet-punk sound to psychedelia to African-American-influenced styles...the other guys just followed along.

 

There's something cleansing and cathartic in the frenzy of classic punk, a hardscrabble fuckyouitiveness you feel in the stomach and behind the eyes.

 

Another Jam fan here. This tour is ridiculous. It seems like the Other Two are practically trying to blackmail Weller into joining them. Which is funny, because after the breakup, they wrote a book about what an asshole Weller was.