Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The Jam Live on "Fridays" aka 35 Years Ago My Mind Was Blown

On Friday July 11, 1980 I switched on ABC-TV's "Fridays" at 11:30 P.M. to watch The Jam.  I had previously only seen cool photos of them.  I was not prepared for what I saw and heard.  The Jam were on their A-game, tight as hell like a well oiled machine fed on aggression, nervous energy and relative commercial obscurity as they ploughed through "Start" and "Private Hell" (ending with an amazing thrash up of feedback that concludes perfectly with Weller sitting down bored on the drum riser) . I went out and bought "Setting Sons" immediately the next day at the local mall with literally every cent I had. And so it began....

Luckily you can still see what I saw thanks to YouTube:

1 comment:

John Medd said...

I caught them live twice. First time was between In the City and Modern World, and then a couple of years later when they were on the road promoting Setting Sons. Despite what Weller says, they'll get back together in 2016/17 for their 40th Anniversary. Watch this space.