Gig 045/046 Graham Parker & The Rumour/Clover / The Jam/New Hearts

Graham Parker & The Rumour/Clover
Oxford New Theatre
25 November 1977

The Jam/New Hearts
Aylesbury Friars
26 November 1977

I’ve already written quite a bit about Graham Parker & The Rumour and this was the fourth time I’d seen them live. A good gig as always, showcasing the most recent album Stick to Me which was a bit patchy but had its moments. There was more of an overt soul influence, including an adventurous if possibly ill-judged epic called The Heat in Harlem. For what it’s worth I liked it, not many white English groups could have even contemplated that sort of thing, and even if there was an element of what might now be called cultural tourism there was nothing spurious about GP’s aspirations. Another good show, though the New Theatre is most emphatically not a rock’n’roll venue. Support were Clover, the sort of easy-rolling country-ish rootsy American group who Bob Harris would have liked, and who had recently accompanied a UK singer called Elvis Costello on his debut album. Didn’t do much for me, easy-rolling wasn’t what I was looking for at the time.

During the interval a bloke approached me offering two tickets at face value to see The Jam the following day at Aylesbury. I liked The Jam a lot, was flattered that the bloke thought I looked like someone who would like The Jam, and the next afternoon my friend Phil and I found ourselves on a bus to Aylesbury. The gig was an early show added to the evening gig, such was the demand for tickets. First up were New Hearts, who I had seen a few weeks earlier supporting Chris Spedding, and still weren’t terribly convincing, probably only on the bill because stylistically they were a mod-ish fit with the headliners. The Jam were literally a group in a hurry, practically running on to the stage and whipping through their set like they needed to catch the football results before Grandstand ended. At the time of the gig Paul Weller was 19 and had already written and released two albums (notwithstanding one or two covers and Bruce Foxton contributions) and three singles with The Jam. Their vaunted ‘fire and skill’ was more than hype, years of practice allowing a musical range and dynamism way beyond most of their punk peers and transcending the limitations of the three-piece. If they were in any sense punk it was due to the almost ridiculous intensity with which they performed, making the Sex Pistols – who wouldn’t release their one album for another year – look positively sluggish.

By this time I was becoming a serious bass geek and studied every bassist’s style, thus realising that an integral part of The Jam’s propulsive sound was Bruce Foxton’s singular approach of playing every note with a plectrum on the down stroke, like a piston at full throttle, most impressive (in the way that athletic feats are impressive). I also loved the red Rickenbacker bass and guitar combo, the two-tone shoes, the soul references and soulful voices, the Who references, the melodies and harmonies, the way Paul and Bruce would suddenly ping into the air, sometimes simultaneously. At some level I also related to the fact that they were chippy provincial types who could never fit with the hip crowd and so could only win by being better – it seemed to justify the evenings practicing bass in my chippy provincial bedroom. Obviously, I fell big time for the whole schtick. All in all a top afternoon’s work, and by 8pm we were back in Abingdon for an underage pint at the Nag’s Head – living the dream.