And then there were two

01.03.25

Mark Perryman writes of Rick Buckler and the legacy of The Jam as a three-piece he leaves behind 

There's not many bands that are a three-piece. The classic line-up a drummer with a frontline of vocalist, lead and bass guitarists, or sometimes, as with The Clash three guitarists one, in their case Joe Strummer, also on lead vocals duty.  Fancy dan additions might include keyboards, brass section, backing vocals.  

The Jam were different. Rick Buckler on drums, Bruce Foxton playing bass, Paul Weller lead guitar and vocals. They lasted together a mere five years, 1977-82 but for a generation born into music-loving by the punk era Rick, Bruce and Paul have been part of our soundtrack of musical memories ever since. 

With the terrible February news that Rick after a short illness has passed away now there are two. In a wonderful tweet Guardian journalist and huge Jam fan John Harris summed up what him and his fellow fans have lost:

"Rick Buckler did what the best drummers do: served the song, and put his mark on all of them. Examples abound, but here are a few: In The City, All Around The World, the peerless live version of It's Too Bad, Thick As Thieves, Eton Rifles, Scrape Away, Beat Surrender..."

Rick was no Keith Moon, Cosy Powell or Ringo Starr, he was almost as invisible off stage as he was on it, tucked behind his drum kit. But the pounding percussive rhythm to the songs John picked out, and many more, would be every part of what we hummed along to, shouted out the choruses and made our dance moves for as Bruce's hypnotic bass lines and Paul's vocals painting musical and verbal pictures of our imagination. 

The Jam, despite Paul Weller's very obvious much higher profile, when they were together, when he left to form The Style Council, and his very successful solo career ever since, were and always will be a threesome.   

The split in 1982 left Bruce and Rick feeling more sad and disappointed than bitter and twisted yet a reunion had never been mooted nevertheless there was a genuine warmth from Paul on hearing the news of Rick's sudden death for what his drumming had provided for The Jam.

"From our rudimentary beginnings the band evolved into the powerful force that it became. Rick's evolution as a drummer, was such a vital part of that."

Looking back almost 50 years, goodness if that doesn't make those of us who were there at the start feel old, my first live sighting of The Jam was their Friday night headline slot at Reading Festival 1978 , The Jam although always bracketed with Punk were testament to this moment taking multiple forms. And in large part this was its strength. 

That Reading Festival of my fond Jam memories is mixed with the same weekend of Sham 69, poor Jimmy Pursey forced once more to evict that section of his fanbase  that were National Front or worse from the stage . Sham and Motorhead fans raining down on each other the cans and bottles thrown. Yet Sham 69 and The Jam both labelled as 'punk'. 

From its very beginnings, another early memory, 1976 and transfixed by The Sex  Pistols' Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones with various members of 'The Bromley Contingent' (including if I remember correctly Siouxsie Sioux) heaping expletives on  presenter Bill Grundy live on his early evening TV show Today. I roared them on from the family sofa. Away in the kitchen, my parents fortunately unaware of my antics.

The anarchic Sex Pistols also flirted with Nazi chic, as did the otherwise effortlessly stylish Siouxsie Sioux. The Clash and The Tom Robinson Band wore their politics on stage and off.  It is almost impossible to explain the huge statement made when Tom blasted out ' Sing if You're Glad to be Gay' as a punk anthem.  Sham 69 and the Angelic Upstarts were more early versions of Oi than punk but came along for the ride.  The Stranglers a supercharged but frankly conventional rock band.The Damned? A rousing mix of punk and thrash rhythm and blues. The Buzzcocks and A Certain Ratio mainstays of the Manchester scene. Elvis Costello link man from punk to what became known as 'new wave.' 

While sharing the same label, punk, there was little or nothing musically this wonderful lot had in common. Except what they pitted themselves as an alternative to.  My mid 1970s O Level classroom was filled, please excuse the gender determinism here but it's how I remember my classmates, by the girls teenybopping over the Bay City Rollers and serious-minded boys listening to Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes. Punk in all its creative diversity stood against all this. It was DIY, independent, anti-corporate takeover, as much local as global, and eff you if you don't like it. 

The Jam fitted perfectly with all this. Schoolboys, Bruce, Paul and Rick, who with various others since 1972 had shared the same dream of being in a band , rehearsing, sharing influences, writing their own songs , playing local clubs. In Woking, deep in the Surrey commuter belt. Managed by Paul's dad John. And when Punk burst into life to top the charts those teenage dreams made real, a major record label signs them on the dotted line of having a share of the commercial action.

But they weren't an entirely natural fit. They looked, and sounded, like mods not punks, or even new wave. However this was a reinvention of the music, fashion and culture that had inspired three Woking teenagers rather than the straight copy of Mod revivalists The Secret Affair, The Chords,  Purple Hearts and others. A reinterpretation that as the albums and singles progressed increased in political messaging to dance to. Not, however good, of the anthemic kind The Clash and Tom Robinson Band produced, their's instead wrapped in lyrical, and musical subtlety. Down in the Tube Station at Midnight a testament of the menacingly violent mix of masculinity, drink and far right politics. Eton Rifles class war the music-mix, when Etonian old boy David Cameron who'd been in the cadets there described it as one of his all-time favourite songs Weller's unforgettable response: “ It wasn’t intended as a fucking jolly drinking song for the cadet corps.” 

The Jam came to an end with their very final release Beat Surrender which both revisited the manufactured misery they had angrily depicted on their second album in The Modern World . Their retort? 'Don't have to explain myself to you, I don't give two fucks about your review.' But also gloriously played out with their response, the anger of hope as misery's downfall, that they had made The Jam's mission to provide.  

"Come on boy, come on girl
Succumb to the beat surrender
All the things that I care about (are packed into one punch)
All the things that I'm not sure about (are sorted out at once) "

It's almost impossible to read those lines without the drumbeat growing in rhythmic intensity and irresistible volume in our heads. Rick, we will never forget.

Mark Perryman  is the co-founder of Philosophy Football

The last few of the limited edition Rick Buckler memorial T-shirt is available from Philosophy Football here