If The Jam cared it’s also fair to say that, as a rule, record companies don’t give a flying fuck. If they can chuck out some tacky, overpriced “Greatest Hits” package and make yet more money from their back catalogue they are right there. So imagine our surprise when, in 1992, Polydor announced they would be issuing a Jam B-sides and rarities compilation, it’s uncommon for a major record company to release a record that might have a niche market, especially by a band who don’t exist any more. Now I wasn’t so concerned about the B-sides as I already had them all, but rarities…send them hither with all due speed Mr record company man sir.

“Extras” is made up of 26 tracks, 11 B-sides and a treasure trove of 15 demo’s and previously unreleased recordings, a whole albums worth. New songs we’d never heard by The Jam…I was close to a state of apoplexy I can tell ya ! I won’t trouble you with details of the B-sides, between “Snap!” And the excellent “Direction, Reaction, Creation” CD box set you can find them all yourself. Although I will say opening side 1 with what are 2 of the 3 greatest Jam B-sides, “The Dreams Of Children” and “Tales From The River Bank” (the third one, “The Butterfly Collector”, appears later) was a stroke of genius. All three were live favourites and most bands would have killed for singles that good, never mind B-sides !

The Demo’s were fantastic to hear, early embryonic versions of “Liza Radley”, “Boy About Town” (both of which I prefer to the released versions), “Burning Sky”, “Thick As Thieves” and “Saturday’s Kids” (in versions just featuring Weller and guitar), ”But I’m Different Now”, and finally just Paul and his guitars getting “The Eton Rifles” down on tape. Also listed as a Demo was “Pop Art Poem”. This had been released as a flexi disc on the long gone fanzine/magazine “Flexipop”. A very limited edition were made available as white label vinyl 7”s which I am now also the very proud owner of.

Then there were the unreleased tracks, gold dust to me back in ’92. There were cover versions of The Beatles “And Your Bird Can Sing”, the Small Faces “Get Yourself Together” and James Brown’s "I Got You (I Feel Good)”. The first golden bullet they hit us with was The Jam’s demo of the Style Council’s 1983 single “A Solid Bond in Your Heart”. I’ve never got on with the Style Council, in fact I’ve had an ongoing love/hate relationship with Paul Weller ever since he split The Jam up (an act I don’t think I’ve ever forgiven him for !). “A Solid Bond…” is one of the very few Style Council songs I do get on with and to now know that this is where The Jam might have been going makes perfect sense. 

And then there were the new songs, things we’d never heard before. “No One in the World" sounds like it should have morphed into another song but as familiar as it sounds it seemingly didn’t (unless I’m missing something and one of you can put me right ? It does have a hint of The Beatles “Michelle” about it). The lyric seems to reference childhood memories (“Come down, your tea is on the table”) and how uncomplicated and unthreatening life was as a child. 

"Hey Mister" is a bit of a formless plod, a rant at a banker or somesuch type, with Weller hammering away at a piano. Lastly “We've Only Started" certainly did become something else later on with it being an early version of the fantastic “Tales From The Riverbank” with different words.

A superb collection but, admittedly, squarely aimed at The Jam nerd, and these days the collector as it’ll take 3 figures to get you one…that’ll be me then…

A Solid Bond in Your Heart - https://youtu.be/nFZAIraNodA?si=pjYVqpaABljB7rKX

The Jam cared about what they released and cared about their fans. They routinely released non album singles (“All Around The World”, “News Of The World”, “Strange Town”, “When You’re Young”, “Going Underground”, “Absolute Beginners”, “Funeral Pyre”, “The Bitterest Pill…” and “Beat Surrender” were not lifted from or included on albums, that's 9 of their 16 UK singles) and the versions of singles that did appear on albums were usually different in some subtle way, they wanted to give their fans value for their hard earned.

“Snap!” is a 2 LP “career retrospective”. If you are unfamiliar with The Jam (and if so where have you been ?) then this should be one of the starting points for you. I’m sure Polydor just wanted to whack out a singles collection but “Snap!” isn’t that. Yes it includes all of their singles (well, the vinyl version does, when it was issued on CD it became “Compact Snap!” and didn’t include all the tracks from the LP’s) and those singles, where different from the album versions, are included in their 7” incarnations. It also includes some of the B-sides ("The Butterfly Collector”, “Smithers-Jones” in it’s B-side, band version, "Dreams of Children" in a form edited for the US and "Tales From The Riverbank”) and key album tracks ("Away From The Numbers”, “Billy Hunt”, "Mr. Clean”, "English Rose”, "Thick As Thieves”, "Man In The Corner Shop”).

And then there were the things that made it worth buying for those of us that already had everything. The recording of “That’s Entertainment” is a previously unreleased demo of Paul Weller’s and initial copies of the album included a 4 track 7” EP of songs recorded at Wembley Arena on their farewell tour. It’s a fantastic compilation. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, strangely an America journalist (America, in the main, didn’t get The Jam) who writes for the AllMusic website has described it as "one of the greatest greatest-hits albums of all time”.

The Jam cared…

That’s Entertainment (Demo) - https://youtu.be/djLKEiitumg?si=8kL2v8pT9IVlY3xz

One thing The Jam were, and I cannot and maybe haven’t stressed this enough, was an incredible live force. They are the greatest live band I’ve ever seen and I find it hard to believe I’ll ever see anything that good again. Three fellas should never have been able to produce a sound that powerful and that big…but these three did.

“Dig The New Breed” is a compilation of live performances by The Jam, the earliest being “In The City” from London’s 100 Club in 1977 through to those from Glasgow Apollo in April 1982 finishing with “Private Hell”. In between there’s all the live favourite’s you’d expect plus a cover of Eddie Floyd’s tribute to Otis Redding, “Big Bird”. It’s often thought of as a posthumous release but The Jam played their final show in Brighton on 11th December 1982 and “Dig The New Breed” was released on the 10th.

If you saw The Jam live you’ll know. If you didn’t this, and their other live albums, are as close as you’ll ever get. 

“Put your hands together for the best band in the fucking world…THE JAM !“ Thanx John…

The Jam, Bingley Hall, Birmingham 21st March 1982 - https://youtu.be/5E4njUD5ayU?si=cFEPhP-pTA1vk4nO