This is The Jam’s finest moment. I don’t mean by this that they went downhill from here but this is the point where The Jam stepped up from being the New Wave also rans they were in early 1978 to become the most important band in the UK. This is the point at which Paul Weller introduced himself as our generations spokesman (whether he liked that or not), or our Ray Davis, a razor sharp interpreter of ordinary peoples lives, hopes and fears. When “All Mod Cons” was released Paul Weller was 20 years old !

It wasn’t easy getting to this point. Following the release of “This Is The Modern World” The Jam were packed off to the USA to tour supporting Blue Öyster Cult (who the fuck thought that was a good idea !!!), unsurprisingly it did not go well and left the band with a huge distrust of the USA for the rest of their time. Polydor were applying pressure for new material, they wanted hit singles. Paul Weller by all reports was feeling the pressure and suffering writers block. The three singles released between “This Is The Modern World” and “All Mod Cons” featured eight songs, just 3 by Weller and only one of those was an A-side  (although that was “Down In the Tube Station At Midnight” so…). 

Original Producer Chris Parry (replaced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven after he told Bruce Foxton he wasn’t a songwriter and should forget it and wait for Paul to come up with something) rejected most of the first batch of songs Weller offered up (rumoured titles like “I Want To Paint” and “On Sunday Morning” have never turned up in the Polydor vaults, even when A&R man Dennis Munday scoured them for the “Direction, Reaction, Creation” box set) and he had to go away and write more…thankfully it transpired. The songs he came back with make up one of my top five all-time favourite albums.

It's a record full of great characters. The rock star on the slide in “To Be Someone…”, “Mr Clean” in his suburban idyll, the daydreamer “Billy Hunt”, a guy and his girlfriend in trouble at the Vortex on Wardour Street, and the tragic hero of Weller's first truly magnificent moment, "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight"waiting for a tube to get back to his wife with a curry and a bottle of plonk but having his life smashed by drunken right-wing thugs. They even threw in 2 ballads ("English Rose”, mine and Deb’s wedding song, and "Fly") something unheard of in these angry young man, post-'77 days.

"Down In the Tube Station At Midnight" and "A Bomb In Wardour Street" (the reason to this day I don’t have to think about how to spell apocalypse) describe what a scary and violent place Britain could be back in the late ’70’s “I’m standing on the Vortex floor, My heads been kicked in and blood’s starting to pour”. They are both songs that give you a vivid picture of the times, Weller brilliantly writing in a very British, “Play For Today” 22" black and white TV style. How great and vivid an opening line is “The distant echo of faraway voices boarding faraway trains”.

To temper that violence Weller gives us the daydreamer "Billy Hunt”, which was originally slated as a single (introduced as such on a BBC “In Concert” broadcast in June ’78) possibly until Polydor discovered what Weller meant by Billy Hunt (you can work it out I’m sure !), “Billy Hunt's is a magical world, Full of strippers and long-legged girls”; the ever hopeful "The Place I Love”, where he's "making a stand against the world" in the imaginary place he goes where everything is right with the world but there are still “those who would hurt us if they heard”; "In The Crowd" addresses consumerism “When I'm in the crowd, I can't remember my name, And my only link is pots of Walls ice cream”; “Mr Clean" is a sharp pointed stick jabbed at the British class system “You miss page 3, but the Times is right for you, And mum and dad are very proud of you”.

Then, as you were listening, again,there was the artwork to drink in. It told of Sta-prest, monkey boots, targets, scooters and there was that title, which Weller has since admitted was just an excuse to get the word Mod on an album cover.

Mod ? What's that ?

And some of us started following up on what Mod was and discovered he was dripping us a bit of Brit Psychedelia with “In The Crowd” and its backwards guitars, giving us a Ray Davies song and almost leading us to The Kinks in case we hadn’t already found our way there. Weller was/is a Mod and as much as he didn’t like the tribalism and uniform of the Mod Revival it’s undeniable that it was he (and the release of The Wo’s movie “Quadrophenia”), either via albums like “All Mod Cons” or his support of a raft of bands that would form the musical arm of the Mod Revival (New Hearts/Secret Affair, the Purple Hearts, The Chords), that led us there. It's something that has left a mark on me.

Because of what Paul Weller gave us on this record, which was much more than just the music in the grooves, I found soul music and The Small Faces, 501's with 1" turn ups, Ska/Blue Beat and the thrilling sound of a Hammond B3. So there is much, much more that I owe to him and this band than just this record...but just this record would have been more than enough.

In The Crowd - https://youtu.be/B_j0HjSidIk?si=vQUEoPoyuEPKFKIB

That difficult second album, or so the music press would have you believe. “This Is The Modern World” is admittedly no timeless classic but it gets a very bad rap when spoken about these days and it’s not nearly as weak as some would tell you.

The fact that Bruce Foxton gets to write two songs on here, that the lyrics for “In The Street Today” were pretty much a verbatim lift from a poem written by Weller’s school friend Dave Waller, that “Tonight at Noon” was hugely influenced by another poem by Liverpool poet Adrian Henri (https://rolandsragbag.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/adrian-henri-tonight-at-noon/) and that the final song is a cover version, means it is probably fair to say that Paul Weller was struggling in the songwriting department. Let’s get those 2 Foxton songs out of the way first, “London Traffic” (it’s literally about there being too many cars in central London “Drive ‘round London in a car, Don’t really wanna go far” yeuuch !) and “Don’t Tell Them You’re Sane” are as poor as anything The Jam ever released (there wasn’t much but there were a couple of later album tracks and a few hidden away on B-sides, usually written by Bruce). The cover of “In The Midnight Hour” is something I’m sure they’d been playing for years at those working men’s club gigs and when they needed something to round the album out cos they didn’t have enough songs of their own it’s easy for them to bang this one to tape…Stick it on a B-side, fair enough, but it shouldn’t be here.

But there is light among the darkness. Title song “The Modern World” is the perfect bridge between “In The City” and what is to come, with Weller taking a swipe at that “older generation of gnarly, jealous (?) journo’s” we talked about yesterday with the lyrical jab “Don’t have to explain myself to you,I don’t give two fucks about your review”. That Adrian Henri influenced song “Tonight At Noon” alongside “Life From A Window” are both great songs and actually damn good goes at 60’s psychedelia, but these were the angry days of ’77, no-one was thinking about psychedelia. However both point toward later songs like “Tales From the Riverbank”, “The Butterfly Collector” and “Dreamtime”.

“Standards” is very of it’s time concerned with the faceless “them” that control everything; “London Girl” is a tale of a provincial kid enticed by the bright lights of the big city and getting swallowed up by it; “The Combine” looks at some of the same things Weller was concerned with in “Away from the Numbers”, individuality and not getting lost “in the crowd” (“Look, life is very intricate, when you're in the crowd, Life becomes the movies, And everyone has a role”).

Some of the best is saved toward the end. “I Need You (For Someone)” is one that hits home to me. If you know me at all just read the lyrics and you’ll know why (“I need you keep me straight, When the world don't seem so great, And it’s hard enough you know”). “Here Comes The Weekend” is fantastic, a huge favourite of mine. It’s a classic teenage/Mod anthem “From Monday morning I work for Friday nights” and “Here comes the weekend, I get to see the girls, Long live the weekend, the weekend is here”…file it next to The Easybeats “Friday On My Mind' and Eddie Cochran’s “Weekend”.

The cover art I always thought was significant too. The picture of the three of them under an elevated road (The Westway ?) ticks the urban wasteland/Punk box. But Weller has had those Modernist/Pop Art arrows stuck on to his sweater with electrical tape, Rick and Bruce are in button down shirts and there’s a Union flag button badge. The Mod(ern) in Weller is beginning to bubble to the surface more openly and will burst into the open on their next album. And let’s not forget those brilliant label and inner sleeve illustrations by artist Conny Jude, very Egon Schiele in style I’ve come to realise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Schiele).

“This Is The Modern World” was released just 6 months after “In The City”. Given their touring commitments and pressure being applied by Polydor for another record it’s probably not a surprise that (still 19 year old) Paul Weller was struggling to write sufficient and suitable songs. It’s something that carried on into the preparations for their 3rd album. “This Is The Modern World” has its faults, undoubtedly, but it’s not the forgettable difficult second album that certain people have painted it as over the years.

Here Comes The Weekend - https://youtu.be/4EpHlP-yjlM?si=7NiV8VvC7mI-Bdxr

Now we get into what could well be described as the most important band in my life. Right time, right place for me and I was lucky enough to see them live on many occasions. They are still the best live band I’ve ever seen and I seriously doubt I’ll ever see anyone better. Their records shaped the way this teenager thought about a lot of things and their lyrics are (sadly) still relevant to the world this grown adult lives in over 40 years after they split up…ladies and gentlemen, I present to you “the best band in the fucking world” (thanx John) THE JAM !

It was the summer of 1977. For this then 14 year old Punk Rock was happening all around me. It was one of the most musically exciting times of my life. My Mom was going away for a few days with her friends, to a seaside town whose name now escapes me, and asked if I wanted her to bring anything back for me. I’m sure she meant a stick of rock or a bag of those mad boiled sweets that looked like pebbles on the beach but I suggested “If you come across a copy of The Jam’s LP “In The City” you could bring that back for me”. And bless her, she did ! I’m not sure either of us realised what a momentous moment that would turn out to be for me but I’ll attempt to explain over the next few records.

Punk was coming at us in waves, it felt like every day there was a new band or a new single release to find out about. The Clash, Sex Pistols, Generation X, The Adverts, X-Ray Spex, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Jam. Now I know there may be some of you thinking “The Jam…Punk ?” cos this story has been (re)written casting them being a Mod (revival) band. Well listen kid, this was 1977, The Jam had given us the singles “In The City” and “All Around The World” and no-one was talking about Mods back then (apart from an older generation of gnarly, jealous (?) journo’s remarking on their suits and a sound reminiscent of The Who) this was Punk Rock matey.

This brand new LP was placed on my deck, the needle was applied to it and…4 lone chords and a shout of “One, Two, Free, Four” plunged us into “Art School”

“Anything that you want to do, anyplace that you want to go, Don't need permission for everything that you want”

Yep this was Punk Rock alright, fast, feisty, a bit shouty and no sappy love songs here, we got lyrics about doing what you want, seizing opportunities, making yourself heard but hurry up cos this time doesn’t last. 

The Jam were different to other Punk bands. They’d paid their dues playing working mens clubs and weddings, they could play a bit, but Paul Weller, the bands, at the time of this albums release, 19 year old singer, leader and chief songwriter, was looking for more and found it in his trips up to London and experiencing the Punk explosion as it happened. There are songs on this album that certainly pre-date Weller’s Punk conversion (“I’ve Changed My Address” and “I Got By In Time” are basically about breakups of friendships, “Non Stop Dancing” is about a night at a Northern Soul allnighter, “Takin’ My Love” reveals Weller’s Beatles/Feelgood’s leanings) and there are covers of Larry Williams “Slow Down” (also covered by The Beatles) and the “Batman Theme” (also covered by the Who). 

But then there are Weller’s newer Punk inspired songs, the aforementioned “Art School”, their debut single “In The City”

“In the city there's a thousand faces, all shining bright, And those golden faces are under twenty-five

They wanna say, they gonna tell ya, About the young idea, You better listen now you've said your bit”

“Sounds From the Street” … “The USA’s got the sea, yeah but the British kids have got the streets”

“Time For Truth” … “And you think, you've got it sussed out? And you think, that we're brain washed, no way? And you're trying for a police state, So you can rule our bodies and minds?”

“Bricks and Mortar” … “Bricks and mortar reflecting social change, Cracks in the pavement reveal cravings for success”

All this anger is wrapped up in a sound that echoed Dr Feelgood, The Who, The Beatles, the Small Faces and The Jam’s own take on all that they’d learned playing in those working men’s clubs. 

But the real gem on “In The City” is what can in hindsight be seen as Weller’s first great song, “Away From The Numbers”. OK numbers is Mod slang from the 60’s (a disparaging term for lesser Mods used by Faces (the top Mods) who looked down on the badly dressed younger kids) so my earlier argument is beginning to crumble (hey I’m not saying there isn’t a Mod influence here but this is most definitely a Punk Rock album). The lyrics find Weller wanting to break out of what’s expected of him, control his own life and destiny, follow his own path and don’t leave it too long or the moment is gone. All this set among splashing cymbals, crunching chords and a performance by a 3 piece that shouldn’t sound this BIG.

“I was the type who knocked at old men (History's easy)

Who together at tables sit and drink beer (Somewhere is really)

Then I saw that I was really the same, So this link's breaking away from the chain”

And just to prove that it’s great to aspire to all this but it’s not always so easy to achieve it we finish on a chant of “Reality's so hard, reality's so hard”.

I was hooked from the start. For the next 5 years The Jam were MY band (many other thousands of people claim that too but no, they were MY band). I hung on every word, note, interview, picture and release, in fact they still are MY band. They developed into the biggest band in Britain, their sound grew and expanded but here, in 1977, they were another new Punk band trying to make their mark among all the others appearing on a seemingly daily basis. Thankfully I got it.

Away From The Numbers - https://youtu.be/EzLmtMg1Weg