To many, The Jam remain, quite simply, the most important band of their lives. And it all started in the late seventies when Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler emerged from the London suburb of Woking with bristling punk guitar, rumbling bass, powerhouse drums and plenty of sharp-suited, spiky-haired attitude.
They may have been fired up by punk but Weller was a mod, with more of an interest in singing like Otis Redding than Johnny Rotten. And by the time The Jam's debut single, 'In The City', hit the shops in May 1977, it was clear that they had it in them to ride the crest of the new wave and keep on going long after sniffing glue, mohicans and bondage trousers had become the stuff of postcards from swinging London.
This fine first of two box sets contains the first nine Jam singles - all in their original sleeve artwork- and charts the rise of the band from their first fledgling, angular angry riffs to finding their feet and their direction as a well-honed hit machine. 'The Jam 45rpm...' also features a 16-page booklet, while four of the CDs are enhanced with video.
'In The City's homage to the booming metropolis, with its guitar scraping, barbed melody, gruff growl, feedback and a nod to The Who was the perfect debut single. Within a fast and sharp two minutes and fifteen seconds you were hooked.
Two months later came 'All Around The World' another prime slice of youthful venom which saw Weller putting some distance between The Jam and their punk contemporaries by singing "What's the point in saying destroy?" The first in the grand tradition of Jam singles not to feature on their albums -how many bands can you say that about these days?- it also featured the Foxton composition 'Carnaby Street'. Sung by Bruce and bemoaning the decline of that once great avenue of boutiques it is -like most of the bass player's attempts- dire and signals the start of a creative lull.
'The Modern World' (November '77) and March 1978's 'News Of The World', another Foxton tune, this time putting the boot into the press, signalled the low point of the band's career. While both possessing the trademark meaty malice, they were inferior songs. The only redeeming factor being the live tracks on the B-side of 'The Modern World' - breakneck covers of Arthur Conley's 'Sweet Soul Music' and The Supremes' 'Back In My Arms Again', recorded at the 100 Club in 1977 and both timely reminders of just how great a live band they were.
It wasn't until August that year though that The Jam really came into their stride with the double A-sided 'David Watts/A Bomb In Wardour Street'. A fine cover of the Kinks track 'David Watts' became a live favourite, while 'A Bomb...' a robust and darkly impressive bass-heavy jagged swagger, ending with the shouted "A-P-O-C-A-L-Y-P-S-E apocalypse!" it showed the world that there was much more to Weller and his compadres.
By now, with the release of the 'All Mod Cons' album, the band were gathering a strong mod following and the words truth, passion, soul and fire were mentioned in the same breath as The Jam. OK the bass-player may have had a mullet and the drummer may, on occasion, have been spotted wearing leather biker jackets and Sad Cafe T-shirts but they were down-to-earth, good honest lads with ability and belief.
It was Weller though, who was fast earning himself that cringesome 'spokesman for a generation' moniker, who captured hearts with the bitter realism of his urban poetry. From the opening whoosh and rattle of the tube train on 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight' you just knew this was an all-time classic single. The tale of an man who gets beaten up by a gang that "smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many right-wing meetings" while taking a curry home to his wife, was the kind of lyric that one of his heroes Ray Davies might have written. Flip 'Tube Station' over and you have a cover of The Who's 'So Sad About Us' -dedicated to recently deceased drummer Keith Moon- and another naff Foxton song, the harmonica-powered filler 'The Night'.
But for many, one of the finest Jam single moments ever - and another not featured on any album- is 1979's 'Strange Town'. A strident, sharp and stomping ode to an alien landing in London it was a gloriously huge and energetic few minutes. It was backed with 'The Butterfly Collector' a tender, ebbing and flowing song about 'a major but nameless player on the punk scene', to this day one of the most stirring and beautiful songs to buffet these ears.
Using the same template as 'Strange Town', Weller's paean to the passing of age 'When You're Young' would these days have many a drunken thirtysomething sobbing and shouting along to the line "You used to fall in love with everyone/any guitar and any bass drum/Life is a drink and you get drunk when you're young," or "And you find out life isn't like that/It's so hard to comprehend/How you set up your dreams to have them slashed in the end" or more moving still "the world is your oyster but you're future's a clam"...pass the tissues please, feeling a little overcome. On the B-side it also boasts the best Jam tune Foxton penned, 'Smithers Jones', a gritty diary of the urban hell of a middle-class office worker.
Last in this box set is 'The Eton Rifles', a driving, Hammond organ tinged corker - which featured on the 'Setting Sons' album and by reaching Number Three earnt the band their highest chart position to date - previous highest had been 'All Around The World' at 13.
And there's more to come in second box set '1979-1982', a period which saw Paul, Bruce and Rick honing their skills even further, becoming the biggest band in Britain and then splitting up. For now though, those of you who know Weller only for his solo work should enjoy the urgency of these nine singles. You may think the man's fire is far from out today but cop an earful of what the spiky young tyke was capable of back then.
As for those thirtysomethings out there who need to relive this time, when truth, passion, soul, energy and a refusal to compromise meant something, before you settled down, became Smithers Jones and bought yourself a nice semi-detached house, this is the perfect box set. And it's a lot easier to store than all those tattered, dusty seven inches in the loft.
