FROM THE JAM have announced their Final Tour of Australia, dedicated to all the Australian fans of The Jam. For this finale they will perform a special set of The Jam’s Greatest Hits from their complete back-catalogue including – ‘Town Called Malice’, ‘Going Underground’, ‘That’s Entertainment’, ‘In the City’, ‘Start!’, ‘The Eton Rifles’, ‘English Rose’, ‘David Watts’, ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight’ plus more!
We caught up with original bass player Bruce Foxton to talk about the tour and how they prepare for such a gruelling trip, plus the early days of The Jam, which was a pivotal time for British music.
Sean: Hey, Bruce how are you?
Bruce: Yeah not bad, not bad. A few little issues going on and a few ailments but all controllable.
Sean: Well, I have to say I have mixed emotions. After catching you the last time you were here I’m very sad to see the words ‘Final Australian Tour’ are on the poster but also so excited to see you coming back to Australia. It was such a wonderful night up in Hillary’s last time you were here in Perth.
Bruce: We love it in Perth. Yeah Perth was a great gig. The whole Australian bit was excellent. It’s just it’s a long way, but you know it may or may not be the last bunch of shows there. It depends how it all goes and you know if we, because we said we wouldn’t tour there again a while ago but here we are, we are touring, we’re coming out and looking forward to it immensely. So things change you know, it’s not a definite last tour but as long as I’m able to do it, let’s keep doing it you know, as long as the audience come and enjoy it we’ll definitely do it.
Sean: And that’s the thing, it’s an incredible songbook to dig out some fantastic iconic hits that have just been there through a lot of people’s life. It really did crave itself in to British music history. The one thing that grabbed me when I was at the Perth show was the diversity of age groups through the audience, which just goes to show that this music’s timeless.
Bruce: Yeah, yeah it’s still played on the radio. A Town Called Malice appears in certain films. It’s still very much up there and when I do hear it on the radio it still sounds fresh and can keep up with what’s coming out, you know. It just sounds great. It doesn’t sound dated, you know. It’s a compliment that they’re still coming but they’re probably getting influenced a lot by their parents if they were big Jam fans because we are finding that you know, you go from town to town city to city, the audience is getting younger. I know you say that because they used to say about policemen, are the policemen getting younger these days? No, you’re just getting older. [laughs]
Sean: What’s always great is when bands cover the whole of the country, you’re going everywhere from Melbourne to finally finishing off the tour at The Astor Theatre at Perth, which is a fantastic venue. Not sure if you’ve played there before. Real great sound system in there. You guys are just going to rip that up. It’ll be brilliant.
Bruce: Great. Sounds good, you’re getting me excited [laughs].
Sean: Looking back all those years ago, did you realise that you were writing some of the songs that were going to be making such a mark on British music history?
Bruce: No, I don’t think we knew it. It was just… It came out. It just developed. You know, none of us had a crystal ball. We would find it in the studio. You’d say, yeah, you recorded a song and think, that sounds great, you know, we’ll go with that as a single or whatever. And then we move on to the next idea, and that seems really good. So you say, well, what are we going to do now? And, yeah, it’s a compliment. Our main aim with The Jam, I think, was to keep moving forward. So we experimented with songs and instruments on those records, trying to write good melodic songs. And if they became part of history later, I don’t think anybody can foresee how well or not it would be taken.
Sean: One person who has captured the magic in his performances is Russell . He is so passionate about what he does and captures that energy with his performances. But he’s very much his own performer.
Bruce: Yeah, I mean, it was big shoes to fill. I don’t think he looked at it like that though, which was great. It was just, that’s his take on his role, you know. And he does an amazing job. He didn’t want to be, he didn’t fake his voice, put it that way, to try and sound like Paul. But it just happens that he’s very similar to how Paul was singing in those days.
Sean: Do you ever get much of an urge, even in recent years, to continue writing? Is it something you ever sort of sit down and play around with still?
Bruce: It’s getting time, really. I mean, on this latest jaunt at soundcheck, once we’ve run the songs that we’re going to be performing, or some of the songs we’re going to be performing that night, Russell come up just with a riff on stage, you know, and then we’ll just jam it, really. And there’s been quite a few good ideas come out, so far, if he’s recorded them on his phone. Hopefully, he’s still got it. And so we may go for another album. Again, who knows, really. It’s quite tricky to get yourself heard on the radio now. I mean, we managed it once, I think [laughs].
Sean: I see the bass is nicely positioned behind you. (Bruce has a bass guitar on a stand by the wall) I just wondered if you picked it up often when your home.
Bruce: Yeah, I do but you need a break from it when we finish a stretch like we have coming up, you know. You need a break or do something, but freshen things up a bit. But yeah, I do. I’m in what we call our office, my wife and myself, and I do jam along with what we’re going to be doing on the next tour or whatever, you know, just refresh the old memory banks. And what it has done for me is just realise or confirm what a great songwriter Paul (Weller) was and still is, you know. Because I think at the time when we were together, I was more just playing the songs well. I didn’t really read the lyrics, all of them completely, you know. I’ve had an opportunity to really look into the songs. And he was a bright young lad then.
Sean: When you were growing up and you realised that music was for you, what were you listening to from an early age? What was going on around you as you were branching into music, just picking up your first instrument?
Bruce: Well, I was probably listening to what my brother was listening to because he was an original mod and, you know, went clubbing to one place in Woking again, to play Motown and Northern Soul and that. And he had the image, you know, the suits and the scooter and stuff. And I was kind of like probably indoctrinated by it, just delivering it coming out of his bedroom. So it was more there than getting my own records. It was listening to what Derek, my brother, was playing, which was, yeah, a lot of Motown, et cetera.
Sean: What a songbook to pick up influences from over the years.
Bruce: Yeah. Some incredible stuff.
Sean: I’d just like to ask a couple of general questions, if I can, to wrap things up, Bruce. And that was a restaurant question. If you could invite three musicians past or present, to join you for dinner one evening, who would you like to have sat with you?
Bruce: The Beatles [laughs].
Sean: I’ll pull in a fourth chair for the other one. What was the last album you listened to, Bruce?
Bruce: Well, going back, you know, again, it’s Motown Chartbusters or something like that.
Sean: That’s a cool vibe. And I’ve saved the easiest question for last. If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Bruce: [laughs] Can we come back to that? That’s a big question, isn’t it?
Sean: [laughs] It is. We can come back to it though. Well, it’s not long before you get on the plane to come over. Do you have to do many rehearsals or does the constant of playing live keep you fresh?
Bruce: We’re always gigging. It’s pretty much full time. Well, we did have some rehearsals when we started out, when we were doing the 40th anniversary of All Mods Con. So we played that up until April and then set the songs. But yeah, it’s minimal. We don’t rehearse the whole set because a lot of it, they’re embedded in your head anyway. But a refresh on some songs. And like you said, it’s deciding what ones to leave out. It’s the hard thing.
Sean: Bruce, we can’t wait to see you over here. We get you in Perth at the end of the tour, which is nice because it means you’re nearer for the flight back.
Bruce: Well, that was why we planned it like that [laughs].
Sean: As I say, the last time we saw you, it was a fantastic night. There was a lot of middle-aged gentlemen in the crowd that struggled to get into Fred Perry’s, which was quite interesting to see [laughs]
Bruce: They’re our best sellers, the extra-larges [laughs].
Sean: [laughs] I’ll most definitely be joining them. Thank you ever so much for your time Bruce. Have a safe journey. Regards to the rest of the band and we’ll see you next week.
Bruce: Thanks, mate. Cheers.
