Play it again, Jam

Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, formerly of The Jam, ran into each other in May of last year when their respective bands, The Casbah Club and The Gift, played a show together in Guilford, Surrey. Foxton accepted the invitation to jam with The Gift, and he and Buckler enjoyed the experience so much that they decided to go back out on the road together playing Jam songs.

Paul Weller won’t be playing any part in the reunion, although he and Foxton did meet backstage at The Who’s show in Hyde Park last summer.
“The Casbah Club were one of the many bands supporting The Who,” reflects Foxton. “All of the bands had portacabins for dressing rooms and, lo and behold, just before we went on stage, Paul turned up and was hanging out with the guys from Ocean Colour Scene. Anyway, I went to the loo, and Paul came in behind me, gave me a big hug and said, ‘It’s been too long man’. I said, ‘Likewise, it’s great to see you’.
“Then we decided we couldn’t hang out in the toilets for too long, because people would get the wrong impression! But it was very nice and friendly. When myself and Rick decided to get back together, we tried to contact Paul and his office, just to let him know what we were up to.
“But no one could track him down. I think Paul may have been doing his three night run in New York, one of which was a Jam night. It would have been nice just to have mentioned it to him, but he’s said many times that he wants to leave The Jam where it was and not reform the band.”
After leaving The Jam, Foxton briefly pursued a solo career and played in several lesser known groups, before eventually being asked to join legendary Northern Irish punk act Stiff Little Fingers.
“I jumped at the chance,” he recalls. “It was perfect timing. I’d been playing in a band called The Rhythm Sisters, and we’d given it a good try, but it wasn’t going anywhere. I remember vividly, I was staying in the house of one of the other guys in the band, and he came up and said, ‘Jake Burns is on the phone for you’.
“Jake told me Ali McMordie was leaving SLF and asked me if I was interested in joining. I was like, ‘Thank you God!’ Something had come out of nowhere. I asked Jake where we were playing, and he told me they had a gig in Japan in two weeks’ time. I said, ‘Even better!’”
Since The Jam’s demise, many groups have championed the band and cited them as an influence, most notably Oasis. Did Bruce ever meet Noel and co?
“I’ve met Liam a couple of times,” says Foxton. “One occasion was when I was on the road with Stiff Little Fingers in America, and we were finishing our tour and Oasis were just starting. Jake and myself were in a bar, and because we’d played the final gig the night before and were a bit the worse for wear, we were just having a couple of Cokes. Liam walked in and I thought, ‘Oh shit, we should be having a couple of tequilas here or something’. But he was a nice guy. He has that image in the media of being a bad boy, but when you get him one-to-one he’s really a lovely bloke.”