The next few years witnessed a very regular output from the trio, including their first world tour in 1979 and a consistently enthusiastic reception from the English market. In December of 1977, the band ’s second album, This Is the Modern World, almost made the Top 20 and kicked off another English tour. tour -characteristic of the band ’s relationship to American audiences -was not particularly successful.īack at home, however, the Jam was already solidly ensconced on the “mod revival ” landscape. tour introduced the Jam to an already enthusiastic audience, while the U.S. The album release preceded the band ’s pair of first serious tours: the U.K. By August a second single, “All Around the World, ” rose to Number 13. The debut album, also called In the City, claimed the Number 20 position. It was, at the very least, an auspicious beginning. The group ’s first recording, a single released in the spring of 1977 called “In the City, ” just cracked the British Top 40. ”Įarly in 1977, the Jam had secured a contract with Polydor Records. ” Garbarini later described this earliest incarnation of the band as “a sinewy, somewhat brittle punk version of the Who in hyperdrive. “The Jam ’s first London gigs collided with the emergence of punk, ” Paolo Hewitt wrote in Melody Maker, “and the group, sporting mohair suits, soon gained a following thanks to Weller ’s fast, energetic songs. debut, Caf é Bleu, Polydor, 1984 formed and disbanded Paul Weller Movement, 1990 Weller released debut solo album, Paul Weller, Go! Discs, 1992.Īddresses: Record company -Go! Discs, 825 Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10019.Ĭlubs that nurtured the punk scene. debut, Introducing the Style Council, Polygram, 1983 released U.K. 1976 group signed with Polydor Records and released debut album, In the City, 1977 founded Jamming magazine, 1981 founder and owner of Respond Records, 1981-86 the Jam dissolved, 1982 Weller formed duo Style Council with keyboardist Mick Talbot, 1983 released debut single, “Speak Like a Child, ” Polydor, 1983 released U.S. 19 Rick Buckler and Bruce Foxton joined Weller, c. Lee, 1986 children: John.īegan playing sets with Steve Brookes as the Jam at working men ’s clubs in England, early 1970s Nigel Harris and Dave Waller joined group, 1973 Brookes, Harris, and Waller left group, c. That year, the trio headed for London, where they broke into the circuit of For the Record …īorn Paul Weller, May 25, 1958, in Woking, Surrey, England married Dee C. This trio would constitute the Jam for the next six years.īy the end of 1976 the band had coalesced around Weller, who performed most of the lead guitar and vocals and wrote most of the songs. In 19, however, the lineup gradually shifted and Weller was the only remaining original member Brookes, Harris, and Waller left and were replaced by Rick Buckler and Bruce Foxton. By 1973 the duo had expanded with the addition of Nigel Harris and Dave Waller. Hewitt, writing for Melody Maker in October of 1982, right after the Jam announced that it was disbanding, traced the roots of group to 1972, when Weller played sets with his school friend Steve Brookes at local working men ’s clubs. “The whole reason I started playing music when I was 12 or 13 was because of the Beatles, ” he told Adam Sweeting of Melody Maker in 1984, “so I was brought up on all that and I did believe in it. Without an environment that offered him any formal training, Weller was nonetheless drawn into music at an early age, inspired by the then-emerging rock that he heard around him. The neighbours would be walking in and out and there ’s a general working-class integrity which has now vanished. In an interview with Melody Maker he told Paolo Hewitt about “Stanley Road in Woking, which is all terraced houses, and you could leave your back door open and no-one would rip you off. Years later, Weller would wax poetic about the sense of community that reigned in that neighborhood. Weller grew up in a working-class home in the town of Working in Surrey, England, where he was born on May 25, 1958. He also later embarked on a solo career, pursuing a rigorous touring schedule and achieving commercial and critical success. With both bands, he scored a remarkable string of Top Ten singles and earned a reputation for a commitment to his music and his politics. ” Weller then effected an impressive escape from the demands and expectations of this first public persona, reinventing himself in the context of a very different but also very successful soul-oriented duo, the Style Council. The singer-songwriter jumped to the forefront of English alternative rock fame in the late 1970s via the Jam, which Vic Garbarini of Musician later dubbed “the British pop phenomenon of the early 80s. Rock icons are often and easily trapped within the legend that they and the media create around them, but not in the case of Paul Weller.
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