The Jam - Peel Session 1979

[@simonboardman6203]

60 years old and listening to Saturday's Kids brings a lump in my throat and a tear down my cheek...bloody hell.....

[@underock4]

Same here...think Setting Sons is my favourite album of theirs...back in the day, we used to wear out the vinyl versions, at all the best late 70's parties.

[@BestUserNameUK]

54 here, 2022.

[@pitchforkcustom]

whatever happened to the satans 😊

[@Chrisuk-xg6tz]

Am with you mate....3 tv channels and a music centre...Thats all we needed wasnt it?...🤣👍

[@paulevans4334]

I miss John Peel so much. He was sutch a huge influence in my youth. The radio was on at 10pm every night, laying in the dark listening to many great tunes and many new artist's. R.I.P John.

[@aartman01]

Same here. He was a National Treasure.

[@mickymac6571]

Great session, good to see they weren't too "big" to do a session for Peely. Love hearing the snippets from him between tracks. Essential listening as a teenager in the late seventies early eighties.

[@setmindinmotion]

When You’re Young - what a fantastic track 🇬🇧

[@asfeeley]

Always felt the Jam, or Paul Weller really, was telling my life story in the lyrics. Always felt I should tear myself away from them for my own good but was completely hooked and couldn't. He just laid out the facts of modern life at the time. Every twist and turn, he had it all covered. How could he have known and capture it all in his songs? Still in awe of his powers of perception and communication. I guess now that everyone must have felt like that.

[@deeder2000]

The Modfather's band was far far ahead of the competition and sounded so original and it was so rare to hear a bass at the time, the Stranglers being an exception! And all of this from a Clash fanatic!

[@richardfinlayson1524]

Its funny,as i get older i really get how great a song "thick as thieves" is,pretty amazing to write a song like that when you are 20.

[@andeez4663]

Totally agree. At 52 I started learning to play the guitar and as 'Thieves' is my fave Jam tune I had a look at the YT tutorials and it is such a complicated tune. Utterly fabulous though for a young man to write.

[@woody5831]

Its got a very "So Sad About Us" about it.

[@BestUserNameUK]

Spot on. I'm 54 now & saw The Jam a few times. Check out 'Life From a Wndow'.. My fav' Jam song.

[@thefunkyphantom1322]

so PW was on his first solo tour in the US and after a gig in Ventura the entourage (self included) ended up at the Ritz in Pasadena. The bar was full of crew, the band, groupies (sort of self included) and a small pack of mods who arrived on scooters.. mind you this is Uh Huh Oh Yeah era. Paul disappeared and the party dispersed.. I was stuck in a chair near the bar piano just waiting for my friend to rejoin me after her .. umm.. well .. her visit with a friend from the crew. It's just me and the ghosts when out of nowhere The Man strolls in with a notebook and sits down to play. Somehow managed to get words out and sang with him to Baby I'm Amazed. He asked me what I was listening to and I told him a lot of rap at the time.. (of course I'm a card carrying member of the Style Council and dyed in the wool mod of the Jam days.. but I mentioned how jazz was going through a resurgence in hip hop.. etc. Anyway.. all this to say I told him the show was great and that I was into the new album.. also.. that thick as thieves is just as raw and honest and rhythmic as anything coming out the streets right now. He thanked me. I wandered off after that to wait in a different areas.. because knowing when to leave is an art in itself and he clearly came down to work even at 2am. Definitely top 5 brush with greatness moments for me. Music stops time and these songs bring us right to the moment.

[@Paul-dv4dr]

Agreed

[@syddiesel8420]

Nice to hear John Peels voice again miss the man, he made a lot of artists famous, you could send him a sample of your music and most of the time he would play it on his radio show, we don't get this anymore, very sad, always had a soft spot for The Jam, thanks for sharing my friend...

[@beefheart1410]

A great session from one of the musical loves of my life. Along with The Clash these, lyrically, were the teenage news of Britain in my adolescence. In importance, therefore, they went beyond "music". This level of importance in musicians lasted between the 1950s up to the mid 1980s by the way.

[@trickyrich1968]

Lucky to growing up listening to this in my youth... top notch music . If you are finding about these guys now ... give yourselves a pat on the back , plenty to explore and find about .. especially live

[@Sundae_Times]

*to be growing up

[@paulbillerey1594]

I saw the jam in 1980 at the rainbow theatre with my brothers phill and Alex and phill s mate Ian very good gig and a great night out nice one

[@willieluncheonette]

Just posted on the excellent Vibracobra23 channel. This was the Jam's third appearance with John Peel, the first two being in 1977. Here they are playing three songs from Setting Sons LP, an album that would be released the next month. When You're Young was the A-side bw Smithers-Jones of a 7" single that was in the stores in August. By the time of this Peel, the Jam had left their punk roots behind and were on their way to much larger success. When You're Young reached # 17 on the UK charts and Eton Rifles, when released as a single , peaked at # 3. The Setting Sons album went all the way to # 4. All of these represented the best commercial sales the band had ever had. They would go on to have a # 1 album and four # 1 singles. This Peel session finds the band in good form, which is to say some of the best British music of the late 1970's.

[@brandonmcleish3177]

So the jam in Edinburgh eighty two

[@bmccabe1767]

First saw them at the rainbow. Brilliant night that added to my youth great days.

[@neilclarkson7365]

A great band at the absolute peak of their powers.

[@markreadman795]

They were not only a band, they were a trio of 3 absolute geniuses. You only get those legendary bands when each and every member is top of the game.

[@honved1]

The mix on this is fucking incredible.

[@FFM0594]

Peel had the best techs by light years!

[@nylonnerves8422]

It seems like everytime a punk/new wave/whatever rock band in the late 70's went into the studio the producers/engineers didn't really get what they were doing and then they did a Peel Session that captures the band perfectly.

[@classicteachings]

Saturday’s girls work in Tesco and Woolworths… The wonder of Weller ❤

[@billythemountainbear]

I have this on CD. Listen to it lots. Absolutely Outstanding.

[@FFM0594]

Meh! I have the original LP. :)

[@gerardmccavana4905]

Great session.

[@discoverydolan5134]

Put Your Hands Together For The Best Band In The Facking World The Jam!!!❤️🤍💙🛵

[@mark6809mm]

Majestic!!

[@chrisst8922]

I remember this session. The Jam recorded the first two sessions and then there was this long gap before they returned to Maida Vale/The Langham and I remember John remarking a few weeks before that the man Walters had been trying to get them for a while. Normally of course Peel session artists would be newcomers and the songs recorded would appear on a single or LP several months or a year later. They'd rarely be as good, not only would the 8 track at the BBC provide a live sound but the band would have developed and somehow wouldn't be as innovative. Here however the tracks are indistinguishable from Polydor's recordings so whilst it's amazing to think that The Eton Rifles for example is new, the shock of the new isn't quite so pronounced.

[@davidwarner8353]

Paul Weller... A supreme lyricist. The best band. I was gutted when they broke up

[@alisonoverton]

Me too. I loved them but never had the chance to see them live.

[@nickterrett6613]

i hadnt even been in to them that long when they announced the break up..i didnt believe my older brother when he told me..they were MY band..seein Weller on the 6 oclock news confirming it brought a tear to my eye..went into my room and just stared at my posters..Teenage blue..they still are MY band..had this Peel session on a "cassette" ...yes..remember them😆

[@thedoc1210]

first band I saw live.

[@adrianbrowne7962]

" The lyrical Brilliance " And " Musical Muscularity " Of The Jam Was " Undeniable " At This Stage Of There Career!! The Band's " Ascendancy To " Creative Perfection " Had Just About Been Reached " With The Setting Sons !!! From Adrian Browne 1965

[@craignightingale8022]

Sweet, they're doing it like the Police at 12:05. Always thought the breakdown in WYY was dubby, but wasn't expecting that!

[@mukkaspec3333]

Rick !

[@counterculturecomedy]

Man, I would have LOVED a peel session version of Art School

[@frflinstone]

It was on the first Peel session in 1977

[@guitarpop]

Psycho Candy Then you are in luck

[@craignightingale8022]

It's here on KZbin.

[@krmod6741]

You can find a live rendition of Art School on The Old Grey Whistle Test...pure magic!

[@pepe_feed]

Ha! Eating trifles. Never 'eard of it, thanks Peely.

[@l.salisbury1253]

Notice that Townsend-esque feedback starting at 8:28...

[@herbieshine1312]

This was 2-3 years before I started listening to john Peel. not sure if I've heard this session before. Is an utterly glorious thing. I love how peels introduction to the songs is included. Wonderful

[@PatheticoMorbid]

better than i remembered. weren't bad were they? 😉👏👏👏

[@mukkaspec3333]

It's the system, smash the system, f**k the system.

[@henrywallace7996]

Hate the system, what’s the system?

[@carmengiaa65]

Bruce looks drunk on Baby Chams, still awesome!

[@conorpowell9876]

Looks like Bruce has a semi on there!

[@honved1]

Paul's amp is mid scooped,it sounds like tony iommi. I was too young to see the jam, i was 8 when they split,but can anyone who has seen them tell me if that guitar sound is what they heard? All the live videos jve seen have had a really tinny guitar sound.

[@FFM0594]

Their studio producer tended to boost higher frequencies, common on Punk records produced by big labels. They sounded exactly like this on stage. I use a graphic equalizer to boost bass, fiddle with the mid-range and lower treble for most punk tracks.

[@johnclark6756]

Live they were loud, so the guitar never seemed tinny.

[@Mod-rw9cw]

Micky Cripplejohn no they were absolutely amazing live and sounded better than their records.I saw them live 8 times and each time was brilliant.

[@JohnnyFriendly]

I saw them in 1982. It was extremely loud, so much so my ears were ringing for days. Honestly it was so loud you couldn't differentiate subtleties within guitar tones. Plus the original Jam/Punk audiences weren't really aware or interested in such nuances (we were all quite Neanderthal back then)

[@johnbarry1965]

Deeside Leisure Centre is in North Wales!!

[@Mod-rw9cw]

Only two of these songs were released as singles that is how good they were.How many of today's shit bands would do that if they could ever even make songs as good ?

[@granto6738]

I tell people about this but they think 🤔 I'm f daft f give up on about them,

[@StevieRevbo]

37 seconds it starts!

[@StevieRevbo]

Thick as Thieves is better than the original, if only for the drum volley at the end, and what is Rick doing with that Butchers' Apron, in the pic above?

[@optimisticmike1041]

Hes putting on a union flag jacket

[@britishreaction54]

I'll give you a butchers apron.

[@VictoryNightwing]

The Modfathers.

[@blindpink]

"Deeside leisure centre in Liverpool"........??? its not even in England....and you from the Wirral John....tut tut....

[@samwilletts4991]

Why did the sainted George Martin make George H 's guitar sound (presumably Rickenbacker, his and this both) so shrill, toppy, tinny, thinny [etc.]? Paul Weller's here - and passim, with the Jam - incredibly, as little as SEVEN years later! - is so much more muscular; far better justifies electrifying a guitar, wudnchagree? Course you would, you have ears. I love it when my opinion happens to coincide with incontrovertible absolute empirical truth [smirks]. But really, wasn't George Harrison's playing generally undermined by the production? "While my guitar feebly squeaks".

[@ACoincidentalLife]

Maybe GM had a Lennon ego in his ear!

[@chrisst8922]

Oh where do you start with this one? First of all the sound has to match the song. Secondly Harrison used his 420 and two 360/12's between 1963 and 66 in his role as lead guitarist where Lennon was on hand to play rhythm whereas Weller had to use his 330 to fill out all of that part of the sound without a rhythm player (a least when live). Then there's technological developments to consider: One of the reason The Beatles retreated to the studio was because stage sound wasn't loud enough and developments in that regard impacted on what could be achieved in the studio too. Then there's the subjective's; what's 'thinny' to someone is delicate or sensitive to someone else. Even to the same person. Weller now doesn't like his sound then: he says it's heavy metal. And there's the ultimate irony: Harrison didn't like his sound at the time or later. I don't care, I like all of it and I use Rickenbacker for the same reason Weller said he did: his heroes used them.

[@MuscleDad420]

@van wray It also bears mentioning that by '79 Weller had moved on to using 2204 Marshall JMP heads, hence the muscular midrange that the OP mentioned. Different from a Vox' midrange, which sits in the upper mids. Somewhat unrelated but I'm personally not a fan of the modern Hi-Gain Ric pickups. Weller's were underwound by comparison, which balanced out the fact they used ceramic magnets -- they sounded more like hotter, stronger toaster top pickups. Modern examples just sound shrill and flabby in comparison.

[@duffbaker9554]

Let's not forget that Harrison played his Gretsch guitars more than his Ricks (his 360 models were used when a 12-string was required) during the first half of their recording career and those are bright-sounding as well.

[@stuartharrison165]

Weller was also a tad more aggressive than George, and yeh the Marshalls helped

[@sgbh8874]

Jam = Oasis tribute band

[@tonyburrows1346]

Whaaat

[@MickMcgowan-x4u]

Idiot jam shit on oasis

[@muhammad.ramone]

a good friend of mine used to say that every band is a ripoff of the ramones, who are a ripoff of the beatles, who are a ripoff of oasis.

[@stevenweasel2678]

AS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT / INDEED LEGENDARY AS THE JAM WAS / T6HIS PEEL SESSION WOULD HAVE SOME OTHER GOOD BANDS TRACKS ON IT / ALBEIT NOT QUITE ON THE SAME MASTERFUL QUALITY AS THE JAM BUT PITY THEY HAVE BEEN EDITED OUT