Review: You play it From The Jam, we’ll sing it

Keri and I made the decision to go and see From The Jam while watching Paul Weller at Warwick Castle.

A lack of The Jam and Style Council classics made for an underwhelming night which only got going when he played Town Called Malice after which he promptly said his goodbyes. We felt short-changed and we hadn’t even paid.

We’d danced ourselves, we’d sang all the words ourselves. We didn’t need Weller.

What we needed was the music.

And that’s what we got at the Assembly last Friday.

Bruce Foxton and his band came to town to play their Setting Sons album in it’s entirety.

Not an album I was particularly familiar with, it still contained the hit Eton Rifles and a sprinkling of other songs which were stored in the deep recesses of my memory.

And then they reeled off the hits which just kept on coming.

Going Underground, Down In The Tube Station at Midnight, Beat Surrender...

They even extended David Watts, a jukebox staple of mine, but one that always leaves me wanting more.

Voices in the sellout crowd were getting hoarse by the time they returned for a well-deserved encore and a Town Called Malice finale.

But that was the only similarity between The gigs of Weller and From The Jam.

“That was everything Paul Weller should have been,” said Keri.

If only she’d added “That’s Entertainment”. But she was definitely thinking it.

Rating 8/10

By Paul Okey