I have always admired three peice bands. It takes something extra I think to get up on a stage and make a significant noise as a trio. And few bands of three made a finer or more significant noise than The Jam. Effortlessly cool in a late seventies music scene awash with cool bands, Weller, Foxton and Buckler barely put a foot wrong. Whether you preferred the raw punkyness of 'In the City' or the slick soulfulness of 'The Gift', The Jam delivered.
And I never saw them!
I remember the day they announced the split. My best schoolmate's sister and her boyfriend were a couple of years older, 16 or 17 and both were in tears. For them and for thousands of teens like them this was big, a bereavement of sorts as Paul Weller, a poet for his disaffected generation, was pulling the plug on the biggest band in the nation! The final tour was announced and Brighton (the poignant setting for the last performance) erupted in a struggle for tickets.
And I never saw them!
1982, the band's final year was hectic with the 'Trans-Gobal Unity Express' tour (of which this Stateside gig was a part) as well at the farewell 'Beat Surrender' tour. They played at the Brighton Centre no less than four times in 1982. My best man saw them five times in Brighton between 1980 and 1982 (and he was just a year older than me!).
And I never saw them! (Do you sence a feeling of bitterness here?).
What would they have become had Paul Weller not walked away when he did. There aren't so many clues... 'A Solid Bond In Your Heart'? (recorded by both The Jam and The Style Council). It's difficult to tell on the basis of one or two songs or demos but I guess that there would have always been the risk that whatever it was that The Jam had could have become, it may have been diluted and that would have been a real shame. So as it is we have just six studio albums in which to endulge (five if your name is Owen Carne!).
So then this is a recording of the second of two nights they played at The Palladium in New York in May 1982. Stick with it. Whilst there are recording problems across the first couple of tracks, these clear and the continuing sound is good.
The review below of the first night (15th May) appeated in Record Mirror on 5th June 1982. With a few set changes ('Pretty Green' dropped and 'The Butterfly Collector' in for 'Little Boy Soldiers') the running order on 18th was the same as for the 15th. Reading the review it seems that, not before time, The Jam were finally making an impression on the US on what was to be their last visit.
Record Mirror (5th June 1982).
Thanks to the original uploader.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-uRqKBYBQLF
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-B0N0hQdgTY
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