All things being equal, The Man Of Cheese and I will be off to see From The Jam this evening, in that there London. Songkick tells me it will be the tenth time I've seen them. Now critics will say they are nothing but a glorified covers band which, despite some new material, is hard to argue with, especially since the late Rick Buckler quit the band in 2009. On the other hand, proponents will say this is as close as you are going to get to seeing The Jam live. And that's not because of Russell Hastings' attention to detail as a surrogate Weller, however good or otherwise he may be. No, it's because Bruce Foxton is there; he might not spring up into the air quite so much any more, knees not being what they once were, but his unmistakable basslines are all present and correct.
Not for much longer though. As I mentioned when Rick died, Bruce is retiring after the current run of FTJ dates, so you've only got until the end of May to see him. TMOC and I have wrangled our schedules to fit this in, one final Foxton pilgrimage. We'll see FTJ again in the future, no doubt, but it won't be the same without Bruce.
To celebrate then, here are four versions of what was, arguably1, Foxton's finest songwriting contribution to The Jam, Smithers-Jones, the lyrics to which were inspired by Bruce's dad being made redundant. We'll start with the regular band version, from the B-side of When You're Young, then have the orchestral reworking from Settings Sons, then a delicate live TV performance by Foxton & Hastings, and finally the full-on FTJ live performance that I expect to see tonight. Which is your favourite?
Thanks for everything, Bruce - enjoy a long, happy and healthy retirement.
1. It's either this or News of the World, surely?
Have a precious time! Take care down in the tube station at midnight in the city and I look forward to hearing you tell us all about it from the start - that's entertainment!
ReplyDelete(Sorry... but have a great night and I agree about your two Foxton-penned song choices)
Thanks, C. A good evening was had, but there were also some interesting aspects that may get a blog post of their own some time.
DeleteA splendid evening indeed,albeit not quite as expected,but I'll leave that with you for a future post.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite version is number 4 by the way,with Rick still looking so bloody cool,as recently logged about.
Good shout mate. Was he ever not cool, I wonder?
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