h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I spoke to Rick Buckler yesterday morning. And last night I saw him play a gig with this band he's started, called The Gift, and they do an entire set of Jam songs. It was utterly brilliant - well worth a two and a half hour round trip to Frome.

Then I had four hours sleep and had to be telephoned to get me to wake up and come and output the breakfast show...

Now I'm off to Yeovil Town v Nottingham Forest. It's not a bad old life.

Anyway, what I wonder is, seeing as The Gift do have one of the original members of The Jam in their line-up, does that make them a tribute band or not?

When I saw Forest play, they had million-pound man Trevor Francis in the line-up. It's said there were over 5000 of us crammed into Stonebridge Road that night ... Ricky Buckler was the drummer wasn't he? He seems kosher-jam to me.

They sell Kosher Jam in Golders Green.

B

I dunno. Being an original band member in a tribute band for the band you were originally in seems rather... onanistic. You shouldn't be tributing (?) yourself, should you now. You'll go blind

The thing is, if it were most bands that weren't The Jam, I don't think it would work - but as they were only a three-piece, Rick's drums were quite a big part of their sound. And he definitely still plays 'em just like he used to. You can tell and everything. I was quite surprised...

I saw some pics of him in an interview - he looks bald but enthusiastic

Blimey, he's as much of chromedome as me

I'm sure he was featured in one of those, "After They Were Famous" shows on ITV a couple of years ago. I seem to remember that at the time he was doing something along the lines of furniture restoration or the like, and that his drum kit was sitting in a shed going mouldy.

Obviously things have moved on since

Herewith my review which will be on the BBC Somerset website some time in the next couple of days... it's the first one I've written since I was on the student paper at University. Which I suddenly realise was 8 years ago now

So I'm a bit rusty. It was a monster set and a bit of a labour of love for me, but I've done my best and got it to down bang on 1,000 words. Hopefully it'll make sense to everyone and not just dodgy old Jam fans like me, but that's the trap you always worry about falling into.

Anyway...

If the drummer out of one of the biggest ever British bands starts
touring with a new band, playing songs exclusively by his old band,
then three questions spring to mind. Does it count as a 'proper' band
or a tribute band, is it worth seeing, and is it a bit odd? Seeing as
the drummer in question is Rick Buckler out of The Jam, the first band
I was ever seriously into as a schoolboy, I headed over to the Cheese
and Grain in Frome to try and find out.

When I arrive, support act Pope are in mid-set. Singer Chris Pope
used to be in The Chords, one of the lesser-known but higher quality
bands that came to prominence in the Jam-inspired Mod revival of 1979
and he delivered a tightly-focused set to an appreciative audience who
preferred to gather by the bar. The Cheese and Grain is a pretty
cavernous venue, and I'd like to see Pope again in a smaller club
where he's got a better chance of getting the crowd involved.

The audience knows what they've come for, though – and after a brief
hiatus while the DJ treats us to the likes of 'Sound of the Suburbs'
by The Members, they get it. The Gift's singer Russell Hastings
ushers everyone down the front, quite reasonably pointing out "I don't
wanna stand here on my own". The crowd duly oblige, and the band rip
into 'David Watts' with Rick Buckler singing along word for word and
pounding on the drumkit just like it's 1978.

The Gift rip straight into one of The Jam's biggest hits – 'Going
Underground' which has the desired effect of getting the audience
dancing, and from there they thunder into 'Pretty Green' with the
crowd happily joining on the 'Oi!'s. From there it's an easy step to
the Dexy's-esque stomp of 'Boy About Town' and then the wistfulness of
'Thick As Thieves' – it's quite evident just how many of the crowd
have learned, loved, and grown up with these lyrics, the absent voice
of a 20 year-old Paul Weller still speaking to them over 25 years
later on.

Without pausing for breath, it's straight into two songs from 'All Mod
Cons' - 'To Be Someone', written about the fickleness of fame after
The Jam returned from an abortive American tour and looked like
splitting up, and 'Mr Clean'. Although many of the crowd are quite
clearly original Jam fans now in their late thirties or forties, it's
noticeable that the The Gift have attracted a fair range of ages– a
couple of lads leaning on the barriers at the front next to me must be
still in high school, and behind us there's a proud forty-something
Dad who's brought his son along to show him a little bit of musical
history.

'Start!' gets the biggest cheer of the night so far, with Dave Moore
supplying that instantly familiar bassline – originally pinched from
'Taxman' by The Beatles – and then Russell Hastings says "This means
more to me now that it did all those years ago" as Moore's bass leads
us into 'When You're Young'. I find myself glancing at those teenage
lads before a balding bloke in his fifties grabs me affably by the
shoulders and joins me in singing along at the tops of our voices.
Weller's anti-Empire song 'Little Boy Soldiers' – still oddly resonant
in this era of British troops being sent into Iraq to protect oil
interests – follows in quick succession before Hastings reaches for an
acoustic guitar.

Which can only mean one thing: That's Entertainment. It's
traditionally an acoustic song and seeing as Rick Buckler being on
drums is the main attraction tonight, it's a bit funny seeing him
sitting at the back doing almost nothing, until halfway through he
picks up his sticks to add a full rhythm track and it actually makes
sense! Then Russell Hastings picks up his black Rickenbacker again
and it's back to cranking out the power chords for 'Set This House
Ablaze', 'In The Crowd' and 'Happy Together' – a personal favourite
which I haven't heard for ages.

Tonight's gig works because The Jam were a three-piece band. The
rhythm section of Buckler on drums and Bruce Foxton (now a member of
Stiff Little Fingers) on bass were central to the band's sound and it
really is great to hear Rick playing the drums on all these songs for
the first time in my life. 'This Is The Modern World' is followed by
'Life From A Window' and Bruce Foxton's finest hour, the suburban
Kinks-esque tale of 'Smithers-Jones'. And then, after 'Running On The
Spot' and 'Away From The Numbers' (the B-side to debut single 'In The
City'), it's back to the hits.

The crowd shove each other around amiably to the frenetic chug of
'A-Bomb in Wardour Street' and you've got to hand it to Rick Buckler,
he must be pushing 50 now, he's been pounding away at his drumkit for
over an hour like a man 30 years his junior, and he's still got a
smile on his face. Maybe there's a hidden meaning to the Superman
t-shirt that he's added to his usual uniform of Levi Sta-Prest and
basketball boots? The main set is closed with two stormers – 'Strange
Town' and 'Funeral Pyre', which was the soundtrack to your
correspondent walking up the path to school to collect his GCSE
results almost half a lifetime ago …

An encore is demanded and duly delivered - The Gift amble back on and
launch into the gentle psychedelia of 'The Butterfly Collector'.
Maybe it's a nod to everyone's advancing years to allow us a little
pause for breath, before they thunder into 'Eton Rifles' and the place
goes mental again. They finish up with 'Down In The Tube Station At
Midnight' - a great conclusion to the evening and it's only 11:40…

So are The Gift just a tribute band? To be honest, I'm still not sure
– but they're definitely worth an evening out!

Nicely written and utterly impartial

Seriously though, that's a fine review Six

Ta. Here's the actual thing on the BBC Somerset website now, along with the interview with Rick we did on the phone on Friday morning.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/09/13/the_gift_review_feature.shtml

May I ask for an opinion on something? They've changed it from the present tense to the past - apparently they've always done gig reviews in the past tense, which is something I've never come across before in all my years of reading the likes of the NME and various bits of the music press.

Has it lost something in translation?

Nope, still every bit as good.

Good stuff Six!