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| Jam legends still on song Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton Thursday May 17th 2007 Bruce Foxton, bass, and Rick Buckler, drums, roll back the years at the Wulfrun. So this is what happened to the Angry Young Men of the late 1970s. They're married, mortgaged and middle aged - but still remember the words to every Jam song. Well, at least the crowd do anyway. When Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler's new singer Russell Hastings stumbled over the lyrics to three-chord opener 'In The City' it was hardly an auspicious start. But to be fair Hastings carried his Paul Weller role off brilliantly, with just the right measure of presence and plenty of passion. Foxton and Buckler haven't played together for 25 years and at times it shows; Foxton emerged as an engaging main man, but the ever-likeable Buckler rarely looked at ease and seemed dogged by sound problems. The whole thing nearly fell apart during a pretty disastrous 'Thick as Thieves' but the new arrangement of 'That's Entertainment' worked well and throughout the set there were signs of new life being breathed into old songs. And it was the songs the sell-out crowd had come to hear, whatever the line-up. In an electrifying run-through of The Jam's peerless catalogue, highlights included the still-relevant 'Little Boy Soldiers', 'To Be Someone' and 'Strange Town'. Old chart classics 'Town Called Malice', 'Eton Rifles' and 'Going Underground' were sung so loud by the jubilant crowd that it was sometimes hard to hear the band. It all ended in a mass of deserved applause, deafening cheers and the promise of a welcome return later this year. On the way out, local soundalike bands handed out flyers advertising themselves as 'Britain's best tribute to The Jam'. Great taste, but I thought we'd just seen that. Keith Harrlson (Reproduced from Wolverhamptons Express And Star) |
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