By Roger Lytollis

Last updated at 14:09, Thursday, 01 December 2011

Rick Buckler is one-third of The Jam. He is the backbeat which propelled this six-legged hit machine through 18 Top 40 singles.

He is the man whose youthful energy drove Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, The Eton Rifles, Going Underground, Town Called Malice and all the rest.

He is the man who hasn’t spoken to Paul Weller for 28 years.

“It’s not for the lack of trying,” says Buckler, now 55. “Myself and Bruce [Jam bass player Bruce Foxton] spent quite a lot of time trying to stay in touch with Paul. I used to drop by his studio a year or two after the band split, and didn’t get much response.

“People say ‘You’re not talking to him.’ I’m afraid it’s the other way around.”

Weller disbanded The Jam in 1982 and went on to form The Style Council, before launching a successful solo career. There was no room for his former bandmates.

Buckler recalls: “Last time I bumped into him, I went to see Bruce’s band play. It must have been 1983. That was the last time I saw him [Weller] to speak to.

“I think it’s a shame that he didn’t stay in touch. He just seemed to want to cut all ties. That’s Paul. Whenever he fell out of friendship with someone he would just cut you out of his life. If you weren’t in his little circle, you really weren’t.”

Buckler admits that he sometimes tires of talking about part of his life which ended nearly 30 years ago.

He also knows that his past helps him to plug his new band – If – which plays The Brickyard on Saturday.

As for The Jam: “All three of us were very proud of what The Jam achieved. It obviously will follow us around. There’s no avoiding it. It’s almost silly not to talk about The Jam.

“It’s amazing that there’s still people discovering it or coming back to it.

“My memories of it are very good. Schoolboys go around the clubs together, get signed by a record company, record songs, tour the world.

“It’s almost like a dream come true. Which really it was. But it was very fast and furious in that five-year period. There was a lot of pressure put on us, commercially and artistically.

“Maybe we should have had the wisdom to say no at times. We were young and just did what was asked of us.

“Paul used to take a lot more on his shoulders but we all had to come up with the goods recording wise.

“Being a three-piece, there’s nowhere to hide. We didn’t over-produce with over-dubbing or orchestration. We all had to pull our weight.

“I think we could have taken a break and come back. It’s easy to say with hindsight. But it would have been a wise decision.

“I think there was still plenty of mileage in The Jam. It’s a bit of shame that we didn’t have that insight.”

While Weller has been distant, Buckler and Foxton have frequently worked together since The Jam split, on new material and by revisiting their past.

In 2006 they began performing Jam songs as The Gift, and then as From The Jam, and played two ecstatically received gigs in Whitehaven.

“I’d been doing other things outside music,” says Buckler. “But I really wanted to get back into playing. And I wanted to revisit some of the Jam songs.

“I remember the last show the band ever did. I’m ticking them off, thinking, ‘This is probably the last time I’ll play these songs.’

“That’s what The Gift and For The Jam was about. It got it off my chest.

“It even offered up the chance for Paul Weller to get involved if he’d wanted to. Which obviously he didn’t. He didn’t like what we were doing.”

That’s putting it mildly. In a 2006 interview Weller stated that a Jam reunion would “never, ever happen”, and that reformations are “sad”.

Buckler got plenty out of it, before leaving For The Jam in 2009.

“It had just come to its conclusion. It was in danger of becoming a tribute band. I didn’t want to go round and round doing the same old thing. For me it ran out of steam. Which is a shame.”

His new project is still in the first flush of youth. Featuring Tim V and Ian Whitewood from Sham 69, Al Campbell from Sham 69 and UK Subs, and DD from The Cure, the band will play some Jam and Sham songs but the emphasis is on a new set of ‘New Wave pub-rock inspired songs.’

“Obviously there are Jam and Sham fans. Even that audience is quite mixed. We don’t get many teenagers.

“It’s great to spread your wings a little bit and get involved with some new material.”

And here’s something you may not have been expecting: two drummers, the other being Ian Whitewood.

“It’s a bit of a challenge,” admits Buckler. “Usually drummers have their own domain.

“There’s a lot where you are playing the same things. There are occasions when we’re doing deliberately different things, crossing over each other. It’s complementary.

“We’re not trying to outdo each other. It’s good to work along with someone rather than being totally on your own, which is usually the case.”

Then he wheels out a joke which says much about the grounded demeanour of a man who’s spent his career in the background.

“What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians?

“A drummer.”

IF: The Brickyard, Carlisle: Saturday. Doors 8pm Support: The Exiles. Tickets £5 advance from www.ticketweb.co.uk; 08444 77 1000; The King’s Head, Fisher Street, Carlisle, or S4, Lonsdale Street, Carlisle.

First published at 11:29, Thursday, 01 December 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk