The Jam'd at the 100 Club

I had never been to a Jam tribute act so thought I would break my duck at the "iconic" 100 Club with the Jam'd. I couldn't find any photos of them online, just their poster image of the Jam in the style of Julian Opie

One of their selling points on the blurb is the show "includes the only replica of Rick Buckler's Great White drum kit, signed by the man himself ". You will note not even the original drum kit, just a replica! This is it below, glowing pink in the 100 Club's slightly dubious lighting.

There was a support act - a young man called Cian Downing. I could see what he was trying to do with his elderly audience, but it didn't work in my view. He is an aspiring singer songwriter, duly strumming away on his acoustic guitar only accompanied by a young chap (looking very like a young Proclaimer twin) banging away on a rudimentary drum kit - basically one pedal drum plus the drum "box" that he was sitting at and which he played by hand like a bongo drum. 

So Cian tried to warm us up with some familiar favourite songs before launching into his own material. While that sounds a good idea, if you are going to do covers you either need to do them in your own style, or do them better than the original artist. But, for example, the cover of the Housemartins' Happy Hour merely showed what a great voice Paul Heaton has and how limited this guy was in comparison. I mean not awful vocals, but just pretty ordinary. And once he had moved onto his own material, the enthusiasm of the audience naturally dropped. So we weren't warmed up, but rather given a cold dip at the end.

But the crowd were not here to see him. We were here to hear the Jam.

When I arrived I felt for once I was with "my people". About 80% of the crowd (and the band!) were in the over 60 category. Many tribute acts (like the Smyths and Nirvana UK) have a very young audiences, way to young to have know the real things when they were going. Not so this group. And as I gained familiarity with them, I felt the crowd were not really my people at all. They were ageing geezers from Essex who probably all vote Reform and whose family knew the Kray Twins. That sort of vibe. Beered up with glassy eyes and bouncing around.

One selling point of the Jam'd in their adverts is that they had their own brass section (above) who were actually good and if anything underutilised. But ultimately this act left me a little cold. I might try another Jam tribute act sometime. "Into the Jam" also exist. I think my two problems with this outfit were somewhat connected.

My first is that they are too old.  Now that doesn't rest easily in my mouth being a similar age myself. But it just doesn't feel right watching a bunch of pensioners imitating a group of young men in their twenties, which is of course what the Jam were while still operating together as a band. Indeed the lead singer for this band even said he had come out of retirement for this show. And he gave it plenty of wellie - a lot more sprightly than myself. But still not quite right.

And the other thing is they lacked the crispness of the original band. Paul Weller's vocals are not the best, but what he had he delivered in a very crisp manner which the vocalist here couldn't, maybe through age, more likely he never could.

Don't get me wrong. This was not a bad experience. Just not as good as I had hoped.