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511. The Jam – Beat Surrender (1982)

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The Intro

Beat Surrender, the Jam’s final single and fourth number 1, bridged the gap between the band that shot Paul Weller to fame, and his future endeavours with The Style Council. And did so in fine fashion.

Before

Talk about going out with a bang. Earlier in 1982, The Jam’s last album, The Gift, had spawned their third chart-topper, Town Called Malice/Precious. This was followed by a number eight placing for Just Who Is the 5 O’Clock Hero?. Not as impressive, you’d be forgiven for thinking. However, this 7-inch had only been officially released in the Netherlands. Such was the demand in the UK, it reached the top 10 here regardless, and became our highest-selling import single of all time.

Their next official single, The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow), almost made it to number 1, and it would have been deserved, but was held at bay by Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger and then Musical Youth’s Pass the Dutchie. This was a non-album single, and the modern soul sound was an early clue to Paul Weller’s next move.

Weller was 24 at the time, and had the pop world at his feet. His band had long since exceeded their Mod beginnings and become bona fide pop stars. Their five-year run was at its peak, with no signs of a decline. But he had had enough. Following a world tour he went on holiday to Italy. He came back and planned to announce he was splitting up the band, but when the news leaked, a hand-written press statement was released. He said:

‘At the end of this year, The Jam will be officially splitting up, as I feel we have achieved all we can together as a group. I mean this both musically and commercially. I want all we have achieved to count for something and most of all I’d hate us to end up old and embarrassing like so many other groups do.’

Weller’s decision had shocked bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler, who couldn’t see the sense in ending The Jam when they were riding so high. They may have recalled recording Beat Surrender, and wondered why their singer hadn’t said anything at the time, because with hindsight, it was clear this was his goodbye to The Jam.

The title was a play on Anita Ward’s 1979 disco single Sweet Surrender, and the military term of ‘beating retreat’. In a 2015 edition of Mojo, Weller revealed ‘I wanted it to be a statement, a final clarion call saying: Right, we’re stopping, you take it on from here.’ Despite this, there was still some indecision over what actually would become their final single. Weller had also been mulling over going with A Solid Bond in Your Heart, but that later surfaced as a single by The Style Council.

Review

Beat Surrender is my least favourite of The Jam’s number 1s – but that’s only because it’s competing with three of the finest chart-toppers of the era in Going Underground/The Dreams of Children, Start! and Town Called Malice/Precious.

It’s a great track, and the perfect bridge from the uptempo pop/rock of The Jam to The Style Council. Lyrically, it’s a call to arms like Going Underground, mixed with the inevitable feel of an epitaph to his much-loved power trio. The chorus urges The Jam’s fans to let the band go, but to take their energy and do something worthwhile. I love this verse, in which Weller looks forward to other artists carrying on their mission:

‘You’ll see me come runnin’
To the sound of your strummin’
Fill my heart with joy and gladness
I’ve lived too long in the shadows of sadness’

Of course, Weller already had plans to continue in music, but to expand the sonic palette of The Jam. Yes, there was more to them than post-punk – they had experimented with soul and psychedelia and done so with aplomb. But he wanted to explore further, and Beat Surrender points the way to a more mature, soulful sound, with more complex arrangements that just couldn’t be done as a threesome. The final verse says it all:

‘Wake me up with your amphetamine blast
Take me by the collar, throw me out into the world
Rock me gently and send me dreaming of something tender
I was brought here to pay homage
To the Beat Surrender’

After

With the news of The Jam’s demise still fresh, and painful, for many, it was inevitable that Beat Surrender would top the hit parade. Only Weller himself knows what he meant by standing with backing singer Tracie Young when they promoted the single on Top of the Pops – was he giving Foxton and Buckler the spotlight as a parting gift, or was he saying he really couldn’t be bothered to represent The Jam anymore?

The Jam played their final gig on 11 December 1982 at Brighton Conference Centre. Foxton and Buckler were deeply hurt by Weller’s decision to split them up. Foxton refused to speak to him for 20 years and as far as I can tell, Buckler never spoke to him again.

It’s understandable, really. Weller cited a need to get off the treadmill of fame – yet only months after the split, he announced the formation of The Style Council, with keyboard player Mick Talbot. Originally a floating line-up, The Style Council showcased a diverse mix of ‘blue-eyed soul’, pop, dance and hip-hop. They released some great material until they split in 1989, including Long Hot Summer, Shout to the Top! and Walls Come Tumbling Down!, and scored top 10 hits, but they couldn’t match The Jam’s success and never made it to number 1. I doubt Weller was too bothered, though. He also sang on the 1984 Christmas number 1, Do They Know It’s Christmas?.

The Style Council split in 1989, and two years later, Weller began releasing solo material. After a slow start, his album Wild Wood saw commercial and critical acclaim in 1993. In 1995, Weller was a star once more, releasing his most successful album, Stanley Road. He was ‘the Modfather’, and a much-loved but grumpy elder statesman of the Britpop movement. Over the next few years he enjoyed three top 10 hits with The Changingman, You Do Something to Me and Peacock Suit. His last album to date is Find El Dorado, a covers album, released in 2025.

After The Jam, Foxton recorded demos with Stiff Little Fingers, before venturing into a solo career. His debut single Freak climbed to 23 in 1983. An album followed in 1984, but without success. He and Buckler formed a short-lived new band, Sharp in 1986. In 1990, he joined Stiff Little Fingers officially and stayed with them for 15 years.

Buckler had started a new group, Time UK, in 1983. They lasted two years, and then after Sharp, Buckler tried his hand at production, before quitting music and became a carpenter in 1995. But 10 years later, he formed a band named after The Jam’s final album. The Gift exclusively performed material by The Jam. And then in 2007, Foxton joined the group and they changed their name to From The Jam.

One year before that, Weller and Foxton were reunited backstage at a Hyde Park gig by The Who. Following a 10-minute conversation and an embrace, they became friends again, and in 2009, Foxton sang backing vocals and played bass on Weller’s album Wake Up the Nation. He even joined him on stage in 2010.

Foxton released two more solo albums – one in 2012 and one in 2016. In 2025, From the Jam announced that due to poor health, Foxton was retiring from the music business and there would be no more tours. That February, Buckler died aged 69 following a brief illness. Weller, who had occasionally been critical of From the Jam, paid tribute to his former drummer. This year, Foxton revealed he has Parkinson’s disease.

The Outro

Although Foxton and Buckler’s hurt is understandable, Weller was right to end The Jam at the peak of their powers, and never reform them. They were one of the finest bands of the early 80s and Weller was on fire, writing hit after hit after hit. That he was able to change tack several times over after such a great band is testament to his versatility.

The Info

Written by

Paul Weller

Producer

Peter Wilson

Weeks at number 1

2 (4-17 December)

Trivia

Births

7 December: Actor Jack Huston
14 December: Footballer Steve Sidwell
15 December: Actor Charlie Cox

Deaths

16 December: Automotive engineer Colin Chapman
17 December: First woman to fly an aircraft around the world Richarda Morrow-Tait

Meanwhile…

6 December: The Irish National Liberation Army killed 17 people in a bomb attack at the Dropping Well Inn in Ballykelly, County Londonderry.

12 December: 30,000 women hold hands and form a human chain at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire.

15 December: The British colony of Gibraltar gains a pedestrian link to Spain, as the gates which separated the two states are re-opened by the Spanish government after 13 years.

495. The Jam – Town Called Malice/Precious (1982)

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The Intro

In early 1982, the future looked very bright for The Jam. They were at their commercial peak – Town Called Malice/Precious became a well-deserved instant number 1, and was their third chart-topper. However, by the end of the year, Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler had split up.

Before

The Jam’s second number 1 was the excellent (thought not entirely original) Start!, from the 1980 LP Sound Affects. However, despite the follow-up also being more than worthy, That’s Entertainment was perhaps too wistful for mass consumption – it only reached 21 in 1981. Two standalone singles came up next, and although they fared better, Funeral Pyre (their first jointly written 7-inch) and Absolute Beginners both peaked at four.

Work on what was to become their final album started in October 1981. The Gift saw The Jam work with new producer Pete Wilson, who helped point the way forward for Weller, showcasing a smoother, Northern Soul, funk and jazz sound, akin to the next project they worked on together – The Style Council. That didn’t sit well with Foxton and Buckler, however, who could probably see the writing on the wall. As Mods, The Jam were always in thrall to these sounds – but they’d never tried making these types of music themselves.

The title to Town Called Malice came from Nevil Shute’s famous romantic 1950 novel A Town Like Alice – however, there’s no link to the song and book other than the rhyming wordplay of the titles. The real inspiration comes from Weller’s working-class youth in Woking.

Precious was unlike any single The Jam had released up to this point – a psychedelic-funk-based love song, partly derived from Pigbag’s Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag.

This was also the first Jam single to move beyond the power-trio line-up, with extra help from producer Pete Wilson on organ, plus Keith Thomas on saxophones, Steve Nichol on trumpet and Russ Henderson on percussion and steel drums.

Reviews

Urgent, poetic and angry, Town Called Malice is Weller’s finest song. It updates his fixations on class, disaffected youth and striving to escape a society that’s left him out in the cold and brings them all strutting onto the dancefloor. And it’s a change in tack from his first number 1, Going Underground. This time, Weller warns his followers not to hide from society if they’re not happy – they need to work together to improve their lives: ”Cause time is short, and life is cruel/But it’s up to us to change this town called Malice’.

I’ve always loved Town Called Malice for its sound, but researching more in-depth here as proved to me how fine a lyricist Weller also is. There’s some great lines about urban decay and Thatcherism’s ‘no such thing as society’ here, including:

‘Rows and rows of disused milk floats,
Stand dying in the dairy yard
And a hundred lonely housewives
Clutch empty milk bottles to their hearts.’

Righteous anger you can dance to. Beautiful. And I love Foxton’s bass breakdown too. All The Jam’s number 1 singles are excellent, but this reigns supreme.

As always with videos by The Jam, you only get a bare bones performance, but it does the job nicely. The Jam perform against a black background, with the occasional dada-style speech bubbles popping up – ‘Anti Complacency League! Baby!’ and ‘If we ain’t getting through to you – you obviously ain’t listening!’.

Weller, as a huge fan of The Beatles, liked to ape their double-A-side single approach. However, while I always enjoy hearing the lesser-known songs such as The Dreams of Children and Precious, I don’t think they really stand toe-to-toe with their ‘real’ A-sides. It’s not like Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out, where both songs deserve top billing. They’re better classed as great songs in which The Jam can test the waters for experiments in their sound. And Precious does fit that bill nicely – I wish I’d heard it sooner. Weller analyses his love over a sprawling funk sound that sounds particularly interesting on the 12″ version. There’s nothing lyrically to match Town Called Malice, though I do like:

‘Lonely as the moors on a winter’s morning
Quiet as the sea on a cool, calm night
In your tranquil shadow, I’ll try and follow’.

It’s impossible to ignore the resemblance to Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag – but that’s no bad thing at all.

There’s no surprises to be found in the video for Precious. Like it’s flip side, it’s simply The Jam and extra musicians performing against a black background.

After

Town Called Malice/Precious shot straight to number 1 and The Jam celebrated by performing both songs on Top of the Pops. While the latter is now somewhat of a curio, the former will most likely fill dancefloors everywhere for evermore.

The Outro

EMI argued that Town Called Malice/Precious kept another classic – The Stranglers’ Golden Brown – from the top spot by having its sales aggregated. It’s a sign of just how strong the singles chart was in 1982 that Golden Brown wasn’t a chart-topper – although the quality control of 1982’s number 1s was about to drop for a while…

The Info

Written by

Paul Weller

Producers

Pete Wilson & The Jam

Weeks at number 1

3 (13 February-5 March)

Trivia

Births

25 February: Footballer Chris Baird
26 February: Gymnast Lisa Mason

Deaths

20 February: Arctic traveller Isobel Wylie Hutchison
21 February: Writer WE Shewell-Cooper 
22 February: Suffragist Annie Barnes
23 February: Author Elisabeth Kyle
24 February: Artist Keith Henderson
27 February: Henry Gage, 6th Viscount Gage 
2 March: Air chief marshal Sir Donald Hardman
3 March: Ivy Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland

Meanwhile…

19 February: The DeLorean car factory in Belfast is put into receivership.

23 February: The Glasgow coal ship St Bedan is bombed and sunk by an IRA unit driving a pilot boat that was hijacked in Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland.

25 February: The European Court of Justice rules that British schools cannot allow corporal punishment against the wishes of parents.

3 March: Queen Elizabeth II opens the Barbican Centre in London.

466. Kelly Marie – Feels Like I’m in Love (1980)

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The Intro

‘BOO BOO! BOO BOO! BOO BOO! BOO BOO!’ It’s cheap. It’s tacky. It’s the arse-end of disco. But I love Kelly Marie’s Feels Like I’m in Love and I’m not ashamed of it.

Before

By 1977, Mungo Jerry’s fame was drying up. It was seven years since In the Summertime, six since their last number 1 Baby Jump, and they hadn’t charted in the UK since Long Legged Woman Dressed in Black peaked at 13 in 1974. But they still had a following in Europe, and singer-songwriter Ray Dorset hoped that Elvis Presley might record a demo of his called Feels Like I’m in Love. Dorset impersonates Presley here, so you can easily imagine what a fleshed-out version would have sounded like.

Unfortunately of course, ‘the King’ died that year, and Way Down became his last new number 1, signposting a move to disco that was never realised for Elvis. Mungo Jerry recorded Feels Like I’m in Love and it was relegated to a B-side for their Belgian single Sur Le Pont D’avignon. Two years later, Scottish singer Kelly Marie chanced across the song in a music publishing office.

Marie was born Jacqueline McKinnon in Paisley, Scotland on 16 October 1957. She wanted to be a star from a young age and her parents were happy to help, entering her at voice and drama school at the wee age of 10. Two years later she was singing in competitions and at 15 she made her TV debut. Aged 16 she was appearing on Thames Television’s popular ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks. As Keli Brown, she won four times with her cover of I Don’t Know How to Love Him from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

The exposure led to her signing with Pye Records in 1976 as Kelly Marie, and she went to number 1 in France with her debut single Who’s That Lady with My Man. She also featured on Joe Dolan’s number two hit in Ireland, Sister Mary. But despite a few hits in South Africa and Australia, including most notably Run to Me in 1977 and Make Love to Me in 1978, it didn’t look like she was ever going to trouble the UK charts. Singles came thick and fast in 1978, including Loving Just for Fun, a prototype for Feels Like I’m in Love, even including a very similar synth-drum sound. Nothing charted.

One day in 1979, Marie and her producer Peter Yellowstone were in the Red Bus Music office, where they came across Dorset’s tune. They saw its potential and set to work.

Review

These days Feels Like I’m in Love is laughed at. A low-budget, throwaway, cheesy disco track sung by a very ordinary looking club singer with a distinct lack of subtlety. Coming after classics like The Winner Takes It All, Ashes to Ashes and Start!, it simply doesn’t hold up. Balls to all this is what I say. Least of all, the detractors of Marie’s appearance – there’s no need, and fair play to her for adopting the early 80s boiler suit look.

OK, cards on the table – nostalgia plays an important part in the personal appeal of Feels Like I’m in Love. One of my very earliest memories involves playing this at my Nanna and Granddad’s house. I was very young, but it must have been a few years after it was number 1, as I was born in 1979. But in my head, it was this moment in which I fell in love with pop itself – the title had a very literal meaning for me.

Hearing that effervescent, bouncy backing, complete with the infectious ‘BOO BOO! BOO BOO! BOO BOO! BOO BOO!’ synth drum, was like downing a bag of sugar. Everything was turned up to the max, including Marie’s voice. I remember thinking that being in love sounded brilliant. The instrumental break was exciting and I lost myself in it, and by the time the grand finale, with the ‘ahhs’ comes in, I felt sick with happiness and excitement. I felt alive. Hearing that swirling intro unexpectedly still takes me right back to that moment.

So yes, it’s very hard to be objective about something that had a personal impact like Feels Like I’m in Love. However, I’d still defend it as a very catchy example of cheap and cheerful late-period Brit disco. Marie of course gives it the welly it deserves, but the star here is Yellowstone’s production.

The video also turns up the camp, with Marie on a ship with two sailors, who go off on a tour of London, performing in front of mostly non-plussed people. At the end the sailors are back on their ship, waving off Marie who’s now on a tiny boat, heading for London Bridge.

After

Feels Like I’m in Love was released in 1979 but didn’t make a mark anywhere other than South Africa. But upon re-release a year later, it was gaining traction in the discos of Scotland, and then England. Climbing the charts, Marie achieved what must have felt unthinkable only a year previous. For two weeks in September, she was number 1, and she was a hit all over Europe too.

The success was short-lived. Marie rushed out a re-release of Loving Just for Fun, but it sounded like a pale retread of her biggest single, and it peaked at 21. Hot Love in 1981 was her last charting single, reaching 22. UK disco was on its way out, to be replaced by Hi-NRG, which you could argue was exactly what Feels Like I’m in Love was an early version of.

Marie continued releasing singles and performing at clubs throughout the 80s and 90s. In 2005 she appeared on the ITV talent show featuring stars of yesteryear, Hit Me, Baby, One More Time. She lost out to Chesney Hawkes.

The Outro

There were two inferior remixes of her number 1 in the 90s. Stock Aitken Waterman may have been responsible for many Hi-NRG classics in the early to mid-80s, but by 1991 they had run out of steam, and their version is a pale imitation. The 97 remix is even worse.

The Info

Written by

Ray Dorset

Producer

Peter Yellowstone

Weeks at number 1

2 (13-26 September)

Trivia

Deaths

14 September : Fashion journalist Alison Settle
17 September: Enid Warren
18 September: Antiquarian Edward Croft-Murray/Opera singer Walter Midgley
22 September: Labour politician Raymond Dobson/Town planner JR James
23 September: Cricketer Geoffrey Latham/Linguist Alan SC Ross
24 September: Novelist Jacky Gillott/Mycologist Clarence James Hickman
25 September: Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham

Meanwhile…

13 September: Hercules, a popular TV bear, which had gone missing on a Scottish island while filming an advert for Kleenex toilet tissue, is found.

21 September: The CND hold a rally at RAF Greenham Common for the first time.

24 September: 34-year-old Singapore-born doctor Upadhya Bandara is attacked and left injured by Peter Sutcliffe in Headingley, Leeds.

465. The Jam – Start! (1980)

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The Intro

Love The Beatles’ Taxman but find the whining about paying HMRC when you’re in the biggest band in the world a bit annoying? Simple, listen to The Jam’s second number 1, Start! instead.

Before

Following the success of Going Underground/The Dreams of Children, The Jam set to work on their fifth LP. Vic Coppersmith-Heaven was back to produce Sound Affects, but for the first time, Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler received a co-credit too – albeit as ‘The Jam’. As signposted with The Dreams of Children, The Jam were widening their sonic palette, and after its release, Weller described his favourite Jam album as a cross between Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall and The Beatles’ Revolver.

The influence of the latter is certainly evident on Start!, which was released in August while work continued on Sound Affects. Weller’s guitar and Foxton’s bass riffs were pretty much identical to the opening track of Revolver. George Harrison’s Taxman was an excellent opener to one of the greatest albums of all time, and showcased Harrison’s burgeoning talent. But as great as Taxman is, there’s no escaping the fact it also makes very evident how much of a moaner he could be. I’m sure paying an admittedly ridiculously high rate (95%!) of income tax to Harold Wilson’s new Labour government must have stung… and the Fab Four had been warned that despite their unprecedented fame, they were in danger of bankruptcy. But starting a new album complaining about money, when the average record buyer could only dream of their lifestyle? It’s certainly a bold move, and another sign that The Beatles were now charting their own path. But you can’t deny the musical brilliance of Taxman, particularly McCartney’s powerful rhythmic bass and blistering Indian-style guitar solo.

In a 2012 interview with Music Radar, Foxton said:

‘It wasn’t intentional, but Taxman subconsciously went in and when we came up with the idea for Start! that’s what went in. It isn’t exactly the same thankfully, otherwise I’m sure Paul McCartney would have thought about suing us!’

It’s not exactly the same, but you can’t get much closer. And considering the deluxe edition of Sound Affects also contains covers of Rain and And Your Bird Can Sing, recorded at the same sessions, it’s more likely that they jammed Taxman and enjoyed it so much, they reworked it. And they got lucky that Harrison, who had been to court over his 1971 number 1 My Sweet Lord in 1976 and lost more than a million in damages due to its likeness to He’s So Fine. He apparently considered Start! a compliment, but he probably didn’t relish going back to court over his music, this time as prosecution.

There are two main differences, and the main one is the lyrics. In Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh’s 2005 book 1000 UK #1 Hits, Weller said he had been reading George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia (1938), detailing the author’s experience of the Spanish Civil War:

‘There is a lot of talk of an egalitarian society where all people are equal but this was it, actually in existence, which, for me, is something that is very hard to imagine.’

With this in mind, it seems Start! may have been written from the point of view of a Republican soldier, who briefly meets a fellow believer in their cause. Knowing that they’re at risk of dying for their beliefs means they could only know each other for a few minutes, so they don’t need to know much about each other, apart from that they feel so strongly for their cause, ‘with a passion called hate’ against the Nationalists. The Republicans consisted of socialists, communists and anarchists, so there was as much infighting as seen within the Labour Party during Jeremy Corbyn’s time as leader.

‘And what you give is what you get’ can be seen as a rallying cry for the Republicans, and in line with Weller’s increasingly left-wing tendencies, perhaps a call for solidarity among Labour in 1980, as their left-wing leader Michael Foot wasn’t popular among the right of the party. Same as it ever was.

Or, it could just have been about a one-night stand, lasting all of two minutes. Take your pick.

Review

Another great 1980 number 1 from Weller and co here. It’s short, sweet and doesn’t outstay its welcome, just like Going Underground. And it also shows a growing versatility. Yes, it’s not very original, but the soul bounce of Start! proves there’s more to The Jam than their rockier material, and it really shows off how effective that rhythm section was. In a way they come out of this better than Weller, as his guitar solo doesn’t compare to McCartney’s on Taxman – even with that added backwards section. Great track though and a breath of fresh air, particularly the way it reverts back to the punch of the main tune after the last ‘If I never ever see you…’ section.

The video to Start! was a typically low-budget, straightforward affair focusing on the trio doing what they did best – playing music.

After

Polydor wanted album opener Pretty Green to be the first single, but The Jam pushed for Start! and were proved right when it spent a week at number 1. Sound Affects was released in November, featuring added (and unnecessary) trumpets as the song draws to a close. No other official singles were released from the LP, but The Jam were so popular, That’s Entertainment peaked at 21 as an import. However, it would be 1982 before they topped the charts again.

The Outro

The psychedelic pop of Sound Affects was soon abandoned with a focus on 60s R’n’B, later to be explored on their final album, The Gift.

The Info

Written by

Paul Weller

Producers

Vic Coppersmith-Heaven & The Jam

Weeks at number 1

1 (6-12 September)

Trivia

Births

6 September: Atomic Kitten singer Kerry Katona
11 September: Academic Anthony Carrigan
12 September: Rugby league player Kevin Sinfield

Deaths

6 September: Art curator Philip Hendy
7 September: Conservative Party MP Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne
8 September: Northern Irish singer Eddie Butcher/Liberal Party MP Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare, 1st Baronet
10 September: Academic TE Jessop
11 September: Conservative Party MP Sir Harwood Harrison, 1st Baronet
12 September: Legal scholar Sir Rupert Cross

Meanwhile…

11 September: Chicago mobster Joseph Scalise and his colleague Arthur Rachel committed the Marlborough diamond robbery in London. The following day, the duo were arrested in Chicago, but the 45-carat stone has never been found.

12 September: Consett Steelworks in Consett, County Durham closed down, costing the town some 4,500 jobs.