Answering The Demand For More Jam

“Yeah, that’s life isn’t it?” Foxton suggests philosophically. “No one knows what’s round the corner. Thankfully, throughout my career, and I know it’s a cliché, but as one door closes another one opens. I’ve been very fortunate – there’s been more highs than lows. With The Jam, we served our apprenticeship – we cut our teeth treading the boards up and down the country – and my style of bass playing developed as The Jam developed.”

"The spark between Rick and myself – and the audience – was still there."

Foxton certainly wasn’t thinking about putting together a tribute to the band that put him on the international musical map and broke up in 1982, when the opportunity arrived. He’d been touring with a new band, The Casbah Club, formed in 2004 and fronted by Simon Townsend, Pete’s brother, opening across the UK for The Who. They’d released an album, Venustraphobia, and in 2006, the band just happened to be on the same bill as a band playing Jam covers and featuring former Jam drummer, Rick Buckler, called The Gift. Buckler invited Foxton up for a couple of songs, it felt great and From The Jam was duly born. A couple of years in, Buckler left and Foxton brought in his Casbah Club drummer, Mark Brzezicki, who’d been in Big Country among other acts. Taking up the essential frontman/guitarist spot in The Gift and now From The Jam is Russell Hastings, ably filling those very big Paul Weller shoes.

“I hadn’t played with Rick on stage in 28 years and it was fantastic,” Foxton admits of that first night. “The spark between Rick and myself – and the audience – was still there. So we got asked were we gonna do more, which I did; towards the end of 2006 I did a little guest slot, played a few more songs, and in 2007 we said, look, it’s going really well, there is a demand out there, shall we take it on full time?”

Thus From The Jam was born, and demand has seen them touring pretty constantly in the intervening years, including much of Europe, the US and Canada as well as the UK. But it’s not all about the past. Foxton released a solo album, Back In The Room, last year.

“Russell and myself are looking at writing the next one at the moment, but Back In The Room really helped to raise my profile again – not just ‘the bass player that used to be in The Jam goin’ out playing Jam songs’ – and we’re playing a couple of the songs of it in the set.”