RIP Rick Buckler. Memories of the Jam playing a Right to Work Benefit at PCL, February 1982
I was sorry to read of the passing of the Jam drummer Rick Buckler. For anyone on the left in the later 1970s and early 1980s the Jam had a special place. They started with an image of union jack wearing Mods. With songs like That’s Entertainment and of course Eton Rifles and then as Weller formed the Style Council, Walls Come Tumbling Down, a trajectory to a very different political space was underway.
I heard the Jam live only once. They planned a benefit gig for the Right to Work Campaign at the Polytechnic of Central London on 24th February 1982. Its now the University of Westminster.
In the days before mobiles and the internet I’ve no idea how I came to hear about the gig although I was involved with the RTWC. Entrance was 50p or free for the unemployed
The Jam played five songs:
The Gift, Ghosts, Town Called Malice, Precious and Eton Rifles.
Eton Rifles, one of Dave Cameron’s favourites songs, was about a clash between Etonians and a 1978 Right to Work March as it went through Slough.
I don’t have much memory of the gig beyond the fact that it was absolutely rammed but it was a sign of how pop and politics could come together in that era
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