Beat Surrender

It’s a truism that death is part of life. That doesn’t make it any easier when we’re faced with the death of a partner, family member or friend. Or even someone we’ve never met, someone who has done no more than put a smile on our faces. Because without a smile on our faces, well, where would we be?

The death two years ago of Terry Hall, originally the singer with Coventry ska band the Specials, hit me hard, it was as if a part of my past had been erased. I have memories of listening to Ghost Town on a portable radio while camping with friends near Ettrickbridge. And many years later, with my friend Sally, seeing him play live at Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. We had to leave before he finished his set to catch the last train back to Edinburgh, but we were there to hear him sing Sense “I'm flying high on something beautiful and aimless / It's got a name, but I prefer to call it nameless”. It was to be the last time I saw Sally alive.

Since Terry’s passing, it feels like barely a month goes by without the further chipping away of my musical soul: Steve Harley, Françoise Hardy, Alan Rankine, Quincy Jones, Marianne Faithfull. And yesterday, the sad news that Rick Buckler, drummer with The Jam, has died aged 69 after a short illness. Together with Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton, The Jam were a constant soundtrack during the late 1970s / early 1980s, releasing six albums and 18 singles. Weller had this to say on hearing Buckler’s death:

I’m shocked and saddened by Rick’s passing. I’m thinking back to us all rehearsing in my bedroom in Stanley Road, Woking. To all the pubs and clubs we played at as kids, to eventually making a record. What a journey. We went far beyond our dreams and what we made stands the test of time. My deepest sympathy to all family and friends.

Despite his post-Jam success, first with the Style Council, then his solo career, it’s not the first time Weller has spoken about these humble beginnings of his first band. In a 1995 interview, Paul Du Noyer asked him what he would have done if he hadn’t made it in music.

I would just be in Woking playing the same pubs and clubs. We’d play two gigs a week. We did this same nightclub in Woking for two or three years, every Friday. Then Saturday we’d do a social club somewhere, so maybe I’d cop 15 or 20 quid, which at that time for a 16-year-old was enough. Made the top of the circuit making the maximum money you can earn on that scene. I wouldn’t have done anything else. That’s my job, proper or not.

I’m no musician, but it strikes me that a three piece like the Jam needs to work harder than other - larger - bands. With only a guitar, a bass and a drum kit, it needs to be tight, there’s not much room for error up there on the stage. And Weller, Foxton and Buckler worked hard (far more than that amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard), worked unflaggingly to put a smile on our faces, and without that, well, where would we be?

Godspeed, Rick Buckler.