You can do practically anything you like with The Jam’s back catalogue now, because no one could bend it over and shaft it quite as hard� as Foxton and Buckler have with their decision to take the group out on tour without Weller. Not that you can begrudge them anything, but it does seem that the kind of reverence held for The Smiths and The Specials has long since left The Jam.
And this does�sadly, detract from a book like this. A 500-only run, lovingly made by the fans, for the fans, its 180-plus picture pages tell a story of a Britain on the cusp of something; of a band on the rise and rise; and of a trio heading however unknowingly, towards a grotesquely acrimonious split. Photographer Twink was at the eye of the Jam hurricane for just two short years, and his shots are nothing if not candid. A windswept Derbyshire shoot from the end of the book and their lifespan is poignant beyond belief. On the whole, however, knowing what we do now, this chronologically out-of-synch, warts’n'all work leaves the viewer a litte cold. As�cold as Weller looks in 95 per cent of the pictures, in fact.�
