Dressed in sharp suits, openly professing their love of 1960s rock and pop and
with a steely determination to conquer the charts, The Jam adopted the fiery
adrenaline rush of early contemporaries The Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols and The
Clash... but never really shared their punk philosophy. Despite a love of
American soul and rock'n'roll, Paul Weller developed into a distinctly English
songwriter, offering colloquial, suburban observations and political barbs in
the vein of The Kinks' Ray Davies. Leading a new wave of bands out of the ashes
of punk, they topped the UK singles charts w...