This Is A Modern World: Uber Rock goes box set crazy!
Written by Johnny H
Sunday, 01 November 2015 04:00
So, with Christmas looming large I suppose the question on everyone’s lips right now is “what do I buy for the Mod in my life who seemingly has everything?” Well how about one (or maybe even both) of these expansive box sets from Universal Music released just in time for Santa to drop them down your chimney, along with a brand new inch wide tie and parka for the blokes, or pencil shirt and Fred Perry for the ladies? They’re certainly both very appealing collections of guitar driven pop from two of the Mod movement’s leading lights for their respective generations.
Small Faces – ‘The Decca Years (1965 – 67)’ (UMC)
The Small Faces collection (which was released earlier this month) is a lavish five CD affair taking in the band’s intensively creative couple of years spent on the Decca label. Released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the debut album from the band this set traces the band’s career from razor sharp R&B outfit to a band teetering on the edges of hard rock and psychedelia. Something that is never more glaringly obvious than on the track listing to the first CD of this collection, ‘Greatest Hits’, which basically starts with the Mod anthem (the very first song I ever heard by the band) ‘Whatcha Gonna Do About It’ and ends with ‘You Need Loving’, a song that was pretty much the blueprint for Led Zeppelin’s multi-platinum career.
‘Small Faces’ the album makes up the second CD of the set, and this album for me is totally untouchable. From Marriott’s hugely impressive vocals (he does ‘Shake’ as much justice as Otis, even if it is delivered at half the speed) through to Lane and Jones’ thundering rhythm section (‘C’mon Children’ easily stands alongside Entwistle and Moon at their most frantic) this is a band simply on fire, and still relative new boy Ian McLagan makes an immediate impact on the keyboards/songwriting front via ‘Own Up Time’ and ‘Don’t Stop What You’re Doing’. One thing I didn’t realise before dipping back into this album though was that legendary black comedian Kenny Lynch actually co-wrote ‘Sha-La-La-La-Lee’. Amazing stuff!
The third CD in this collection ‘From The Beginning’ was actually originally released as Decca’s reaction to the Small Faces signing with Immediate Records, and as such with thirty tracks spread across the first two discs you’d expect there to be nothing new here, other than a handful of tracks that aren’t on those discs. Far from it though, and although the band’s cover of ‘Runaway’ is almost cabaret in delivery, and ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ sounds like an outtake by The Thamesmen, the likes of ‘(Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me’ (which boasts a delightfully raspy Marriott vocal) and the two minute roustabout ‘Baby Don’t Do It’ more than make up for the odds and sods nature of the original collection.
It’s CDs four and five that will surely have collectors scratching their chins over as to whether they shell out for this set or not though, in particular CD five ‘BBC Sessions’, because whilst CD four ‘Rarities And Outtakes’ is a twenty three track collection that sweeps up alternative mixes and versions of songs you’ll already know from the earlier CDs in this collection, it’s the fifth disc (which as I understand it mainly new material to the CD format) containing twenty one tracks (a mixture of songs and interviews) culled from BBC sessions ranging from August 1965 to August 1966, that is the real curio of the box set. The sound quality on this material really is amazing, but whether this CD alone is worth the £40 price tag set against this box set I’ll leave you to decide.
And whilst we are talking about the box set whilst I’ve not seen the finished article I’m reliably informed that the set comes in a rigid card box and along with the five CDs you also get 72-page booklet, which includes interesting and insightful liner notes by respected music journalist and Small Faces aficionado, Mark Paytress.
Now if only someone could put out a truly definitive collection (as in everything on Decca and Immediate Records) maybe then everyone could be happy.
The Jam – ‘Fire And Skill: The Jam Live’ (UMC)
If you were ever looking for proof that music really does come around in twenty year cycles then the rebirth of the Mod scene in the UK in the late seventies/early eighties should be enough to silence even the hardiest of cynics. The frontrunners of this second generation were of course Woking’s finest sons The Jam.
Being born in the late sixties I missed the march of the Mods the first time around, but come 1978/79, and with my love of music burgeoning, the preteen version of yours truly was more than just a little bit enthralled by a 7” single going by the name of ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight’. “What was this stuff?” I found myself wondering. This wasn’t really what I knew to be punk rock, the guys in the band were all dressed far too smartly, and it was certainly a world away from the dungeons and dragons stuff me and my heavy metal mates normally listened too. So just what was this music?
I continued to watch from afar until finally I witnessed ‘Going Underground’ on Top Of The Pops one Thursday evening back in 1980, and all of a sudden my living room resembled the scene in Quadrophenia when Jimmy watches The Who on Ready Steady Go. Fuck, this was exhilarating stuff, even if the three lads making this most wonderful racket were bloody miming and their singer was wearing an apron!!!!! However, whilst I then went on to buy all of their records – they were also my gateway band – hand in hand with Elvis Costello – into the world of Two Tone – I never did get to see The Jam live, realising that a teenage long hair might not exactly be welcome in Port Talbot’s Afan Lido packed full of pork pie hatted Mods. Even if I did love their music.
Fast forward to October 2015 then, and just this weekend Universal have seen fit to release a six CD box set celebrating the magic of The Jam live, with the attraction of ‘Fire And Skill’ being that it boasts six previously unreleased concerts, one taken from each year of the band’s career.
It’s a daunting enough task sitting down to listen to six albums, never mind six live albums, and ‘Fire And Skill’ actually clocks in at just four seconds short of a mammoth six hours and twenty four minutes, but once I’m past the spoken introduction (I’m guessing this must be Paul’s dad John who also managed the band) that kicks off the American broadcast 21 track set from London’s famous 100 Club from 1977, I have to admit I’m hooked. That same burst of adrenalin that hit me straight between the eyes as a preteen once again engulfing me as tracks like ‘All Around The World’ and ‘The Modern World’ sound absolutely top notch (each of the discs having been remastered at Abbey Road). It’s also kind of endearing to hear the band being forced to play ‘In The City’ twice – the second time as an encore, simply because they had run out of songs.
The second disc is taken from a period of time just before I first came into contact with the band, and this one contains a 17 song set from a Music Machine show from 1978. So, along with a plethora of tracks from the band’s then new album, ‘This Is The Modern World’, it is the Foxton fronted ‘News Of The World’ that stands as perhaps the band’s most lyrically astute song. Whilst in their cover of ‘In The Midnight Hour’ you get a nod towards the more soulful direction the band would take during their later years.
By the time we get to disc three The Jam have become the band I had hitched a ride on the fishtail parka coattails of. Captured here during a Reading University show in 1979, on the tour supporting ‘All Mod Cons’ this 18 track show contains that song that first got me into the band, and boy does it sound terrific here. However in saying this, so do the likes of ‘Billy Hunt’, ‘David Watts’ and the set closing ‘’A’ Bomb In Wardor Street’. It’s the latter that suddenly makes me ponder what Weller must be thinking regarding the state of central London’s once rich musical heritage. I wonder eh?
Getting back on track and disc four comes from Newcastle City Hall in 1980 with the band out on the road on the ‘Sound Affects’ tour. The spoken word intro to ‘Dream Time’ instantly raising a smile as the assembled throng are warned to “watch the seats, but have a good time”. Thing is with a 25 track set list that boasted the likes of ‘Going Underground’, ‘Start!’ along with an awesomely loose version of ‘Strange Town’ present it beggars belief that you could have anything other than a “fantastic” time experiencing this stuff first hand.
London’s legendary Hammersmith Palais is the setting for the 1981 show, which was actually part of a run of four consecutive nights at the venue previewing material from their then still to be released final studio album ‘The Gift’. Within a 17 track set it’s at this point that I sense the band were truly starting to outgrow the out and out ferocity of their earlier years. The performances of ‘Pretty Green’, and in particular ‘That’s Entertainment’ being as clean and razor sharp as the suits most of the male audience members would have been wearing, and the horns on the likes of ‘Big Bird’ and ‘Circus’ show the band having perhaps more than one eye on what was happening up in Coventry around about this time.
One of the band’s final ever gigs at Wembley Arena recorded back in 1982 brings ‘Fire And Skill’ to it’s inevitable conclusion, and whilst it basically plays out like a 23 track greatest hits set the inclusion of the likes of ‘Beat Surrender’ and in particular the cover of ‘Move On Up’ show where Mr Weller’s attentions were about to turn. Listening to this set for the first time I’m actually glad The Jam have never reformed, because it captures a period in time that can never be repeated, people move on, and in the case of Paul Weller whilst he occasionally dips into his past he’s continued to make original music (some great, some not so) ever since the band called it a day in 1982. Let ‘Fire And Skill’ take you back to those days not some hoary “in it for the money” reformation tour.
So, there you have it pop pickers, 81 songs, clocking in at almost six and half hours of Weller, Foxton and Waterm…sorry I meant Buckler, at their live best. I am also reliably informed (we didn’t get a physical copy of this one to review either) that it all comes packaged up, just like The Small Faces set, in a lift off lid box that also includes a separate hardback book that includes a new essay, period photos and rare memorabilia.
What was that question that needed answering again? Oh yeah…..
To pick up your copy of ‘The Decca Years 1965-1967’ – CLICK HERE
To pick up your copy of ‘Fire & Skill: The Jam Live’ – CLICK HERE
