Fans of The Jam have been re-sharing footage of the band’s final live show following the death of Rick Buckler.
News broke yesterday (February 18) that the drummer had died at the age of 69, following a brief illness. Among those leading the tributes were bandmates Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton.
“I’m shocked and saddened by Rick’s passing,” the frontman wrote on X/Twitter. “We went far beyond our dreams and what we made stands the test of time. My deepest sympathy to all family and friends.”
The bassist then described his bandmate as “a good guy and a great drummer whose innovative drum patterns helped shape our songs.”
Now, to celebrate the life and career of the iconic sticksman, fans of The Jam have been re-sharing footage of the band’s final show together: a stop at the Brighton Centre on December 11 1982.
The stop was billed as the final show by the band, and was added to the itinerary after five sold-out nights at Wembley Arena. It also came at a time when The Jam were atop the album and singles charts, and was held at the Brighton venue as it was reportedly Weller’s favourite venue at the time (via Modculture).
In total, the final gig saw the band play 24 songs from across their discography. They opened the show with renditions of ‘Start!’, ‘It’s Too Bad’, ‘Beat Surrender’ and ‘Away From The Numbers’.
As per Setlist.fm, three covers were integrated into the setlist too. These were a rendition of Small Faces’ ‘Get Yourself Together’, Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Move On Up’ and The Kinks’ ‘David Watts’.
Other songs that made the cut included ‘All Mod Cons’, ‘Precious’, ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight’ and ‘Smithers-Jones’, and the band came out for two encores at the end of the set. The first included ‘In The City’ and ‘A Town Called Malice’, while the second consisted of ‘The Butterfly Collector’, ‘Pretty Green’ and ‘The Gift’.
As shared by Modculture, support was provided by Apocalypse – a band from Paul Weller’s, ‘Jamming’ label, and extra security was enlisted for the gig due to the sheer number of fans who wanted to attend.
Check out the newly-resurfaced footage above and find the full setlist below.
The setlist for The Jam’s final show was:
‘Start!’
‘It’s Too Bad’
‘Beat Surrender’
‘Away From the Numbers’
‘Ghosts’
‘In the Crowd’
‘Boy About Town’
‘Get Yourself Together’ (Small Faces cover)
‘All Mod Cons’
‘To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have a Nice Time)’
‘Smithers-Jones’
‘Tales From the Riverbank’
‘Precious’
‘Move On Up’ (Curtis Mayfield cover)
‘Circus’
‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’
Encore:
‘David Watts’ (The Kinks cover)
‘Mr. Clean’
‘Going Underground’
‘In the City’
‘Town Called Malice’
Encore 2:
‘The Butterfly Collector’
‘Pretty Green’
‘The Gift’
Buckler joined The Jam in the early ’70s and remained in the iconic Woking band through to their split in 1982. After they parted ways, the drummer formed the band Time UK and also began running a production studio in Islington.
By the ‘90s, he took time away from music and pursued work as an ad-hoc carpenter, before returning to the industry in 2005 and forming the band Gift.
The group primarily performed early material from The Jam, and was later renamed From The Jam when Foxton joined the group in 2007. The latter would ultimately leave the group after two years.
