RIP Rick Buckler, drummer for The Jam. He was 69.
The Jam has been one of the most revered English bands for years. A reunion by the original members wouldn’t have been as big as Oasis, but it would have been crazy brilliant, a Mod event of epic proportions. But now that Rick Buckler is gone, that will never happen.
Rick’s death was announced today Tuesday (February 18) by his family, saying that he died Monday night (February 17) after a short illness. He “passed away peacefully on Monday evening in Woking after a short illness with family by his side.”
The Jam was Paul Weller’s band, a group he began pulling together in 1972. Buckler was part of the lineup by the mid-70s. Bruce Foxton, who had been serving as second guitarist, was moved over to bass. With Weller’s father acting as their manager, The Jam signed a deal with Polydor Records in 1977. What came next was a string of great albums and hit singles.
Yes, it was Weller out front, singing the songs he wrote, and playing his Rickenbacker. But The Jam would never have been the force they were without the rhythm section of Buckler and Foxton. The legacy they left behind–the Jam-led Mod Revival was essentially proto-Britpop–was tremendous.
Weller pulled the plug on The Jam in 1982. He never spoke to the other two (except in chance passings) ever again. Meanwhile, though Buckler and Foxton formed a group called Sharp. They lasted a brief while before Buckler started running a recording studio in Islington, but his music career ended in the mid-90s.
His new chosen profession? Carpenter. His specialty was distressed furniture. And that’s what he did for about ten years.
But once a musician, always a musician. In November 2005, he was in a band called Gift that later featured Bruce Foxton on bass. The Gift then morphed into From the Jam with Buckler and Foxton keeping The Jam’s legacy alive.
There were a few more bands for Buckler, but he always had the carpenter gig to fall back on. Then came a music consultancy in 2013. After that came several books on the history of The Jam (The Jam: Our Story, The Jam Unseen, That’s Entertainment: My Life in the Jam, Dead Straight Guide to The Jam. The Start to ’77, and This Day in Music’s Guide to The Jam.) I’d heard that he’d been working on another book, too.
Somehow I feel the need to go for a long ride on a Lambretta.
