Gotta hand it to the hosts. They started out with the standard American morning show friendly crap, then they realized the guys weren't The Monkees, so they did their best to squeeze an actual interview out of these geezers.
Watch interviews with him now. He's much more mellow and humble. By his own admission, when he was younger he was dealing with a lot of insecurities (we all do) and that's why he seemed bolshy and difficult. He was always wary of interviews as well though - preferred the music to speak so that he didn't have to. He's a top bloke though in reality.
Good interviewers considering how uncooperative the band is. It's funny watching these interviews, can't accuse them of doing anything to sell records. The music from Weller back then and now is the best, that is what matters.
FWIW - this interview was on the morning of March 7, 1980 on a morning entertainment/news chat show called "AM Chicago" (which aired on the local ABC affiliate WLS - Channel 7). Obviously pretty lame and as others have mentioned, hardly the show that any Jam fan would be watching. The Jam had played the previous night at a club in Chicago called Park West. That show was taped and later broadcast on local FM station WXRT. A boot of that show is readily available online - just look around. The night of March 7th (after this TV interview) they played a show at an indoor amusement park called "Old Chicago", which I imagine must have been like a scene out of Spinal Tap. Old Chicago was a combination shopping mall and small amusement park that was geared toward families with small kids or pre-teens. Pretty lame as far as these things go. The typical band that played there (which was very infrequent) was light rock stuff like Gary Puckett and Dr. Hook, etc. I was a teenager at the time and thought the place a joke - certainly not the kind of place I would have sought out music, but I hadn't known about the Jam show at that time. I have no idea what size crowd they drew that night, but can't imagine it was big. I would suspect that once they realized they were playing in a shopping mall next to the bumper cars, they could not have been too happy. I think Paul's father was their manager. I wonder if he booked that show or if that was left up to some promoter. As fate would have it, Old Chicago was already a failing enterprise and shut down for good just 10 days after this show. I expect the Jam must have been the last band to play there. Hopefully it was loud as all f**k.
joedimaggio44 - I was at the Old Chicago show. There were about 30 of us rabid Jam fans upfront. Great show! And 5-10 steps back, moms and dads with kids and other onlookers. Weller was super pissed off at the surroundings/turnout and played a very angry set. Our gain!
I've heard about this show. Heard it was a real let down for the band. Hope Park West was better it being a proper club and all. I remember hearing them in the early 80's on WXRT.
Bo. I'm English, but lived with my US girlfriend (Northwestern U) in Chicago 79-80. I went to the Park West show.... Brilliant!!! Recorded the WXRT show too -- some twerp pinched it just a couple of years ago. After the Park West show Paul Weller graciously chatted to me for 30 mins as a big fan and fellow countryman. A thoughtful and highly talented fellow.
joedimaggio44 thanks for that information it was really interesting and Paul Welles’s dad was their manager and Paul wrote some of the jams songs lyrics when he was 11 years old!!! But definitely seams he had a very middle class upbringing yet his songs are so anti Maggie torries against the right ?? Yet his upbringing was not working class labour?? Typical of privileged jumping on a band wagon they have no comprehension of 🙄
Also shortly after this going underground entered the uk charts at no.1… they cancelled the rest of USA tour and flew home on Concorde to do top of the pops..👍🏻
It's interesting to hear Paul embrace the New Wave moniker in his early-days interview with Tom Snyder (when Joan Jett as also a guest) and then later denigrate it here as it became a more of a promo-driven genre term, Generally, I'd say the Jam were always reticent speakers in these TV settings, much less so than most artists are today.
Well that probably had to with all the band-wagon jumpers jumping on the trendy new-wave bandwagon becoming 'new-wave' overnight by 1980 that it was becoming diluted. Happens with every new scene: you first have the few movers and shakers that are the real deal (like the Jam were) and then the establishment latches itself to it and dilutes it of its real essence by which time the movers and shakers have wisely distanced themselves from it. In 1980, middle-of-the-road artists like Linda Ronstadt and Billy Joel, to name just a couple, were 'going new-wave'.
I met these guys in 1981 after their concert in Toronto, they (Paul Weller and Rick Buckler) were hanging out just outside a Mr. Submarine looking for a place to buy pizza.
@@ferball415 Me and the three people I was with were walking down the sidewalk on Yonge St. after the show and we literally just ran into Paul Weller and Rick Buckler and their huge security guard standing outside a Mr. Submarine looking for a place to buy pizza, I was the one that first engaged them and said hello and told them I saw the show and the guys I was with were in an amusements arcade beside Mr. Submarine and I went and got them and that's how the whole thing began and went down.....completely by accident.
For those of you confused, 'England' is what some American's call the UK. Although you'd think a TV interviewer would have read up on the band before he interviewed them- he didn't even know when they formed.
@@mintywebb Apologies; I was in a bad mood when I wrote this comment. As a Cornish person, I got sick of the two terms being used interchangeably. I was a pedantic little twerp back then.
The interviewer said Setting Sons was number one although it reached number 4. His reason for saying it was at number one is because it was number one in the midweek charts then dropped to 4 towards the end of the week.
Not many bands could say that the English working class ethic was such a integral part of its make up. And that very thing was something the yanks couldn't get or understand perhaps. Its a shame they never made it in the big smoke, that may have got a few extra albums out of The Jam. Regardless... what a band!
Small town boys in Chicago, that's the way they behaved. Maybe that behaviour contributed to the fact they didn't make it in the States. Weller has personally improved his manners a lot along his life it shows, but as a young guy he seemed to be an arrogant asshole.
I find it hard to watch these interviews. The cringe factor is off the scale. I mean they were asked for their influences and they had a big opportunity to mention the kinks, the Beatles, the Who, the Pistols and they fail to name even one band!!!! Not much point in going on a show if your not going to try. Lol. Plus I don’t think Setting Sons was a number 1 album in the UK fir them as claimed here.
Excellent observations. There’s a sense of entitlement with Paul in particular. People should automatically understand how gifted he is as a songwriter because he’s definitely not going to try convincing you with irrelevant details like musical influences. On the other hand, it reflects the punk ethic of the time, which I think seems a little juvenile and passive aggressive to mainstream Americans. This attitude is still very common amongst that ilk of British musicians. Oasis and the La’s could be similarly difficult in interviews, just to name two.
This is where they don’t listen to the band have no idea what the music remotely means …damn I swear the guy had to read the cue card to know who they were. How much do you get paid to sit there in front of the TV?
Paul is bone dry in the interview. The interviewers don't really know how to take him! The USA musical establishment were always accused of gatekeeping or boxing music off into narrow categories which ultimately served to limit reach or exposure of particular acts beyond a certain niche.. The jam are probably a perfect illustration of it. They didn't fit comfortably on conventional rock music stations of the time as they weren't glam/ stadium rock which dominated the landscape of the time. They weren't punk. They didn't court labels or wall themselves off . To add to the confusion. Their music was heavily influenced by mod/ Motown/60s rock but fused together in a contemporary way which wouldn't sit seamlessly along those influences either ! They probably got a few plays on college radio. Weird they made so little impact in the USA.
The AM Chicago host's name is Robb Weller. If he's really related to Paul, I have no idea! Know who replaced him on this series a few years later?? Oprah Winfrey!
tip to young bands - how not to make it in america; give them the unswerving idea that they are all dumbed down idiots and that you have no interest in celebrity. it's a choice between that and integrity. the jam were SO english, right down to the lyrical themes. they had no chance in america, and good for them.
@@humanchannel7825 lots of acts do alright. some do very well, but some things just don't travel. bowie struggled in america until his glam phase, he was a solo artist with universal themes, so it's hard to compare the two in any meaningful way.
Being mopey and barely able to hold his head up didn't do them any favors, that's for sure They were a fairly dour band who didn't do themselves any favors with the mainstream media. But then again, they didn't really care as they knew deep down inside that they would never have real success in the States as they would never compromise their music in a million years for such acceptance. Which, when you think about it, is commendable and living up to the nonconformist ethos of the then-original punk ethos.
Exactly. They showed absolutely no enthusiasm or made no effort to sound interesting or articulate. If they didn't want to go to that interview they didn't have to. I know the gun laws in the USA are different to here, but I'm sure no one was holding one to their heads. Embarrasing and awkward to watch. I mean come on guys wakey wakey!!
The Jam were the heroes of the '79 -'80 British Mod revival but they were bigger and better than that moribund, backward looking "movement". What on Earth must the original mods, who were around 15-20 years older than us, thought? "These kids are just doing what we did in '63-'64". God, I hate revivals.
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Having an out of body experience....never would've imagined that The Jam were on AM Chicago. POW! 💥
Gotta hand it to the hosts. They started out with the standard American morning show friendly crap, then they realized the guys weren't The Monkees, so they did their best to squeeze an actual interview out of these geezers.
These geezers were the best British singles band in British history apart from one definitely and perhaps two.
Fantastic I haven't seen this one before,a little awkward as always from the lads and setting sons made no.1...love it
I really want to love Paul Weller. He is gifted, but it seems he doesn't want to be liked.
Watch interviews with him now. He's much more mellow and humble. By his own admission, when he was younger he was dealing with a lot of insecurities (we all do) and that's why he seemed bolshy and difficult. He was always wary of interviews as well though - preferred the music to speak so that he didn't have to. He's a top bloke though in reality.
He doesn't give a shit if people like him or not.
He wants to be liked for the right reasons.
Kiss and BOC "totally unnecessary" - love it!
They supported BOC and it didn't go down well for them from what I understand.
Good interviewers considering how uncooperative the band is. It's funny watching these interviews, can't accuse them of doing anything to sell records. The music from Weller back then and now is the best, that is what matters.
They made music to sell records. They were about 19 when this was filmed.
FWIW - this interview was on the morning of March 7, 1980 on a morning entertainment/news chat show called "AM Chicago" (which aired on the local ABC affiliate WLS - Channel 7). Obviously pretty lame and as others have mentioned, hardly the show that any Jam fan would be watching.
The Jam had played the previous night at a club in Chicago called Park West. That show was taped and later broadcast on local FM station WXRT. A boot of that show is readily available online - just look around.
The night of March 7th (after this TV interview) they played a show at an indoor amusement park called "Old Chicago", which I imagine must have been like a scene out of Spinal Tap. Old Chicago was a combination shopping mall and small amusement park that was geared toward families with small kids or pre-teens. Pretty lame as far as these things go. The typical band that played there (which was very infrequent) was light rock stuff like Gary Puckett and Dr. Hook, etc. I was a teenager at the time and thought the place a joke - certainly not the kind of place I would have sought out music, but I hadn't known about the Jam show at that time. I have no idea what size crowd they drew that night, but can't imagine it was big. I would suspect that once they realized they were playing in a shopping mall next to the bumper cars, they could not have been too happy. I think Paul's father was their manager. I wonder if he booked that show or if that was left up to some promoter. As fate would have it, Old Chicago was already a failing enterprise and shut down for good just 10 days after this show. I expect the Jam must have been the last band to play there. Hopefully it was loud as all f**k.
joedimaggio44 - I was at the Old Chicago show. There were about 30 of us rabid Jam fans upfront. Great show! And 5-10 steps back, moms and dads with kids and other onlookers. Weller was super pissed off at the surroundings/turnout and played a very angry set. Our gain!
I've heard about this show. Heard it was a real let down for the band. Hope Park West was better it being a proper club and all. I remember hearing them in the early 80's on WXRT.
Bo. I'm English, but lived with my US girlfriend (Northwestern U) in Chicago 79-80. I went to the Park West show.... Brilliant!!! Recorded the WXRT show too -- some twerp pinched it just a couple of years ago. After the Park West show Paul Weller graciously chatted to me for 30 mins as a big fan and fellow countryman. A thoughtful and highly talented fellow.
joedimaggio44 thanks for that information it was really interesting and Paul Welles’s dad was their manager and Paul wrote some of the jams songs lyrics when he was 11 years old!!! But definitely seams he had a very middle class upbringing yet his songs are so anti Maggie torries against the right ?? Yet his upbringing was not working class labour?? Typical of privileged jumping on a band wagon they have no comprehension of 🙄
But today the crowd was about quarter of a million according t all the people that would say they were there.
I can only imagine what the 2 hosts said to each other after this interview.
The way Weller's looking at the ground for most of this - like a guilty schoolboy, in fact.
that was his sid vicious impression
Also shortly after this going underground entered the uk charts at no.1… they cancelled the rest of USA tour and flew home on Concorde to do top of the pops..👍🏻
It's interesting to hear Paul embrace the New Wave moniker in his early-days interview with Tom Snyder (when Joan Jett as also a guest) and then later denigrate it here as it became a more of a promo-driven genre term, Generally, I'd say the Jam were always reticent speakers in these TV settings, much less so than most artists are today.
Well that probably had to with all the band-wagon jumpers jumping on the trendy new-wave bandwagon becoming 'new-wave' overnight by 1980 that it was becoming diluted. Happens with every new scene: you first have the few movers and shakers that are the real deal (like the Jam were) and then the establishment latches itself to it and dilutes it of its real essence by which time the movers and shakers have wisely distanced themselves from it. In 1980, middle-of-the-road artists like Linda Ronstadt and Billy Joel, to name just a couple, were 'going new-wave'.
Man, they were a tough interview 😂
Well, the interviewers were not the brightest.
"What about The Beatles?" Oh, that's precious.
Yeah Weller had a hangover - Great Post
I met these guys in 1981 after their concert in Toronto, they (Paul Weller and Rick Buckler) were hanging out just outside a Mr. Submarine looking for a place to buy pizza.
More details please.
@@ferball415 What kind of details.
@@malibustacy3606 Like what you talked about or if you got pictures or they put you on the guest list, etc.
@@ferball415 Me and the three people I was with were walking down the sidewalk on Yonge St. after the show and we literally just ran into Paul Weller and Rick Buckler and their huge security guard standing outside a Mr. Submarine looking for a place to buy pizza, I was the one that first engaged them and said hello and told them I saw the show and the guys I was with were in an amusements arcade beside Mr. Submarine and I went and got them and that's how the whole thing began and went down.....completely by accident.
Sorry for the delayed response! Were they nice enough to you?
FAb !!!
In the top five in England and playing an "indoor amusement park" in the states. sad that they never broke in the US above cult status.
Love it mod for it
haha Classic. They never really mastered the art of the TV interview.
Unfortunately, these kinds of morning chats did nothing to attract attention for The Jam, and looking back, they just seem tired and restless.
Poor Weller, etc. How lame is this interview?
Oh dear the questions they had to put up with. Made to do this by Polydor.
Oh yeah what a tragedy they had to answer questions to an interview that they agreed to.
They really want to be there!🙄
No wonder The Jam didn't do too well in the good ol' USA lol
Paul Weller looks uncomfortable in interviews, very similar to Ronnie O'Sullivan!!
CardiffBoy1927 Americans just didn't get the Jam (thank god).
@@denzil4 Ronnie O'Sullivan whos that,,, the presneter ?
@@ouFabLseK-LLangir Ronnie O'Sullivan is a snooker player
@@garywilson2534 but Americans "got" many other British bands with that type of sound and image
For those of you confused, 'England' is what some American's call the UK. Although you'd think a TV interviewer would have read up on the band before he interviewed them- he didn't even know when they formed.
They are English, I'm Welsh...
@@mintywebb Apologies; I was in a bad mood when I wrote this comment. As a Cornish person, I got sick of the two terms being used interchangeably. I was a pedantic little twerp back then.
Painful. What's this about his long lost relative? Funny that.
presumably his surname is Weller also
The journalist looks like Paul’s sister . Uncanny ! 😂
I just thought that too!!,
Setting Sons never made number 1, it peaked at number 4.
The interviewer said Setting Sons was number one although it reached number 4. His reason for saying it was at number one is because it was number one in the midweek charts then dropped to 4 towards the end of the week.
did not sell in america ?
Not many bands could say that the English working class ethic was such a integral part of its make up. And that very thing was something the yanks couldn't get or understand perhaps. Its a shame they never made it in the big smoke, that may have got a few extra albums out of The Jam. Regardless... what a band!
We're not mods.
Small town boys in Chicago, that's the way they behaved. Maybe that behaviour contributed to the fact they didn't make it in the States.
Weller has personally improved his manners a lot along his life it shows, but as a young guy he seemed to be an arrogant asshole.
I find it hard to watch these interviews. The cringe factor is off the scale. I mean they were asked for their influences and they had a big opportunity to mention the kinks, the Beatles, the Who, the Pistols and they fail to name even one band!!!! Not much point in going on a show if your not going to try. Lol. Plus I don’t think Setting Sons was a number 1 album in the UK fir them as claimed here.
Excellent observations. There’s a sense of entitlement with Paul in particular. People should automatically understand how gifted he is as a songwriter because he’s definitely not going to try convincing you with irrelevant details like musical influences. On the other hand, it reflects the punk ethic of the time, which I think seems a little juvenile and passive aggressive to mainstream Americans. This attitude is still very common amongst that ilk of British musicians. Oasis and the La’s could be similarly difficult in interviews, just to name two.
Awwwwwwwwkwarrrrrrrd!
☝️🤣👌
Best band ever but hard work to interview…
I cannot blame them for having to respond to these really brain dead hosts.
It’s their fucking job. So yes they really should
@@humanchannel7825yes got to agree, and I’m English and a Jam fan but this interview is terrible . At least look as if you are half interested
Hello, we're the Scum Of The Earth
This is where they don’t listen to the band have no idea what the music remotely means …damn I swear the guy had to read the cue card to know who they were. How much do you get paid to sit there in front of the TV?
You don’t go with terms
The jam where too political for the states
Setting Sons never went to no.1 .. surprised he didn’t pick up on that…
He was a terrific interviewer and probably deserved a little bit more respect than what he was given. Weller was such a bore off stage.
Fuck that of new wave i dont think so
typical jam interview, awkward
Paul is bone dry in the interview. The interviewers don't really know how to take him! The USA musical establishment were always accused of gatekeeping or boxing music off into narrow categories which ultimately served to limit reach or exposure of particular acts beyond a certain niche..
The jam are probably a perfect illustration of it. They didn't fit comfortably on conventional rock music stations of the time as they weren't glam/ stadium rock which dominated the landscape of the time. They weren't punk. They didn't court labels or wall themselves off .
To add to the confusion. Their music was heavily influenced by mod/ Motown/60s rock but fused together in a contemporary way which wouldn't sit seamlessly along those influences either !
They probably got a few plays on college radio. Weird they made so little impact in the USA.
😂😂 they didn't know anything about British music or culture, thats why they were pissed off
you can't box this band in a trendy little expression, and you certainly can't catch any of the boys on the wrong foot with these cliched questions.
Deadpan
The AM Chicago host's name is Robb Weller. If he's really related to Paul, I have no idea! Know who replaced him on this series a few years later?? Oprah Winfrey!
tip to young bands - how not to make it in america; give them the unswerving idea that they are all dumbed down idiots and that you have no interest in celebrity. it's a choice between that and integrity. the jam were SO english, right down to the lyrical themes. they had no chance in america, and good for them.
David Bowie did alright
@@humanchannel7825 lots of acts do alright. some do very well, but some things just don't travel. bowie struggled in america until his glam phase, he was a solo artist with universal themes, so it's hard to compare the two in any meaningful way.
They look totally bored, painful to watch.
Weller was always the worst in interviews, and it seemed to affect the demeanor of the other two. Just a load of uninterested mumblings.
Being mopey and barely able to hold his head up didn't do them any favors, that's for sure They were a fairly dour band who didn't do themselves any favors with the mainstream media. But then again, they didn't really care as they knew deep down inside that they would never have real success in the States as they would never compromise their music in a million years for such acceptance. Which, when you think about it, is commendable and living up to the nonconformist ethos of the then-original punk ethos.
Exactly. They showed absolutely no enthusiasm or made no effort to sound interesting or articulate. If they didn't want to go to that interview they didn't have to. I know the gun laws in the USA are different to here, but I'm sure no one was holding one to their heads. Embarrasing and awkward to watch. I mean come on guys wakey wakey!!
Ha ha americans call it 'new wave'
😂 yeah, pretty much
We’re not a mod band 😂😂😂😂 utter rubbish the jam where a mod band full stop
Not in the sense of the mod revival bands that followed.
The Jam were the heroes of the '79 -'80 British Mod revival but they were bigger and better than that moribund, backward looking "movement". What on Earth must the original mods, who were around 15-20 years older than us, thought?
"These kids are just doing what we did in '63-'64". God, I hate revivals.
Didn’t know they had a interview over the states also the whole thing was cringey as hell and Need a pitchfork to my eyes as well on top of that
Cringy a bit.
A bit? You mean a lot.
Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss and all that rubbish. Totally unnecessary
Blimey, cringe worthy journalism.