Posted: Wednesday, August 26th, 2015
I was born in 1981, when The Jam were at their peak. They broke up in 1982, so obviously I don't remember them at the time, but their impact was huge. So many of the bands I was getting in to in my teens were very very obviously influenced by Weller's lyrics and the band's sound, and songs like 'That's Entertainment', 'Start' and 'Going Underground' were mainstays in Brighton's indie discos.
So when Anthony Burrill called to see if I'd be up for doing stills and video of Somerset House's new exhibition on The Jam he'd been working on with Simon Jones Studio and Teo Connor, my response was of course a cool and collected "I'll check my calendar" and definitely not a shouted "HELL YES!!!"
Scroll on for more stills and video from The Jam: About The Young Idea...
The Jam were known for their live performances, full of energy and electricity. With the video we wanted to get some of that across - the exhibition pays heavy regard to the band live, so we kept the audio pretty rough and ready and just used field recording of the tapes of The Jam live, or of their videos. This isn't something I've done before - usually we record a wild track of ambient noise and run it over and narration from one of the designers.
For the stills, I wanted to show the exhibition off, but also pick up on the people who were visiting. I'm not sure I've seen as many selfies, or friends taking photos or friends, at an exhibition as I did here! So naturally that comes across (as did the band's core demographic...).
