NewsThe Jam: Live set hits the schedules
Fire And Skill: The Jam Live is the name of a new six-disc box set currently listed for pre-order on Amazon UK.
There is little in the way of information at present, although this is clearly a live anthology that will hopefully offer fans some previously unreleased performances. The £79 price tag suggests that this will be more than just six CDs in a box, so perhaps we can expect a substantial ‘super deluxe’ type set with a heavyweight book and perhaps even some vinyl. Either that, or the price will drop dramatically between now and the end of October which is the current – probably ballpark – release date.
If anyone has any more information about this set, do get in touch. Fire And Skill: The Jam Live currently has a release date of 30 October 2015.
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Cdjapan are only charging £50 for the japan version!
Looking forward to this set, but a couple of things really grate – firstly the price which, considering there are no ‘extra goodies’ is insanity … SO Expensive! Secondly, a vinyl set should be available. Thirdly, most fans would already own the 77 100 Club, and the 82 Wembley gigs. I have both on bootleg and they are really amazing quality already. Surely someone would have realised this when they were compiling the gigs? Give us something ‘really’ special – How about the last gig in Brighton as the 82 choice. Not the best gig, but certainly one of the most significant.
I agree with you Gary with the stereo mix.
I imagine it’ll be Paul + Vocals slightly to one side of speaker, Bruce + Vocals slightly to the other side with drums in the centre. You might get different cymbals on left and right speaker depending on how the gig was miked up.
There’s a few bootlegs that sound mono until you hear the audience in stereo. There’s more scope with the later gigs when Trumpets and Keyboards were added.
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This list of gigs looks like this will be one the most exciting releases from The Jam in a long while. I hope the 100 Club gig is the same mix and quality as the Modern World B-Side tracks already released in 1977. That mix is so much better than the radio broadcast bootleg, there’s some real clever ‘stereo’ type mixing where the guitars, drums and crowd noise fill the whole stereo field rather than sounding flat and mono. It’s also much better than the mix of ‘In The City’ released on ‘Dig The New Breed’ which I believe is from the same gig.
Track listing and info has been released.
Named after the legend painted on Paul Weller’s amp, ‘Fire And Skill’ is a superb six disc boxed set – featuring six previously unreleased concerts, one from each year of The Jam’s major-label career.
Starting with an incendiary early gig at London’s famous 100 Club from 1977, the show featured took place 10 months after they first played the venue in November 1976, and was recorded for broadcast on American radio ahead of the trio’s inaugural visit to US in October 1977 for a six-date tour.
A Music Machine show from 1978, featuring most of the 2nd album – ‘This Is The Modern World’. The show was The Jam’s sixth live show of the year and one of four low-key shows in the capital to fanfare their new ‘News Of The World’ single under the banner ‘The London Blitz’.
Reading University, February 1979 – playing material from their breakthrough album ‘All Mod Cons’, was The Jam’s first live appearance of 1979, and found the band in a radically different place to their showcase at the Music Machine 12 months before. In that time, their third album, ‘All Mod Cons’, had been released to critical acclaim, and their status as one of the New Wave’s most musically substantial and exciting bands had been secured. And Weller was still only 20 years old…
Newcastle City Hall – October 1980, previewing songs from forthcoming album ‘Sound Affects’. In the time between The Jam’s show at Reading University on Disc 3 and their appearance at Newcastle City Hall 20 months later, there had been more extraordinary developments in the group’s world. ‘Setting Sons’, their fourth album, had given them a Top 3 hit with ‘The Eton Rifles’, which was followed in February 1980 with the stirring Number 1 single, ‘Going Underground’. After three years on Polydor, The Jam had finally become the biggest group in the UK.
London’s legendary Hammersmith Palais – December 1981, part of The Jam’s four consecutive nights, previewing material from the forthcoming final album ‘The Gift’. The shows taking the innovative form of a ‘60s soul revue, showcasing new acts including Bananarama, Department S and TV21.
One of the band’s final ever gigs at Wembley Arena – 1982. Late in 1982 The Jam announced they were splitting up – there would, though, be a final chance for fans to experience The Jam’s astonishing live shows, with a 14-date ‘farewell’ tour announced for late November and December. The centrepiece was a five-night stand at Wembley Arena, the 10,000-capacity shed next to the London football stadium (the recording here is from the second date), the biggest live venue in the capital.
Packaged in mini, lift-off lid box this set includes a separate hard-back book and individual gatefold wallets for the discs, as well as new essay, period photos and rare memorabilia. All audio has been remastered at Abbey Road.
Disc One
Live at the 100 Club – 11th September 1977
1. I’ve Changed My Address
2. Carnaby Street
3. The Modern World
4. Time For Truth
5. So Sad About Us
6. London Girl
7. In The Street Today
8. Standards
9. All Around The World
10. London Traffic
11. Heat Wave
12. Sweet Soul Music
13. Bricks And Mortar
14. In The City
15. Art School
16. Back In My Arms Again
17. Slow Down
18. In The Midnight Hour
19. Sounds From The Street
20. Takin’ My Love
21. In The City (encore)
Disc Two
Live at the Music Machine 2nd March 1978
1. The Modern World
2. London Traffic
3. I Need You
4. The Combine
5. Aunties And Uncles
6. Standards
7. Here Comes The Weekend
8. Sounds From The Street
9. News Of The World
10. London Girl
11. In The Street Today
12. Bricks And Mortar
13. In The Midnight Hour
14. Carnaby Street
15. All Around The World
16. Slow Down
17. News Of The World (Sound-check – bonus track)
Disc Three
Live at Reading University – 16th February 1979
1. The Modern World
2. Sounds From The Street
3. Away From The Numbers
4. All Mod Cons To Be Someone
5. It’s Too Bad
6. Mr Clean
7. Billy Hunt
8. In The Street Today
9. Standards
10. Tonight At Noon
11. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
12. News Of The World
13. Here Comes The Weekend
14. Bricks And Mortar / Batman
15. The Place I Love
16. David Watts
17. Heat Wave
18. ‘A’ Bomb In Wardour Street
Disc Four
Live at Newcastle City Hall – 28th October 1980
1. Intro
2. Dreamtime
3. Thick As Thieves
4. Boy about Town
5. Monday
6. Going Underground
7. Pretty Green
8. Man In The Corner Shop
9. Set The House Ablaze
10. Private Hell
11. Liza Radley
12. Dreams Of Children
13. The Modern World
14. Little Boy Soldiers
15. But I’m Different Now
16. Start!
17. Scrape Away
18. Strange Town
19. When You’re Young
20. The Eton Rifles
21. Billy Hunt
22. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
23. To Be Someone
24. ‘A’ Bomb In Wardour Street
25. David Watts
Disc Five
Live at Hammersmith Palais – 14th December 1981
1. The Gift / Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
2. Man In The Corner Shop
3. Ghosts
4. Absolute Beginners
5. Town Called Malice
6. Set The House Ablaze
7. That’s Entertainment / Tales From The River Bank
8. Precious
9. Happy Together
10. In The Crowd / David Watts
11. Boy About Town
12. Pretty Green
13. Funeral Pyre
14. Circus
15. Going Underground
16. Big Bird
17. Little Boy Soldiers
Disc Six
Live at Wembley Arena – 2nd December 1982
1. Start!
2. It’s Too Bad
3. Beat Surrender
4. Away From The Numbers
5. Ghosts
6. In The Crowd
7. Boy About Town
8. Get Yourself Together
9. All Mod Cons
10. To Be Someone
11. Smithers-Jones
12. The Great Depression
13. Precious
14. Move On Up
15. When You’re Young
16. David Watts
17. Private Hell
18. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
19. Mr Clean
20. Trans-Global Express
21. Going Underground
22. The Butterfly Collector
23. Dreams Of Children
24. The Gift
A picture has been added to Amazon showing the contents, you can see that Disc 2 is the recording from Music Machine March 2 1978
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fire-And-Skill-The-Live/dp/B010P4C652
Paul,
Is there any way of showing a list of recently added comments especially to an old topic. I don’t know about other users but I’m interested in reading comments but sometimes a few weeks may pass before someone has added something.
Just a suggestion but is it feasible to know a new comment has been added without have to go through weeks of blogs, like the list of recent posts but instead a list of recently added comments.
btw, great informative site!
The label is listed as Commercial Marketing.Does this mean it is a grey label release?These are nearly always poor sound quality reproductions of bootlegs and TV/Radio broadcasts.I couldn’t imagine the Jam’s label letting this go to anyone else.
No it means Universal Music.
Also may not be all live in the UK, could include a CD version of the mono gig in Copenhagen released on vinyl in 2012.
http://www.discogs.com/Jam-Copenhagen-April-1982/release/4084944
I think this is unlikely to be included as, to my knowledge, it was recorded live ‘in the studio’ rather than at a traditional ‘gig’. My expectation is that the box set will be comprised of gig recordings. But I could be wrong…
Album title also used on a promo comp in 2007.
http://www.discogs.com/Jam-30-Years-Of-Fire-And-Skill/release/1655770
I remember paying £29.99 for DRC in HMV when it was initially released but it did go up in price when it dropped down the charts to £39.99. I can’t remember seeing it as high as £59.99
It’s pretty standard with most releases that the price goes up when it drops down the charts. However, I did get a back up copy for £10 when HMV did one of their crazy sales where limited amounts of box sets were available for £10 (one per customer).
The DRC box set was definitely not £20 when released – I’m thinking more £60. The ear book version was in the region of £15-20 and the only reason I bought that was to see the pictures in the booklet in a bigger format even though I already had the box set which I’d picked up cheaply for thirty odd quid.
I wonder if they use style council audience over dubs on this box set :^)
I bought it in Fopp in Glasgow for £19.99 not long after it was released in 1997 because i remember a year later i paid £30 for the Style Council box.
I’m sad enough to have kept the receipt in my copy of Direction Reaction Creation for these 18 years, so I can confirm I paid £29:99 in HMV Lancaster in the week of release. Which makes sense as I don’t think I’d be willing or able to pay £60 for the box in those days.
Such generous pricing is why it went Top 10 in the days when boxed sets virtually never charted. Pity the binding in the booklet fell apart.
There’s concert footage shown on Belgium and French TV.
Footage from ‘Chorus’ Baltard Pavillion has been released on DVD in France.
Is there any outtakes from the 100 club that has yet to be released? There’s a little snippet of ‘All Around The World’ on the German documentary ‘Punk in London’ and I’ve often wondered how much footage was actually recorded.
Rockpalast (Dortmund) and Bingley Hall are complete concerts that deserve their own releases.
Isn’t there some unseen film at the exhibition? Maybe that could be used. I know there is footage of the final Brighton show, and of course the full version of the Trans Global Express concert is out there with behind the scenes footage.
Amazon states 6 discs so I’m hoping one of them will be a DVD collecting some of the unreleased broadcast on TV concerts.
I only have some of these on poor quality bootleg VHS so it’ll be nice to see them in clear quality.
At this price it needs to come with a ticket for The Jam reunion tour!Does anyone remember what Direction!Reaction!Creation! Cost when it came out?
If the price halves I’m in otherwise no.
I paid about £20 for it if i remember correctly and the Style Council box set wasn’t much more than that and to think we thought music was expensive back then. Another thing was at least back then those box sets weren’t riddled with errors like we get now.
Are you sure as that seems very cheap? I can remember paying £20 just for a double CD in a jewel case years ago.
I waited to buy that until I found it on sale somewhere–I seem to remember it was a year or two after it was released.
Have been a fan of this era for a long time but know nothing of the Jam. Maybe this will be a good place for me to get my feet wet.
It will be interesting to see if the box set track listing is comprised of complete shows are compiled highlights. Taking into account ‘The Modern World’ single, ‘Setting Sons’ Deluxe Edition, ‘The Gift’ Deluxe Edition, ‘Dig The New Breed’, ‘Jam Live’ and ‘The Jam At The BBC’, I believe that songs from the following shows have been officially released:
London 100 Club (11 September 1977)
Reading University (16 February 1979)
London Rainbow Theatre (2 December 1979)
London Rainbow Theatre (3 December 1979)
London Rainbow Theatre (4 December 1979) *BBC Recording
Brighton Centre (15 December 1979)
Newcastle City Hall (26 October 1980)
London Hammersmith Palais (14 December 1981)
London Hammersmith Palais (15 December 1981)
London Golders Green Hippodrome (19 December 1981) *BBC Recording
Birmingham Bingley Hall (21 March 1982)
Edinburgh Playhouse (6 April 1982)
Glasgow Apollo (8 April 1982)
London Wembley Arena (2 December 1982)
London Wembley Arena (3 December 1982)
Dates for the above may not be accurate as I recall that some of the details previously published on sleeve notes have been incorrect.
The opening sentence above should of course read ‘it will be interesting to see if the box set track listing is comprised of complete shows OR compiled highlights’.
Top comment Gazelle – Polydor have the following Jam live shows in the vaults so hopefully 6 full gigs will be released instead of edited highlights! I’m also hoping that Dennis Munday will be back on board overseeing the project. I’ve marked my faves with an asterix:
1). The Nashville September 10 1977***
2). 100 Club September 11 1977
3). Music Machine March 2 1978***
4). Reading University February 16 1979***
5). Rainbow December 2 1979
6). Rainbow December 3 1979
7). Brighton Centre December 15 1979
8). Guildhall Portsmouth December 16 1979
9). City Hall Newcastle October 28 1980***
10). Sobell Centre December 12 1981
11). Sobell Centre December 13 1981***
12). Hammersmith Palais December 14 1981
13). Hammersmith Palais December 15 1981
14). Bingley Hall Birmingham March 20 1982***
15). Playhouse Edinburgh April 5 1982
16). Playhouse Edinburgh April 6 1982
17). Apollo Glasgow April 7 1982
18). Apollo Glasgow April 8 1982
19). Wembley Arena December 2 1982
20). Wembley Arena December 3 1982
A few of these shows have been available as bootlegs over the years but it’d be nice to see them released in an official format – & without any overdubs as well! Cheers
I believe that #7 was released on the Setting Sons Super Deluxe Box and #20 was released on “The Gift” Super Deluxe Box. So hopefully these shows are not replicated in this new box.
As video footage of The Jam from Newcastle City Hall has been released on the Complete Jam DVD, it’ll be nice to be able to sync a stereo soundboard recording to it. It’s something that I always thought should have been done at the time of the DVD release.
1st Time i saw them live in 1980 on the PINKPOP festival, ever since a huge fan of Jam & Paul Weller .. is this a neccasery release ?
No record release is “necessary”.
well mychael a proper stereo soundboard from early 80’s a full concert would be nice to have ..
richard
I prefer honey.
All respect to the Jam but haven’t they been mined to death?
Compilations and live releases surely must outweigh X 2 their studio work.
Seeing The Jam on Rockpalast in 1980 ist a substantial part of my juvenile awakening. I hope we will get full sets. They played 80 min. sets in the early eighties, so CD will be the proper format (hard to admit for a vinyl lover).
AGAIN-CD only! Hello-UME execs: 2015 calling-anyone home? How one label can continue to be so clueless and shortsighted is beyond me…
Good luck trying to shift a 6 CD box set for £80.
How to confuse, that title has been used before: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Skill:_The_Songs_of_the_Jam