{"id":5623,"date":"2022-08-05T11:20:29","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T10:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=5623"},"modified":"2022-08-06T12:56:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-06T11:56:56","slug":"its-a-mod-mod-world-this-is-the-modern-world-the-jam-style-council-exhibition-brighton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=5623","title":{"rendered":"It’s A Mod, Mod World \u2013 This Is The Modern World: The Jam & Style Council Exhibition, Brighton"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEN GRAHAM catches up with a new exhibition on THE JAM and THE STYLE COUNCIL, and chats with former Jam drummer Rick\u00a0Buckler<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This Is The Modern World <\/em>is a new exhibition in Brighton that charts Paul Weller\u2019s ever-changing career moves across two decades, from The Jam to The Style Council (though not beyond). As such, it\u2019s an evolution from the About The Young Idea <\/em>exhibition of a few years ago, which focussed solely on The Jam and which, like This Is The Modern World, <\/em>was co-curated by Paul\u2019s younger sister, Nicky Weller.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI did About The Young Idea <\/em>with a guy called Den Davies, and basically he didn\u2019t want to get involved in this one,\u201d Nicky says. \u201cWe just rebranded it to give it a little freshen up as This Is The Modern World, <\/em>and obviously it\u2019s grown since then because now pretty much half of it is The Style Council. Maybe a lot of people saw The Jam items before, at Somerset House and Liverpool, but this time they\u2019ve never seen the stuff that we\u2019ve done with The Style Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

About The Young Idea <\/em>was meant to come to Brighton after its run in London and Liverpool, but problems with the site and then the COVID pandemic forced a rethink. Anyone who bought tickets for that can use them to see This Is The Modern World, <\/em>which now has its own festival-like space on Valley Gardens, outside St Peter\u2019s Church in the heart of the city, a stone\u2019s throw from the North Laine which is Brighton\u2019s hub of music and alternative culture. It\u2019s also barely 10 minutes\u2019 walk from the station and a similar distance from Brighton Museum, which has a smaller exhibition of The Jam magazine covers, should you want to combine both in a day out to the seaside and the city that has long been The Jam and UK mod culture\u2019s spiritual home. Indeed, as fate would have it, the exhibition coincides (give or take a few months) with the fortieth anniversary of The Jam\u2019s farewell concert, at the Brighton Centre in December 1982.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The main body of the exhibition is in a large marquee tent, with four shipping containers acting as extra galleries and a gift shop. Walking in, you\u2019re confronted with a collage of posters and magazine covers, before being transported back to the very early \u201970s and Paul Weller\u2019s school reports, childhood exercise books and a wealth of family photos. We follow The Jam\u2019s career from their first publicity shots and onstage snaps, through ads for shows, tickets, receipts and letters from Opportunity Knocks. <\/em>Then it\u2019s on to badges, posters and record sleeves; T-shirts and stage clothes displayed on mannequins; and vintage Rickenbacker guitars, drumsticks and reel-to-reel tapes. All the minutiae of band life in the \u201970s, moving swiftly from school concerts and working men\u2019s clubs to the punk toilet circuit, then theatres and festivals and finally arenas, all over the course of just 10 years.<\/p>\n

The Style Council section that follows features a similar mix of clothes and records, posters, photos and souvenirs. There are display cabinets covering Red Wedge and Live Aid, and a wall-size blow-up of the Our Favourite Shop <\/em>sleeve photo. Indeed, one of the joys of this exhibition is seeing the Council finally getting their dues, their critical status having been reassessed in the wake of 2020 documentary Long Hot Summers <\/em>(screening at St Peter\u2019s Church on 25th August, with Mick Talbot and Steve White in conversation).<\/p>\n

Particularly poignant is the shipping container dedicated to John Weller, Paul and Nikki\u2019s late father and Paul\u2019s manager throughout his career. Titled \u201944 Balmoral Drive\u2019 and decorated in fetching period wallpaper, the room includes Weller\u2019s boxing trophies alongside gold and silver discs and brings home how much The Jam especially was a family affair, driven as much by Weller sr.\u2019s belief and determination as his son\u2019s talent and ambition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It also makes you think about how Paul Weller has never really known any other life outside of his chosen musical career. He formed The Jam in \u201972, aged 14, and his earliest exercise books already have the band\u2019s name doodled across them. He left school as soon as possible to turn professional, all with dad\u2019s encouragement, and signed a major record deal at the age of 18, literally never looking back.<\/p>\n

Essentially, Weller has lived his life in the public eye: onstage, on magazine covers, on videos, on vinyl, and on posters on a thousand teenage bedroom walls. It\u2019s a certain kind of mod life, perhaps, to be one with the media flash, living pop art, a household name and an iconic ace face in the style supermarket. Perhaps that\u2019s another reason why Weller is so keen to keep moving on: to avoid being trapped by yesterday\u2019s image, to keep his soul intact, one step ahead of the relentless commodification of his every artistic statement. And for all the candid snapshots and backstage glimpses on display here, Weller the everyman pop star remains something of an enigma as well; captured in pieces, but never whole.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Weller is fully supportive of the exhibition, and Nicky says he\u2019ll doubtless be down at some point to check it out. Jam drummer Rick Buckler and the Style Council\u2019s Mick Talbot were both present at the private view, and both will be involved in Q&A\u2019s throughout the run, while Bruce Foxton will be performing two shows with his band, From The Jam.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI remember when I first told Paul about Somerset House he said, ‘Huh, Nick, who\u2019s going to want to see our old rubbish?’\u201d Nicky says. \u201cBut he was amazed at how many people were queuing up around the block to see it. He came nine times to that exhibition. He\u2019s been digging out some of his old items as well. He\u2019s 64 now and you\u2019ve got to look back on some things, haven\u2019t you? We reminisce a lot, which he never would\u2019ve done before, and he doesn\u2019t get the hump about it like he would\u2019ve done in the past, like, oh, don\u2019t talk to me about that, I\u2019m moving forward, I\u2019m a mod!\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition is of course named after The Jam\u2019s \u201977 sophomore LP, but This Is The Modern World <\/em>actually conjures up a bygone era, a world of paper tickets and handwritten fan mail, of telegrams from record companies, flights on Concorde and easily forged passes for Top Of The Pops. <\/em>One wonders what physical memorabilia today\u2019s digital age will leave behind to rival this emporium of ephemera.<\/p>\n

From the early \u201970s, when ordinary people kept pet lions in Woking, to the late \u201980s, when some of the UK\u2019s biggest and most credible pop stars came together to encourage the democratic ousting of a mendacious tory government, the exhibition almost accidentally tracks the shifting social mores of the two decades covered. This isn\u2019t the modern world: it\u2019s a gift. A chance to see the dreams of children come true, and pop history as it was made.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>This Is The Modern World runs from 30th July to 29th August at Valley Gardens, Brighton, with events, film screenings and concerts taking place at St Peter\u2019s Church throughout. Visit <\/em>www.thisisthemodernworld.net<\/a> for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks to Nicky Weller and Luigia Minichiello<\/em><\/p>\n