The Jam Tops Three 1980 NME Pop Polls ...plus NME picks the Top Singles of 1980

The Jam : Scrape Away

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1980 was a great year for The Jam who scored two #1 smash hits in the UK and a #2 album. Despite the groundswell there, the band remained virtually unknown in America and poorer for it. 

NME Pop Poll Results 1980 Results 

Best Group 

1 The Jam 

2 Joy Division 

3 The Clash 

4 Talking Heads 

5 The Police 

6 UB40 

7 The Stranglers 

8 Adam and the Ants 

9 Genesis 

10 The Fall 

 Album 

1 Sound Affects - The Jam 

2 Closer - Joy Division 

3 Scary Monsters - David Bowie 

4 Crocodiles - Echo and the Bunnymen 

5 Signing Off - UB40 

6 Remain In Light - Talking Heads 

7 Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Adam and the Ants 

8 Zenyatta Mondatta - The Police 

9 I Just Can't Stop It - The Beat 

10 Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 

 Single 

1 Going Underground - The Jam 

2 Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division 

3 Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie 

4 Atmosphere - Joy Division 

5 Start! - The Jam 

6 Fashion - David Bowie 

7 Bankrobber - The Clash 

8 Enola Gay - OMD 

9 Games Without Frontiers - Pater Gabriel 

10 Dog Eat Dog - Adam and the Ants 

 Best New Act 

1 UB40 

2 Spandau Ballet 

3 Echo and the Bunnymen 

4 Stray Cats 

5 Bow Wow Wow

NME TOP SINGLES OF 1980

1. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division 

2. Going Underground - The Jam 

3. Mirror In The Bathroom - The Beat 

4. Atmosphere - Joy Division 

5. Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie 

6. Your Cassette Pet - Bow Wow Wow 

7. Private Life - Grace Jones 

8. Fashion - David Bowie 

9. C30 C60 C90 Go - Bow Wow Wow 

10. Master Blaster - Steve Wonder 

11. Treason - Teardrop Explodes 

12. Geno - Dexys Midnight Runners 

13. Start! - The Jam 

14. Food For Thought/King - Ub40 

15. New Amsterdam Ep - Elvis Costello 

16. Shack Up - A Certain Ratio 

17. Rescue - Echo And The Bunnymen 

18. My Way Of Thinking - Ub40 

19. The Breaks - Kurtis Blow 

20. Stand Down Margaret/Best Friend - The Beat 

21. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down - Elvis Costello 

22. Drug Train - The Cramps 

23. Fiery Jack - The Fall 

24. Dance Stance - Dexies Midnight Runners 

25. Johnny & Mary - Robert Palmer 

26. Hands Off .. She's Mine - The Beat 

27. My Flamingo - The Subterraneans 

28. A Song From Under The Floorboards - Magazine 

29. Independence Day - Comsat Angels 

30. My Perfect Cousin - The Undertones 

31. Runaway Boys - The Stray Cats 

32. At Last I Am Free - Robert Wyatt 

33. Looking For Clues - Robert Palmer 

34. There, There My Dear - Dexys Midnight Runners 

35. My Girl - Madness 

36. Another Nail In My Heart - Squeeze 

37. Flight - A Certain Ratio 

38. Diet/It’s Obvious - The Au Pairs 

39. Funkin’ For Jamaica - Tom Browne 

40. Seconds To Late - Cabaret Voltaire 

41. I’m Coming Out - Diana Ross 

42. Hi-Fidelity - Elvis Costello 

43. Warrior Charge - Aswad 

44. Love Comes In Spurts - Richard Hell 

45. Edward Fox - Smack 

46. Don’t Stand So Close To Me - The Police 

47. Hello I’m Your Heart - Bette Bright 

48. Rise And Shine - Linx 

49. Happy House - Siouxsie And The Banshees 

50. Dog Eat Dog - Adam And The Ants 

 Also Mentioned ' 

• Cartrouble - Adam And The Ants  

• Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Adam And The Ants 

• Baltimore - Tamlins 

• Lovely One - The Jacksons 

• Rapp Payback - James Brown  

• Three Mantras - Cabaret Voltaire 

• Bankrobber/The Callup - The Clash 

• Keep It Up Part 2 - Dexys Midnight Runners 

• Elastic Man - The Fall 

• Holiday ‘80 Ep - The Human League 

• There Goes Concorde Again - The Native Hipsters •

 Let Me Talk - Earth, Wind & Fire 

• Kebabtraume - D.A.F. 

• Politics - Girls At Our Best 

• You Gave Me Love - Crown Heights Affair 

• Blue Boy/ Falling And Laughing - Orange Juice 

• Enola Gaye - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark 

• Radio Drill Time - Josef K 

• Whip It - Devo

 • Requiem - Killing Joke 

• Hunter Gets Captured By The Game - Grace Jones 

• Soul Kiss - Chris Stamey 

• Arauco - Robert Wyatt 

• Final Day - Young Marble Giants 

• Hi-Fidelity - Elvis Costello 

• I Want To Be Straight - Ian Dury 

• Stereotype - The Specials 

• Let’s Get Serious - Jermaine -Jackson 

• Cheap Sunglasses - Zz Top 

• Talk Of The Town - Pretenders 

• Seven Minutes To Midnight - Wah! Heat 

• Heyday - The Sound 

 

Sound Affects is The Jam's masterpiece

The Jam : That's Entertainment

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On November 28, 1980 The Jam released the UK#2 album Sound Affects. Paul Weller has said it's his favorite ("We kept to our fundamental sound but stretched it a bit") It was certainly the most diverse Jam album at the point, featuring pretty ballads, punchy horn sections, traditional Jam-style rockers and quite a few Beatlesque touches. 

The deluxe 30th anniversary edition of the album includes bonus tracks, including covers of The Beatles ("And Your Bird Can Sing", "Rain"), The Kinks ("Waterloo Sunset","Dead End Street" ) and Small Things ("Get Yourself Together"). 

Sound Affects could very well be The Jam's Revolver. Of course there's the "Taxman" bass riff on "Start!". But there's also some backwards guitar on "Dream Time" and "That's Entertainment", and some McCartneyesque observations on "Boy About Town"(which, like Revolver, begins with a cough)  and "Monday". Weller's songwriting and guitar playing, Bruce Foxton's bass playing and Rick Buckler's drumming are all at peak form. 

In the NME Paul Du Noyer wrote that "...it's a brave departure and an earnest effort to break new ground. Sound Affects is the Jam today , and thats what we need most of all. The new songs represent a band that's as vital and as capable of anger as ever, but more than ever before The Jam's attacking spirit is being allied to melodic invention., and to lyrics that are increasingly thoughtful. Ignore any suggestions that they're going soft of '67"

In Sound Dave McCullough wrote that Sound Affects is "their best album yet...a truly stirring record. It has a depth that appears impenetrable. My head is still going round with the possibilities. 

And there's this from Smash Hits:

At 22, Weller may have been listening to a lot of mod bands from the 60's he was also on a literary kick, when he could find the "tranquility of solitude".  He told MOJO "A poem by a bloke called Paul Drew inspired That's Entertainment."

Heres an excerpt:

A dead body on the hour,” one, six nine or ten – that’s entertainment 

A rape before the Horlicks, a simulated Orgasm before the Bovril,

NOTHING IS FUNNY ANYMORE.

That’s entertainment.

 "I was reading Geoffrey Ashe's Camelot and The Vision of Albion and a lot of Shelley at the time too," adds Weller. 

Borrowing a bit from the best, The Jam made their masterpiece.

The Jam's "Start!" gives an old riff new life

The Jam : Start!

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On the week of August 17, 1980 The Jam's new single "Start!" b/w "Liza Radley" debuted on the UK charts at #3, the same week David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" hit #1. The following week it would knock Bowie from the top spot, repeating the success of "Going Underground".

"Start!" began as a demo called "Two Minutes" that came from sessions in which The Jam recorded cover versions of "Rain" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" (The Beatles), "Dead End Street" and "Waterloo Sunset" (The Kinks), and "Get Yourself Together" (The Small Faces). So Weller's decision to incorporate the bass riff from "Taxman" was very much a deliberate move and one that he was quick to admit. George Harrison must have considered it a tribute, or felt like he had spent too much time in court, because he never made an issue of it. 

Some record company executives were pushing for "Pretty Green" to be the new single but Weller had final say.

Directed by Russell Mulcahy ("Hungry Like The Wolf"), the video was shot quickly and cheaply. It gives the impression that The Jam are performing in the same place The Beatles shot the back cover of Revolver.

Not long after the release of "Start!", Melody Maker  photographer Paolo Hewitt managed to introduce Paul Weller to Pete Townshend. They didn't agree on much and both were disappointed. The headline bother Weller.

The B-side "Liza Radley" is that rare acoustic song by The Jam and features an understated accordian played by Bruce Foxton. It would not make an appearance on Sound Affects. Weller was trying to push back the album to 1981 citing lack of songs.

From Smash Hits, perhaps the only review that didn't print the "Taxman" reference