Rick Buckler
Rock royalty visited the 2-Tone Village last weekend in the shape of former The Jam drummer Rick Buckler.
It was hard to believe that the man who made that incredible drum sound on the track Funeral Pyre and many more mega hits of the 1980s was in our museum.
He was impressed by what he saw, even spying a photograph of The Jam playing at Coventry Theatre taken by master snappper John Coles.
Later Rick signed our star door, taking his place alongside many other great musicians who have visited the music museum.
Then he was interviewed by Tim V from Sham 69 in Knight’s nightclub and we found out thanks to audience members Len and Ruth Cattell that the Jam’s first gig outside of London was in the autumn of 1976 at Canley Teachers Training College!
It was a great event, leaving the audience frustrated by The Jam’s former front man Paul Weller, and his reluctance to be involved in Jam-related projects.
I asked Rick, if the chance arose would he want to be part of The Jam again. He answered that if he was younger, but now he’s just happy to have done it, and he said he had “scratched the itch” during his time in ‘From The Jam’ that also includes fellow band mate Bruce Foxton.
The night was finished off in style with the superb Aussie ska band, the Funaddicts.
Protégé
Big thanks to Neil Martin for sending me some very rare photos of the Coventry band Protégé.
Neil was the bass player in the band in the early 1980s and they appeared on the Coventry Alternative Sounds album ‘Sent From Coventry’. The track was called ‘Protection.
This is how Neil recalls those days: “All I can say it was an amazing feeling recording a track. We’d only just left school and in fact I think it was only me and Andy that had left school, the others were younger than us.
“Going in the studio in Leamington was just a surreal experience. We used to rehearse in Gary and Andy’s mum and dad’s garage in Cotswold Drive, they were good times in Coventry back then.
“There was venues all over the place, pubs mostly, as well as the Lancaster Polytechnic, bands every Saturday night.
“Saturday afternoons were buzzing with all the subcultures especially down by The Climax and Virgin Record shop when Brad worked there and in Broadgate before it was all changed to the Cathedral Lanes.
“Protégé consisted of Gary Cox, Andy Cox – Bass, Mark Seward – Drums, Chris Bowes – Keyboards (later), Neil Martin – Bass. Neil has no idea who took the photos, but I’m happy to give them credit in a future MM column.
Neil is now a part of a successful blog team. Neil takes up the story: “Blue Beat and Ska is a personal blog started in January 2018 by Patrick Willekes from Holland, celebrating Boss reggae, skinhead reggae ska old and new plus promoting gigs.
I joined in June with 1600 followers, we now have nearly 27,000 to date.
With a one hour Radio show ‘’Reggae Fever’’on MIXCLOUD. Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/bluebeatandska/
