John Storer..I can’t seem to find any mention on the site of The Jam playing The Pier. True, there were only about 20 of us there but Q Magazine did print an article about the gig several years back.
Peter Fairless….There were no posters or flyers because The Jam were a last minute replacement booking. As I recall, refunds were offered and not many people stayed. There were badges given out, anyone still got theirs? Anyone got the ‘Q’ article? It was the week before ‘In The City’ was released, yes, Alan. That’s right, Peter, he took a turn for the worse, LOL. I read somewhere that it was only twenty who stayed, John. I thought it was a few more but hey, it was one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen!
Peter Bridger…..They were standing in for Johnny Thunder who had “tonsillitis”. Dead from an o/d a few weeks later so I think the diagnosis was a bit off.
John Storer…They were supposed to have been supporting Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, who never turned up. The gig was cancelled and everyone was told they could get their money back. When I got to the kiosk at the front of the pier, one of the bouncers told me that The Jam were going to play anyway. Very few of us decided to stay on … I remember counting 23 in the audience. The band joined everyone in the bar afterwards and I saw both Bruce Foxton and Paul Weller on separate occasions as punters at later gigs on the pier.
John Storer….Four months later, the night before we were off to Reading Festival in fact, I wore the badge to the Pump House. There was a girl in there I’d not seen before, wearing a “Genesis” badge. We argued at length on the merits of our respective musical allegiances and denigrated each other’s taste in music. We’ve been married 35 years!
Chris Pelling…..I recall Paul Weller’s dad, I think, prowling to and fro in front of the front of the stage wielding a baseball bat should the massed throng (!) decide to invade the stage. In the event I don’t think the baseball bat was used in anger. Johnny Thunders? He actually lived on for several years – he died in strange circumstances in New Orleans in 1991. The badge? Pretty sure I have one at the bottom of a deep box in the loft – one wet Sunday afternoon a box that I must have a rummage through!
supplied by Sarah Harvey
Sarah Harvey….Here is the advert that appeared in the Observer on April 23rd, 1977 that advertises The Violation as support for Johnny Thunder.
Jon Stiles… We supported the Jam that night, we were the Zoobies then (I think, not Mosaic as we’d cut off our hair and gone punk or not…) we had our own following, our set went quite well in contrast to the Jam’s. I remember letting Bruce Foxton try my Rickenbacker 4001, the guitar Min had made the copper scratch plate for. The Jam were quite despondent after their set as most of the crowd had gone. I also thought it was really good to see Paul Weller’s dad helping out pushing those big old trollies up and down the pier. I don’t remember him wielding baseball bat. Of course we didn’t have a clue the Jam would go on to bigger and better things. We left them sitting on the stage looking very sorry for themselves.
