16. Art School by The Jam 1977

This is the first thing I heard from the Jam and it knocked my socks off. Of course, I had read about them in NME where if anything they were described as a faster Dr. Feelgood and the reviews were all great. And then I saw their first album in an electronics shop in Box Hill Shopping Centre. I bought it. I was driving now, a Datsun Bluebird, so I zoomed home as fast as I could to listen to it. At the time I was living with my brother Tony as my Mum had gone back to England to live. I stayed here to attend teachers' college.

I'd heard The Who and could see the references but this was so fast and explosive and angry. Those 4 chords that kick off the record.

Well, I had the record but I needed it in the car. I drove over to my mate Alan's place and borrowed his huge tape player (now known as a ghetto blaster) took it home, put my speakers up to the inbuilt microphones, and did some home taping. The results were so good I spent the whole weekend in my room taping my records.

The Jam lead me to lots of adventures. I got the punk band I was in (The Fiction) to wear suits to one gig. Later I became one of the new Mods about town. I even became a bigger anglophile than previously.

When I went to the UK in 79 I bought a pair of two-tone shoes just like what Paul Weller wears in the Art School film clip. I dreamed of having a Rickenbacker too! However, it would take another 40 years before I owned one of those.