SEVERAL hundred of the faithful descended on The Drift in Jersey on Tuesday night for a trip down new-wave memory lane, courtesy of From The Jam.

Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, formerly of The Jam, were joined by Russel Hastings and David Moore to tear through the aforementioned band’s back catalogue.

The St Helier venue is part of the Royal Yacht Hotel and can certainly pack them in when the need arises.

Members of The Jersey Scooter Club had turned up outside the hotel earlier in the day to parade their Vespas and Lambrettas.

Drummer Rick Buckler posed for photos, seated on one of the scooters, and signed numerous Jam singles eagerly thrust at him.

‘Hey Rick, you can sit on a decent scooter if you want,’ said an envious scooter owner.

It was all good-natured and set the tone for the evening.

Promoter Firethorn Productions must have been pleased with the turnout for its first major event and there couldn’t have been many spare tickets left for what was for most – me included – a cracking gig.

The band kicked off with In The City and tore into This Is The Modern World. Arms were aloft, the crowd were with them from the start. All the favourites were given an airing: In the City, This is the Modern World, Eton Rifles, Going Underground and Town Called Malice, plus many more tunes which at times threatened to be drowned out by the crowd.

The songs were reproduced as faithfully as possible. Foxton was in his element: the focus was primarily on him and Buckler and both clearly enjoy playing the old songs again.

Speaking on the phone from his home in Woking two days later, the former Jam bassplayer was still buzzing from the evening.

‘It was perfect,’ said Foxton. I love the Channel Islands anyway. I’ve spent many years in Jersey on holiday as a kid. I’ve quite a few friends there and have close contact with the place, although I hadn’t been there for a while – so it was nice to get back.

‘The gig was just amazing, particularly for a Tuesday night in mid-September,’ he said.

‘We didn’t really know what to expect, but it seems the crowd enjoyed it just as much as we did.’

I told him that everyone I spoke to afterwards had been raving about the gig.

‘Yeah, great support from the crowd. There is talk of a festival in Jersey next year, so hopefully we’ll be over for that.’

I asked Bruce what his memories were of playing the Channel Islands in 1982, just at the point of The Jam’s break-up.

‘Not that fond, really. It was a very hard time – the end of the band. We knew we were splitting up. It was quite hard to keep going at that stage,’ he said.

But it must be great to play those songs again, I said.

‘Yeah, it’s good that the songs have stood the test of time.

‘With not having played them for so long, it’s almost as if we’re doing so for the first time.’

And what is it like playing with Rick Buckler again?

‘Yeah, fantastic. I was in a group called The Casbah Club with Simon Townsend (brother of Pete) and we were playing a gig with Rick’s band (The Gift). I sat in for a few Jam numbers with them and thoroughly enjoyed it. The Casbah Club were supporting The Who in the UK but when they went to the US, they didn’t take the band with them, although Simon went with them as he was playing second guitar, so The Casbah Club kind of fizzled out. Then I got a call from Rick out of the blue – you never know what’s around the corner,’ he said.

Despite my observation that the crowd on Tuesday seemed to be predominantly male and most around 40, Foxton described the UK audiences as ‘mixed, a real cross-section’.

‘We used to get mainly guys coming to see us (in The Jam) but it seems there’s a healthy mix of young and old with a fair amount of girls.’

As I wound up the chat, one comment from the evergreen bassplayer stuck in my mind.

‘These songs deserve to be heard and it’s probably as close as you’ll get to The Jam.’

It was the first time The Drift had charged on the door. Previous free acts had been the Selector and Neville Staple’s Specials.

The promoter is in negotiations with Madness in the hope of getting them over to Jersey.

If that’s the case, then what a catalyst From the Jam turned out to be.