That means more to me than anything else in the world." "I’ll never forget that, but it was fantastic that Paul and I renewed our friendship. "Playing on his album and playing the Albert Hall with him on his birthday it was amazing," enthuses the musician. It’s evident that it was an emotionally-charged evening for all concerned. "Then he asked me if I’d be up for playing on a track on his new album, Wake Up The Nation, and I said, ‘Wow, that’d be fantastic,’ and it snowballed and I played on another track and then we played the Royal Albert Hall together in 2010."Īs a young Jam fan myself watching a video of their first performance together since the band split in 1982 set the hairs on my neck on edge.
It was fantastic that he’d cared for Pat and taken the time out to give her a bell and wish her lots of health and all the best for the treatment. "Paul called us up on New Year’s Eve when my wife had just been allowed out of hospital. "Pat was getting an alternative treatment out there that you couldn’t get in the UK. "I was out in Israel with my wife who was having treatment for cancer and obviously it was a very difficult time for everyone. "My wife Pat sadly passed away in 2009," explains Foxton. There’s a particular synergy to the story of the album’s conception when you realise the songs have been put together at Paul Weller’s Black Barn studios.īruce’s reconciliation with The Jam’s iconic frontman after more than 25 years, however, came about through the saddest of circumstances. When we speak Foxton is at home in Surrey readying himself for a run of dates with his band From The Jam and waxing lyrical about his forthcoming album currently being recorded with the group, but set to be released under the moniker Foxton.
The former bass player with the mod legends who swept all before them in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, is casting his mind back over the past few years, a tumultuous time of crushing lows and unexpected highs, of sad farewells and redemptive renewals. The end of 2012 will mark 30 years since the most iconic of British bands The Jam split. THERE’S a particular irony that runs throughout my conversation with Bruce Foxton. There’s one man that can give you the answer and that’s The Jam’s Bruce Foxton, as Dave Owens discovered. The drummer then leaves in acrimonious circumstances, only for the original singer to get back in touch to rekindle old times. What happens when the band you were the bass player with split and you fall out with the singer, only to form a tribute to that original band with the drummer.