Jam

SHEILA ROCK (B. 1952)
Jam
signed and numbered '1/30' in ink (reverse)
silver gelatin
20 × 16 inches (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
this is number 1 from an edition of 30
this work is sold unframed and unmatted

Here is the Jam backstage, photographed by Sheila Rock in the late 1970s, with Paul Weller mid-cigarette at the right of the frame, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler at his shoulder, all three in the matching black suits and skinny ties the band built the back half of the decade around. The composition is cool and quiet in a way the Jam's live performances were not: three members pressed into a corner, the white brick wall and radiator a stark contrast to the black full mod-revival uniform the band pulled directly from the sharper end of mid-60s British youth-culture. The suits are emblematic of the deliberate refusal of the longer-haired punk and new-wave scene that had taken root around them. The sitting predates Weller's eventual solo re-emergence as "the Modfather" by more than a decade and captures the trio at the peak of their original run — the window that produced This Is the Modern World, All Mod Cons, and Setting Sons. Rock photographed the band across the full period, and the backstage framing grounds the portrait inside the touring circuit the Jam lived on through those three records.