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90. The Jam, In The City (1977)
Some mates and I set up a t-shirt printing company in 1977, designing and hand printing punk rock inspired t shirts: X Ray Spex, Penetration, The Beat, The Clash, the Pistols, all became our inspiration and our clients.
As we hand-printed everything back then, we were able to make some quite unique t-shirts, with oversize images bleeding off the edges, and off-registration prints blending all sort of lurid fluorescent colours. But the Jam ones tended to be more a wee bit more conventional and controlled, like the band… and like the one I am wearing in the pic.
The Jam were always my favourite. I was seriously in love with Paul Weller in my late teens, and my mate Molly had brief but intense hots for Bruce Foxton. We followed them all over. One night Molly drove us to some seaside resort (can’t remember where) to deliver the Jam T-shirts. Paul’s dad was his manager back then, and I seem to remember all the merchandising was run as a family thing… dad, girlfriend, sister, all hands-on.
Well, we saw the band and were invited back to the hotel. It was a great evening for Molly who ended up disappearing with Bruce for the night. Not so good for us though, sleeping in the freezing car, which at least she had taken the trouble to open for us.
We printed several runs of this Jam In the City design, and I ended up with this ‘special’ one with the red trim. We went to see them in Aylesbury one night, and I wore the ‘special’ one. The excitement of driving to a gig back then was rarely to be matched again in my life, and on this night itself the excitement was doubled, as I expected to go to after show party and meet the man himself, wearing my one-off T shirt. But after a few support bands and a few beers (and stuff) I was making my way to the front and it all become too much for me (I was a bit of a lightweight back then).
I never made it down the front. I must have passed out and found myself waking up in a St John ambulance van with a very kind man offering me sweet tea and a Mars bar. I was advised to lay still while the band played on! I wanted to get up but was pretty paralytic. I missed The Jam, and am not sure if I made it to the aftershow party. I have a foggy memory of the late 1970s… but I still have this t-shirt and am still a big fan of the man and his music.
Cat Santos, Fifth Column
