wearethelastbeatniks

Tellingly, when Weller came to record 2010’s Wake Up The Nation, it was Sound Affects that his collaborator and producer Simon Dine held up as a model. “He referenced it right at the start,” says Weller. “That was the sort of sound he imagined we should be going for: hard, metallic, quite stripped-down… jagged.”

Sound Affects was originally released in November 1980 at a time when The Jam was considered the biggest band in Britain. The album followed the band’s first number one single – Going Underground and features the group’s second UK number one single, Start! – a track built around almost exact copies of the bass-line and guitar solos from The Beatles’ Taxman (at the time Weller considered the album a cross between Off the Wall and Revolver!).

It includes many of the band’s classic songs – That’s Entertainment (written in a caravan in Selsey, after the pub), never released as a single in UK, the German import was a UK hit (subsequently covered by Morrissey), the political Man in the Corner Shop, Pretty Green (now inspiration for Liam Gallagher’s clothing range!), the pure-pop of Boy About Town and Dream Time.

It’s regarded by critics and fans (as well as Weller) as their most adventurous and experimental collection of material, drawing musical influences from the ‘post-punk’ groups of the late-70s – Wire, Gang Of Four and Joy Division as well as neo-psychedelic touches from The Beatles and The Zombies etc.

The distinctive cover art is a pastiche of the artwork used on various BBC sound effects records of the 1970s, incorporating ‘pop-art’ imagery.

• 30th anniversary 2-disc, ‘Deluxe’ edition of the classic Jam album.

• Digitally re-mastered – 22 bonus tracks, demos, b-sides and alternative versions.

• 24-page booklet with extensive new sleevenotes by Guardian writer John Harris, a brand new interview with Paul Weller, rare photos and period memorabilia.

• The bonus material includes 8 previously unreleased tracks – demos of Pretty Green and Start!, alternate versions of Set The House Ablaze and Monday and a cover of Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset, and two instrumental demos.