The Jam exploded onto the punk scene in 1977.

Led by guitarist/singer Paul Weller, a young, sharp suited mod, who was inspired by Otis Redding, Dr Feelgood, The Who and the Sex Pistols in equal measure, with Bruce Foxton, the Motown influenced bassist and Rick Buckler, the metronome time keeper, they delivered their ferocious mission statement -- In The City, a musical tribute to London over three minutes of aggressive urgency.

The song hit the Top 40 and fanfared the arrival of a three piece that would over the next five years produce six studio albums (and a live one) four of which would place in the Top 10, their final outing 1982's The Gift topping the charts, and 18 singles including four Number 1s.

While their punk contemporaries faded away - the Pistols dissolved in beer splattered chaos in San Francisco, The Clash after sacking Topper Headon and Mick Jones petered out with the disappointing Cut The Crap - The Jam went out with a bang, at the very, very top -- on December 11th playing their final sold out show at Brighton's Conference centre. Such was the enormity of their split that it even made the TV news. Fans were in tears.

The Jam was formed in 1972, by Paul Weller and his school friend Steve Brookes. They honed their craft in the working men's clubs of home town Woking and the surrounding Surrey areas with a set based around R&B covers and Weller's own songs that melded his love of soul music with pub rock. In 1976, fired up by punk they played a guerrilla style gig in Soho market, (The Clash watched from a nearby caff while eating their breakfast) with power supplied by the Rock On record store and were soon belting out their own unique take on punk rock at the 100 club. For them there was no year zero though; instead an exciting amalgam of the classic - The Beatles, The Kinks and The Who - with the vociferous new.

Soon Paul Weller was being tagged a spokesperson for a generation, identifying with and rallying the disaffected suburban youth, with a songbook that mixed youthful enthusiasm and the heartfelt (English Rose, Monday) with vicious social commentary (Down In The Tube Station At Midnight) and the political (Going Underground).

Such was their popularity that by the time of The Jam's thrilling 10th single Going Underground, the single was already a guaranteed Number 1 before it was even released. The band's universal appeal meant it had notched up 200,000 sales in advance orders, securing the band their first top spot in 1980 and making them the first group since Slade (with 1973's Merry Xmas Everybody) to go straight into the charts at that position. And who else would dare to lyrically combine nihilism, with a hatred for complacency, a call for peace and political cynicism and still top the charts?

When the band's label capitalised on the success, reissuing their singles back catalogue, six of them re-charted and The Jam entered the Guinness Book Of Records alongside Paul's heroes, The Beatles having equalled the highest number of Top 50 single chart hits at one time ever by a recording artist.

And their influence is still as strong today, 30 years after that thrilling debut. After spawning the mod revival with bands like The Chords and The Purple Hearts, they laid the foundations for Britpop (bands like Blur and Oasis crowned Weller the Modfather) and their music can now be heard in the sounds of Arctic Monkeys, Graham Coxon, Dirty Pretty Things, Babyshambles, The Ordinary Boys and Hard Fi. Even hip hop producer Mark Ronson has just covered Pretty Green (from Sound Affects

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