Rick Buckler, who played drums in UK new wave outfit and mod revivalists The Jam, has died. Buckler’s bandmates—singer and guitarist Paul Weller, and bassist Bruce Foxton—confirmed the news in a message posted across Weller’s social media accounts. While an exact cause of death has not been revealed, a statement from Buckler’s family to the BBC describes him as having “passed away peacefully on Monday evening [February 18] in Woking after a short illness with family by his side.” He was 69.
Born in the town of Woking in the county of Surrey, England, Buckler attended Sheerwater Secondary School, where he met Weller and Foxton. Together, they formed the Jam in the early 1970s, playing covers of Chuck Berry and Little Richard songs at neighborhood pub Michael’s. Originally, Weller played bass and Steve Brookes was the band’s primary guitarist, but when Brookes left the band, Weller switched to guitar and Foxton took over bass duties, solidifying what would be the Jam’s permanent lineup.
The Jam released their debut single, “In The City,” via Polydor in April 1977, followed shortly thereafter by their first album of the same name. Influenced by ’50s and ’60s rock’n’roll acts like The Who and Larry Williams, Weller, Foxton, and Buckler were largely responsible for ushering in the UK’s mod revival. The trio would go on to release five additional studio albums: This Is the Modern World (1977), All Mod Cons (1978), Setting Sons (1979), Sound Affects (1980), and The Gift (1982).
A few months after the release of The Gift—which went to No. 1 on the UK albums chart—Weller unilaterally decided to disband the Jam without consulting either of his bandmates. “It was like we were going to be driving over a cliff at the end of the year, and you keep thinking ‘Well, maybe he’ll change his mind,’” Buckler told the Woking News and Mail in 2012. He and Weller rarely spoke again for the remainder of his life.
Buckler formed several new bands throughout the 1980s—among them Time UK and, with Foxton, the short-lived group Sharp—before stepping away from the spotlight to run a production studio in Islington, where he worked on records by the Highliners and the Family Cat. He returned in performing in 2005 as part of a Jam tribute act called the Gift. Foxton joined the group in 2007, and they’ve since toured consistently as From the Jam.
In the span of five years, the Jam landed 18 consecutive singles in the UK Top 40, four of which became number-one hits in the country: “Going Underground,” “Start!”, “Town Called Malice,” and “Beat Surrender.” Designating himself as their de facto chronicler, Buckler published several books about his time in the band, including the autobiography That’s Entertainment: My Life in the Jam in 2015. “I’m thinking back to us all rehearsing in my bedroom in Stanley Road, Woking,” Wells wrote. “We went far beyond our dreams and what we made stands the test of time.”
