#1038: Town Called Malice by The Jam
Peak Month: July 1982
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Town Called Malice”
Lyrics: “Town Called Malice”
John William “Paul” Weller Jr. was born on 25 May 1958 in Woking, Surrey, England. His love of music began with The Beatles, then The Who and Small Faces. By the time Weller was eleven and moving up to Sheerwater County Secondary school, music was the biggest part of his life, and he had started playing the guitar. Weller’s musical vocation was confirmed after seeing Status Quo in concert in 1972. He formed the first incarnation of The Jam in the same year, playing bass guitar with his best friends Steve Brookes (lead guitar) and Dave Waller (rhythm guitar). Paul Weller’s father, acting as their manager, began booking the band into local working men’s clubs. Joined by Rick Buckler on drums, and with Woking-born Bruce Foxton soon replacing Dave Waller on rhythm guitar, the four-piece band began to forge a local reputation, playing a mixture of Beatles covers and a number of compositions written by Weller and Brookes. Brookes left the band in 1976, and Weller and Foxton decided they would swap guitar roles, with Weller now the guitarist.