Land of mod

A sprawling space in Liverpool’s landmark Cunard Building will soon be transformed into the ultimate exhibition about The Jam. Curated by Nicky Weller – sister of frontman Paul – along with Russell Reader and Den Davis, ‘About the Young Idea’ will delve into the band’s history as well as the social and political context of their era. With the exhibition set to follow last year’s successful, yet smaller, outing at London’s Somerset House and once again put Liverpool’s musical credentials under the spotlight, we chat to Nicky about how its creation has been a labour of love for Paul’s family and fans alike.

Interview by Natasha Young

Why is Liverpool the ideal destination for ‘About the Young Idea’?

We visited lots of cities in Scotland, then Newcastle and all over the place. Once we saw that waterfront in Liverpool with all the musical history, and The Jam were always majorly received in Liverpool when they did the likes of the Royal Court, it tied in really nicely.

You’ve got the Beatles there and the rest of the Merseybeat history, and they’ve made an amazing job of the city now.

You’ve described the exhibition as “without doubt the most in depth look at the band there has ever been”. What do you hope fans will take away from it?

This time it’s four times the size of what we had at Somerset House, so we’ve got pretty much four times the amount of stuff we showed before. There’ll be unseen footage and unseen articles from the band and fan club members and things like that.

It’ll also show a social history and politics side because we want schools to visit and for it to be educational. It’ll be a lot more in-depth than it was at Somerset House.

Did you always have a lot more content that you wanted to feature?

Definitely, we just didn’t have space. We were a bit restrained from Somerset House’s point of view – it was more like an art installation than putting everything we wanted into it – but this time we’ve got more free rein and we’ll add more content.

“Last year we had Q&As that we put on with the band and we’ve got all that planned for once the exhibition is up and running.”

It’s going to feature fans’ memorabilia as well as items from the The Jam’s archive. What has it been like for you putting it together, as Paul’s sister?

Last year was great. I’ve worked in the music business all my life but I’d never done an exhibition so it was a real learning curve.

It was great working with Somerset House and they taught us a lot, which we’ve all taken on board – myself and the other curator Russell Reader, and Den Davis who’s also a curator and fan. We know what we want to put in it this time.

It’s also that personal element of uncovering things like Paul’s school books, and I can personally go to the band and say ‘do you remember this?’ and ‘get this out’, so that puts a nice twist on it.

So is it about your experience as well as theirs, given you were running their fan club back in the day too?

Absolutely. My mum and dad saved everything and my mum has the most amazing collection of stuff. She’s had quite a big input in this with me too.

We’ve gone through all my dad’s old boxes and bags and found stuff we’d completely forgotten was there. It’s been a real family affair!

In terms of the fans’ memorabilia, did you have an open call for people to come forward with items?

Lots of fans message me but we put out an appeal as well and asked if anyone has got anything we wouldn’t necessarily have, or any clothes. The band used to give all their clothes away and I used to give them as competition prizes so we’d really like to get a bit more clothing, especially my brother’s because he’d give everything away!

We’ve had some great emails coming back and some people are going to lend us some bits and pieces so it should be even more in depth in that way as well.

Has anything been unearthed that has surprised you or made you feel particularly happy to have found?

Some of my dad’s footage. We found it on an old cine film that we didn’t know about. My brother’s school books have just been amazing too – we only showed a minute piece of that last year but there’s tonnes of it, so that’s all been really good fun.

Is the footage of the band playing?

Yeah it’s really early, around 1976 before they were even signed. It’s not great footage but it’s brilliant to see. We didn’t even know it was there.

We’ve been trying to uncover a video tape which my dad lent to the BBC because they never gave it back to him, but you can imagine what it’s like 40 years on and trying to dig that out. Somebody is looking for it so it would be amazing if we could find that before the exhibition as well.

Could the exhibition be added to whilst it’s open?

I think we’ll definitely do that and as things come in we’ll change things around because, from experience last year, people were coming four or five times so it’s nice for them to go ‘oh look there’s something new over there’. We’ll try to keep updating it in the 12 weeks.

 

 

Do you have a favourite memory from growing up alongside the band?

My mum and dad were really cool, they just let the band practice up in my brother’s bedroom and it was like a mad house really, but good fun. We didn’t have a lot but we were all into music and it was just a madcap time.

Why do you feel it’s the right time to open up the archives on this scale and show everyone?

Next year is 40 years since The Jam album ‘In the City’ came out so I think it’s really important. The band are really keen on [the exhibition]. They weren’t when I first mentioned it two years ago, they were like ‘what are you doing that for?’, but now they’re all behind it they think it’s amazing people have bothered.

Has the band enjoyed looking at the memorabilia fans have brought forward as well?

Yeah they have, and I’ve been making them go back into their lofts saying ‘come on, dig out stuff I haven’t got’ too. It’s been like trying to get blood out of a stone most of the time but they are coming up with things and it is fun. Every time I see my mum she’s like ‘I’ve just found this’ and it’s amazing. There are old posters from 1975 and stuff, it’s great.

Who has the exhibition been attracting so far? Has it mainly been people who were fans during the time of the band?

It was a real mix last summer, we had 57,000 people through the doors at Somerset House. You have all the die-hard Jam fans from around the world, but then there were people who came with their kids and you think ‘you’re going to be bored’ but they loved it.

I just really want to open it up to schools, and then there’s going to be this huge footfall from Liverpool anyway because that part of the city is buzzing and you’ve got the cruises coming in.

Even if you don’t know The Jam or you’re not that bothered about them you’ll enjoy it because it’s noisy and colourful and shows a lot of social history of the time. I think it appeals to a lot of people.

Do you, the fellow curators and members of The Jam have any Liverpool appearances lined up to tie in with the launch or during the exhibition?

Absolutely, I do curator tours once a week so I should be up to do that. And [last year] we had Q&As that we put on with the band and we’ve got all that planned for once the exhibition is up and running.

We’ll also have some literary events and lots of people with their books in the shop will come and do talks. Hopefully it’s going to be action-packed like it was at Somerset House.

‘About the Young Idea’ will be open from 1 July to 25 September. For tickets and further information visit www.nicetimeinc.com.