Bruce Foxton
The Jam’s bassman reveals his most affecting sounds: “I just enjoyed the sheer rawness of it”
INTERVIEW: SAM RICHARDS.
PHOTO: DEREK D’SOUZA
MARVIN GAYE
“I Heard It Through The Grapevine” TAMLA, 1968
The thing with that track, obviously it’s a great vocal, but it was the haunting bassline that started it off. I thought, ‘Wow, this sounds good.’ It gave me an idea of what a bassline can do. But also what’s top of the list for me, like with a lot of the songs we’re speaking about, is melody – my ears prick up when there’s a good melody. Motown played a big part in the early days. My brother was a real mod, a proper mod, an original mod. The clothes were very important at that time and the music was fantastic, like The Four Tops for instance. There was a club in Woking called the Atalanta that played a lot of Northern Soul.
DR FEELGOOD
Down By The Jetty UNITED ARTISTS, 1975