That’s Entertainment (Weller)
Recorded in September 1980 at the Townhouse Studios, Shepherd’s Bush, London
Produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven and The Jam
Album track: Sound Affects
‘Coming home from the pub pissed and writing ‘That’s Entertainment’ in ten minutes – Weller’s finest song to date, hah!’ is how Weller himself refers to the song in his sleeve notes for Dig The New Breed. ‘That’s Entertainment’, by using candid language, creates a vista of the English way of life in 1980 and is widely regarded as Weller’s finest attempt at articulating the society he is a part of and his day-to-day boredom with it.
But the lyric is apparently based on a poem called ‘That’s Entertainment’ written by Paul Drew and submitted to Riot Stories for publication in their 1980 collection of poems Mixed Up-Shook Up.
In 2003 Paul was asked on his official website if it was true ‘that someone call Paul Drew wrote a poem, which the lyrics for ‘That’s Entertainment’ are based on or am I completely mistaken?’ Weller, unabashed by this suggestion of plagiarism, replied cheerfully: ‘You are not mistaken at all!’
The visual image the lyric creates is used for the theme of the album cover, which is borrowed from a BBC Sound Effects album Paul found in the studio during the recording sessions.
Weller simply substituted the small picture of each of the effects on the album with everyday urban images, many of which can be found in the ‘That’s Entertainment’ lyric. The inner sleeve picture was taken at sunrise, an early morning Weller refers to in his Dig The New Breed sleeve notes.
Several demos of ‘That’s Entertainment’ were recorded, one of which appears on the 1983 compilation album Snap, including a gentle drum part and experimental bass line, neither of which was used in the final version.
The Jam also recorded a lively ‘punk’ version of ‘That’s Entertainment’ which Buckler likened to the version Reef contributed to the tribute album Fire And Skill in 1999, but that effort has never been recovered.
The final stripped-down version of ‘That’s Entertainment’ has been described by some as Buckler’s single biggest contribution to the art of drumming: knowing when not to drum and having the confidence not to.
When ‘That’s Entertainment’ was initially released in Germany in 1981, The Jam were so popular in the UK that it sold enough copies on import alone, despite the release never being publicised in Britain, for it to reach number 21 in the UK charts.
It went on to stay in the top 75 for a total of seven weeks and became the biggest selling import single in the UK of all time. A record that cannot be broken as importing rare singles from Europe is no longer necessary.
Remember kids, this was a time when we had to track gems down through small newspaper ads, by word and mouth, by writing letters or by, guess what – getting up and walking to a record shop.
That said, I prefer to sit at home myself these days and import anything I want directly to my ipad, but it wasn’t always like that. Interestingly enough, the second biggest selling import single in the UK of all time is another Jam record, ‘Just Who Is The 5 O’ Clock Hero,’ which reached number eight in the UK Charts after being released in Holland in June 1982.
‘That’s Entertainment’ has remained popular, and synonymous with The Jam, for over 30 years and has been played live by many artists. – Albert Jack
Albert Jack AUDIOBOOKS available for download here
The Jam: Sounds From the Street
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