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The Jam’s Rick Buckler Dies at 69
- Josh Kenny
- Feb 21
- 2 min read
In a dimly lit bedroom in Woking, 1972, three teenagers were making the kind of racket that would eventually reshape British music. One of them was Rick Buckler, and he just laid down his sticks for the last time. The drummer who helped turn mod from a fashion statement into a revolution has died at 69, taking with him one of the great untold stories of British rock.
THE KID FROM WOKING WHO CHANGED THE GAME
(Before the fame, there was just Stanley Road)
Picture this: Sheerwater Secondary School, where three kids thought Chuck Berry covers might get them free drinks at the local pub. Buckler, alongside Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton, wasn't trying to start a movement. They were just trying to make noise. That noise became The Jam.
The stats read like a fever dream: 18 consecutive UK Top 40 singles. Four number-ones that still sound like revolution: "Going Underground," "Start!," "Town Called Malice," "Beat Surrender." Then Weller pulled the plug in '82, without even a band meeting. Sometimes the biggest hits are the ones you don't see coming.
LIFE AFTER THE JAM
While Weller chased his solo destiny, Buckler kept time elsewhere. Time UK came and went. Sharp lasted about as long as its name. But you can't keep a good drummer down and by 2005, he was back behind the kit with The Gift, later joining forces with Foxton in From The Jam, proving some rhythms never really die.
THE LAST WORD
"I'm thinking back to us all rehearsing in my bedroom in Stanley Road, Woking," Weller wrote, finally breaking years of silence. "We went far beyond our dreams and what we made stands the test of time." From the notoriously prickly Modfather, that's practically a tearful embrace.
Somewhere in Woking, a kid's probably picking up drumsticks right now, maybe even playing along to "Town Called Malice." They might not know Rick Buckler's name yet, but they're feeling his influence. Sometimes the loudest legacies are built in 4/4 time.
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