Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Rick Buckler developed his classic upright drumming style after seeing jazz drummer Buddy Rich at the Royal Albert Hall in the early 1970s. He noticed that Rich sat crouched over his minimalist drum kit — and then couldn’t fully uncurl when he stood up. The image-conscious Buckler, who has died aged 69, decided he’d never take the same approach. Throughout his time in The Jam, he was always positioned proudly centre stage, sandwiched between Bruce Foxton and Paul Weller, smartly dressed, upright, gripping his sticks with tightly clenched fists and staring back at the audience like a headmaster between two unruly prefects. Although he looked like Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, Buckler played more like Ringo Starr, always seeking to serve the song. A powerful but understated craftsman as a musician, it seemed fitting that in later years, Buckler took up carpentry and became a cabinet maker, working quietly from his workshop outside his hometown. By then his time in The Jam was long over, but his contribution to one of the greatest English pop groups of all time was assured.He was born with twin brother Peter in Woking on December 6 1955 when “Rock Around The Clock” was at number one. The son of a postman turned telephone engineer, his parents Bill and Peggy already had two much older sons — John and Andrew — and it was Andrew, seven years older, who would introduce Rick to the exciting sounds of the sixties: the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who and the Kinks. Buckler met Weller at Sheerwater Secondary School. Weller, almost three years younger and a precocious talent, formed a band, initially with his friend Steve Brookes. When their regular drummer missed a gig, Buckler was invited to step in, playing his first gig with the band at Sheerwater Youth Club in 1974. After Foxton joined, The Jam became a power trio, managed by Weller’s father John. At first they earned a decent living playing covers to the suburban working men’s clubs of Woking before joining the growing punk movement, a sharp three-piece in thrall to the retro-modernism of the Mod revival.Typically, Buckler said that he only took up drums because it seemed like the least “academic” instrument — the one where you didn’t need to be able to read music. “You had to listen to the others in the band and just do it,” he wrote in his 2015 autobiography, That’s Entertainment: My Life In The Jam. Although Weller wrote most of the music, sang, played guitar and penned insightful lyrics about working-class life, The Jam were a model of harmonising efficiency. A three-piece that played like a four-piece, with Weller playing lead and rhythm guitar simultaneously, the rhythm section of Buckler and Foxton had to combine energy with innovation, building a platform that allowed Weller to shine. Buckler’s scurrying beat drives debut single “In The City”, while his clever opening introduced their first top 20 hit, “All Around The World”. As the group expanded their sound from their punk-infused origins, Buckler blossomed on tracks like “Strange Town” and “Down In The Tube Station At Midnight”, while his performance on “Funeral Pyre”, on which he had a rare co-writing credit, was a tour de force. The Jam would record four number ones — “Going Underground”, “Start!”, “Town Called Malice” and “Beat Surrender” — before Weller abruptly dissolved the band in 1982. It was a decision that even months before his death, Buckler was struggling to comprehend. “Suddenly, Paul decided that was it, when myself and Bruce knew there was a lot more in us,” he said recently. “We hadn’t really reached any sort of endgame.”Picking himself up after the dissolution of The Jam wasn’t easy. Buckler formed a new band, Time UK, before briefly reuniting with Foxton in Sharp. He later took up carpentry professionally, having made cabinets for his drum kits when still at school. Buckler returned to music in 2005, playing Jam covers in a band called The Gift — the title of The Jam’s final studio album. When Foxton joined The Gift, they renamed themselves From the Jam, sparking talk of a full reunion with Weller. That was never likely to happen, and Buckler left the group in 2009 to concentrate on cabinet making and write his autobiography as well as other books about his musical career, most recently The Jam 1982 about The Jam’s final year. Buckler had planned a Q&A tour, A Night of Memories and Music, which was postponed due to illness shortly before his death.
