Bruce Foxton's gear on "The Gift" and later Jam

[Against Will]

I've been trying to do a little research on Bruce Foxton of the Jam. I've found some stuff so far, but none that has answered my questions.

I really like his tone on "Absolute Beginners" and "Town called Malice". In the videos he's shown playing a Rivoli. I know he owned one, though he didn't use it live, but I was wondering if that was indeed the bass he used on those tracks, and if anyone knew what other tracks he used the Rivoli on and how they were recorded? Like, mic cab or DI?

I've listened and watched him perform the songs live, and he uses his P-bass in all of them. But the tone is different from the records so it doesn't seem like he would be using the P for those tracks.

Also, did he ever record with the lawsuit Rick he bought?

[darthplagis]

the earlier jam stuff was supposedly all done on the knock off rick as the story goes that weller was the bassist and foxton stood on his hofner violin snapping the neck joint and weller made him the bassist as punishment (hence the copy) and took on guitar as main instrument.

im not too sure on if this is accurate or not but i have heard it a few times from various sorces.

also the later jam foxton used a p bass as he preffered the tone (definatly pretty green).

[Essexbass]

Originally Posted by darthplagis

the earlier jam stuff was supposedly all done on the knock off rick as the story goes that weller was the bassist and foxton stood on his hofner violin snapping the neck joint and weller made him the bassist as punishment (hence the copy) and took on guitar as main instrument.

im not too sure on if this is accurate or not but i have heard it a few times from various sorces.

also the later jam foxton used a p bass as he preffered the tone (definatly pretty green).

Weller was originally the bass player in The Jam - Foxton was originally on guitar, but Weller later took over on guitar as there seemed to be some doubt over the quality of Foxton's guitar playing.

For the most part, Foxton used his Ricks in the band up until about '78 or '79 when he started using his Precision Bass. In the final days of The Jam he was also using an Aria SB900 or SB1000.

The Jam DVD set that came out 2 or 3 years ago has a lot of live material on it and there are clips of Foxton using his Rivoli live.

Cheers,
Essexbass.

[Kink Rimson]

Originally Posted by darthplagis

also the later jam foxton used a p bass as he preffered the tone (definatly pretty green).

I thought that was his Rick!
Foxton said he moved to the P-bass because it gave him what he was after in sound, if not looks.
Cheeky sod

[Mr Venus]

Yeah - I saw the Jam live a few times, and on at least one occasion the great Mr Foxton used a Rivoli on 'Town Called Malice' (though not on any other songs).

I'd also like to find out more about his gear - anybody got any detail?

[Essexbass]

Bruce now has a new gig playing bass for a band called "Casbah Club":

http://www.casbahclub.co.uk/about.html

Don't really know what gear he's using now, but they supported "The Who" last night at their gig at Leeds Uni.

Cheers,
Essexbass

[The Lurker]

Originally Posted by Mr Venus

Yeah - I saw the Jam live a few times, and on at least one occasion the great Mr Foxton used a Rivoli on 'Town Called Malice' (though not on any other songs).

I'd also like to find out more about his gear - anybody got any detail?

http://www.thejam.org.uk/equipment.html

This is a bit dated and sparse, but most of the time it was rick/Pbass and some 100w Marshalls with 4x12s.... I know 'Start' is the Rivoli....