Faced with ["Dig The New Breed"], the final Jam LP, the temptation to wax lyrical, (not to mention boringly), about the group, their music and What It All Meant to thousands of people, is obvious; especially when you consider their importance and influence throughout the late Seventies/early Eighties.

That seductive allure of nostalgia and sentimentality is one, though, which defeats the object of The Jam in the first place. They may have been "about" a lot of things—some great music, youth excitement and trust—but as I remember it, The Jam always tried to look forward rather than backward and that's the way it should be. Unlike The Who, say, The Jam never bothered with tradition as such, and Paul Weller's decision to break up the band, coupled with the silver line of integrity he always sought in his songs and attitudes, was a prime example of this.

It was this stance that triggered an almost frightening degree of loyalty from his audience, and saw him tagged as a miserable, dour personality simply because he took his music SERIOUSLY. That doesn't matter now. But what his critics failed so patently to realise was that it was this dogged belief, garnered from punk days, that was one of the Jam's main attractions. Words like honesty and integrity are words that have no real relevance to the music business, but The Jam tried to breathe life into them and it's one of the over-riding factors on "Dig The New Breed".

Of course, such theorising is nonsense if there aren't the songs to go with it and "DTNB" has quite a few of these as well. Never that well produced. The Jam always made more sense live simple because their belief and passion could be given proper breathing space on stage. As "DTNB" fits over their career willy-nilly, so the conviction the band displayed onstage holds the package together.

From the brash hardness of "In the City" … to the haunting tenderness of "Ghosts" …, there's a belief and urgency here—a need to communicate—that is rarely displayed elsewhere.

It is fitting that The Jam should bow out with a live LP, and one that takes a few chances, refuses to fit into the established mould of greatest hits regurgitated ad infinitum. It would also be nice to think that a few other groups, established or otherwise, will follow the example The Jam have set, but I'm too cynical to imagine that happening.

Quite simple we shan't see their like again for a long time.