Paul Weller’s discovery of My Generation was a decisive event for a lot of late-seventies
British kids. It was what sparked his obsession with long-dead Mod culture and
inspired him to bring its style and sounds back from the dead with his own
band, The Jam. That great group that fused the mid-sixties sounds of The Who
and Small Faces with the contemporary speed and aggression of punk inspired a
whole lot of other kids to kick their own bands into gear. By 1979, the U.K.
scene was flooded with bands that fobbed off punk’s tattered fashions and
nihilistic attitude for sharp clobber and messages of youthful unity.
