Rick Buckler born Paul Richard Buckler, 6 December 1955, in Woking, Surrey, England, was the drummer and one of the founding members of The Jam, the English rock band that enjoyed considerable success in the UK from 1977 until their premature demise in 1982. Although spearheaded by Paul Weller, the rhythm section of Buckler on drums and Bruce Foxton on bass guitar were an integral part of the Jam’s sound and success. The Jam split at the behest of Weller.
Q Magazine reported in March 2006 that Buckler was dismissive of Weller’s jazz leanings in the Style Council, when Weller played his ex band mate tapes of his new songs. Weller has not spoken to Buckler socially for more than 20 years.
In 1983, Buckler joined ‘Time UK’, featuring himself, Jimmy Edwards and Ray Simone, both formally of ‘MasterSwitch’, as well as Danny Kustow from the Tom Robinson Band and Nick South of both the Yoko Ono Band and Steve Marriot’s All Stars. Time UK sold nearly 60,000 copies of their first single, “The Cabaret”. Buckler was reunited with ex Jam bassist and Time UK’s Jimmy Edwards as ‘Sharp’, who recorded some songs for the short lived Unicorn record label. These recordings have subsequently been re-issued on a Time UK anthology.
In November 2005 Buckler announced that he would be playing drums in a new band known as the ‘The Gift’ featuring ex-Maximum High musicians Russell Hastings on vocals/guitar and bassist Dave Moore, Buckler and his band have been playing Jam songs. The band played some sold-out shows in London at the end of 2005, and in February 2006 embarked on a UK tour.
Buckler and Foxton are presently touring the UK as “from The Jam” with musicians from Buckler’s band “The Gift” as the supporting musicians.
Ludwig Drum Company, Merc clothing, Lonsdale and All Mod Icon Magazine have all added their names as official sponsors of The Gift.