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The Sham
the essential tribute to The Jam
The Full Story
The Sham are the essential tribute act to the iconic British rock band The Jam.
Consisting of three brothers, David, Adam and Ian Shamma, they accurately portray the roles of Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, on guitar, bass and drums respectively.
The brothers recreate the fire and skill of the classic Jam line up, in both their look and sound. They draw on material from all six of the Jam's studio albums, as well as non-album singles and B-sides.
Where it all begins...three brothers growing up in smalltown England! SWITCH A stack of Beatles singles on the Dansette ! SWITCH An obsession with music and football, fuelled by regular trips to the grandparents in Wolverhampton! SWITCH The roar of Molineux and the sheer noise of loud covers bands in the working men’s clubs of the town! SWITCH Seeing The Jam on Top of The Pops performing All Around the World in the summer of 77 and knowing something was changing forever! SWITCH Being gutted when they announced their split! SWITCH Buying our first guitars from the back of NME! SWITCH Struggling with the first Clash songbook...A7 Sus 4 anyone?? SWITCH Our first proper originals band! SWITCH Playing the Marquee, The Mean Fiddler, The Dublin Castle, The Borderline, The Bull and Gate and a host of other London venues! SWITCH Opening for The Soup Dragons, Kingmaker, Dodgy and a whole list of 90’s acts too numerous to mention! SWITCH Releasing our own single! SWITCH The pain of splitting up when we realised it wasn’t going to happen! SWITCH After a hiatus forming a successful covers band with singer Natalie Nitro! SWITCH Hundreds of shows later impending parenthood meant a new direction! SWITCH A return to the music of our youth and forming THE SHAM – a loving tribute to The Jam! SWITCH What have we learned?
BELIEF IS ALL!!
David Shamma as Paul Weller
David uses two Rickenbacker 330 guitars. A Fireglo model mimics Weller's own from the back cover of All Mod Cons, while a Jetglo one is reminiscent of the iconic Going Underground period guitar.
A Yamaha AR5 Acoustic covers That’s Entertainment and English Rose. He uses a period correct flight-cased VOX AC30 amp with Alnico Blue speakers for the classic Jam sound.
In between playing in a number of bands over many years, David also worked as a guitar tech, being lucky enough to tour Europe twice as well as a full North American tour. The highlight was looking after guitars in Toronto one night for Canadian rockers Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko from the legendary 60s group The Band at a televised music award show.
His formative Jam moment was as a young schoolboy entering a basement record store blasting out dub reggae to buy Strange Town on a 7” single. Like the early Jam on TOTP – the musical world shifted again!
Suit and shirts are by ModClothin' Melton Mowbray, shoes by IKON, hair by Ziggys of Market Deeping.
Adam Shamma as Bruce Foxton
Adam plays a black 1977 Fender Precision Bass, identically matching Foxton’s instrument from the back cover of All Mod Cons. There are rumours that this is one of Bruce's basses from the time. Like all rock n roll stories it may be an exaggeration of the truth, but who knows, it certainly looks the part. He uses Ampeg amplification.
From a young age Adam modelled his bass playing on Bruce Foxton and always had an ear for singing harmony at the same time. This lends itself brilliantly to the intrinsic part of The Jam’s core sound that Bruce provided, via his driving bass coupled with spot on vocal harmonies.
As kids Adam's formative Jam memory happened when one of our early drummers left to join another local band with the immortal words “I don’t want to be in a band that sounds like The Jam anymore.” Adam’s cutting response?
“What’s wrong with being in a band that have had five British number 1s?”
Answer that and stay fashionable!
Ian Shamma as Rick Buckler
Ian plays a black sparkle DW kit, Pearl Brass shell snare with Zildjian and Paiste cymbals.
As a musician Ian started out gigging as a guitar player. However, when we lost our second drummer in a matter of months, Ian was pressed into service on a hastily acquired new drum kit. He proved to be a natural drummer but also plays keyboards along with guitar.
Ian has played with numerous other musicians over the years, including 10 years semi-pro for a touring ska band. He has also depped many sessions and gigs once memorably opening for Billy Ocean in a cavernous indoor arena. Billy was a lovely guy by all accounts!
As a kid Ian had a T-shirt of The Jam’s final Dig the New Breed album. He wore it to death until it was falling apart. Mum finally took the decision to cut it up to make into dusters! Ian was heartbroken but the advent of the internet enabled him many years later to source a replacement from eBay. Let’s just say it cost nearly as much as it would have done to buy an extra 50 copies of the original title – which ironically enough, was what Weller had threatened to do to get it to number one in the charts!
Based in south Lincolnshire UK, The Sham are a professional touring band travelling nationwide.
