All Mod Cons brings its tribute to the music of The Jam to ONCE Ballroom this coming Friday, January 10 at 8:00 p.m. — Photo by Ivano Bonfanti

By Blake Maddux

Musician Glenn Matto, who has lived in Somerville for 20 years, remembers first hearing The Jam at the home of his friend and fellow Framingham High School classmate Barry Pugatch, whose parents and grandparents were Somerville natives. They were listening to the band’s 1980 release, Sound Affects.

The Jam – which comprised lead singer/guitarist Paul Weller, bassist/vocalist Bruce Foxton, and drummer Rick Buckler – was the most popular British band of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Of the 18 top 40 singles that they scored in their native land from 1977-1982, four reached #1. However, the trio never achieved the renown in the U.S. that British contemporaries like The Clash and the Sex Pistols did. (Sound Affects, which soared to #2 in Great Britain, needed to reach only #72 in the America for it be the highest Billboard Top 200 entry of the band’s career.)

Still, The Jam’s respectably sized fan base in the States included many Boston musicians who enthusiastically welcomed them to The Rathskeller, the Paradise Rock Club, The Channel, and the Orpheum Theatre.

Matto and Pugatch wrote for and performed in several local bands throughout the 1980s. Despite not making it to any of The Jam’s shows, they started a tribute group in 1989 called All Mod Cons (the name of the third Jam record) as a side project. Together, they would gone on to play in non-New England cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas, tour England several times, and do a three-city Guinness-sponsored trek of Canada in 2000.

On Friday, Pugatch (lead vocals, guitar), Matto (bass, vocals), and AJ Beaulieu (drums) will play the final Boston area gig of their three-decade career at ONCE.

“You can only play a 20-year-old for so long!” says Matto. “We have one more show in Las Vegas that we’re doing in March, and then I think we’re good!” added Pugatch.

The two longtime friends spoke to The Somerville Times by phone in advance of their farewell gig, which has been moved from the ONCE Lounge to the Ballroom due to higher-than-planned ticket demand.

The Somerville Times: What was it like to play five shows in England last October?

Barry Pugatch: It had been 15 years since we’d been in England, so it was great to have the opportunity to go back and play in London as well as other towns and actually have people show up. We had a guy show up wearing one of our T-shirts that he bought in 1994. That was a great thrill, to be 56 and still have the chance to play again in front of people that appreciated it.

TST: Other than The Fiery Bird in The Jam’s hometown of Woking, were any venues particularly exciting to play?

BP: Glenn and I both wanted to play the Hope & Anchor. The Jam had played there, and The Clash and the Sex Pistols used to play there, so it’s kind of an English CBGB, if you will. We didn’t realize the place holds maybe 125 people or something like that. It’s not a huge club. So for us it was like, “Hey look, it’s full!” My son’s there and he’s like, “Alright dad, it’s a sell-out!” And it was so much fun. The best part of this particular tour was we saw a lot of people that had seen us 15, 20 years ago.

Glenn Matto: There was one guy at the Hastings show who said, “This is the fourth time I’ve seen you!”

TST: When did you first tour the UK?

BP: We originally started doing The Jam stuff in England in ’92; I think that was our first time over. And nobody had really done a Jam tribute in the U.K., let alone an American group. We had no idea if people would love it or hate it, so it was a test. We did four shows and they went really, really well. That opened the door for more tours. In ’93, we were selling out 1,000-seat places.

GM: The big one was The Marquee. We sold out The Marquee.

TST: What would you say has kept people coming out in droves to see All Mod Cons over the decades?

BP: It’s a great testament to these songs that people really love hearing them again. There are a lot of people in their 50s, but there are people still in their 20s. We even had some teenagers that were at a few of the shows. Ultimately, Glenn and I are fans. We don’t do it for money. We’re always happy to break even if possible.

GM: Or lose money!

TST: What have the members of The Jam themselves said about your band?

BP: The Jam have always been very supportive of us. We had Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, who produced All Mod Cons [and four other Jam albums], come to some shows. Rick Buckler, the drummer of The Jam, not only came to a show, he actually helped us carry our stuff.

GM: And went out for Chinese food with us later!

BP: And we did get mentions in a couple of the Jam books [including Our Story by Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler], which was nice. And in my dining room is an autographed picture of Paul Weller hanging behind my bust of Beethoven that says, “To Barry and All Mod Cons: Stay cool, won’t you?”

TST: What were the prospects for a Jam cover band from Boston when you formed in 1989?

BP: It wasn’t bad. We had some wonderful gigs. We’ve done the Middle East Downstairs. The first gig that we ever played was The Channel in Boston. We even played The Rathskeller Christmas Party, which is a big deal. To be the entertainment for all these famous real Boston musicians: The Neighborhoods and The Outlets and all these people.

GM: We actually saw Ben Orr from The Cars walk in that night.

BP: We also played Bunratty’s, the Common Ground, The Phoenix Landing, The Abbey Lounge in Somerville…

GM: …and Mama Kin.

TST: Your drummer, AJ Beaulieu, will be pulling double duty at the ONCE show, right?

BP: AJ is also in one of the other bands that is playing called The Cretins. AJ is about 10 years younger than Glenn and I. We’ve been playing with him for 16 years. A real key to our sound is that AJ is a tremendously awesome drummer. Getting AJ in the band was kind of like getting a fresh set of batteries. He hits incredibly hard. The fans love him. A journalist who saw us in Hastings said, “AJ is a better drummer than Rick Buckler ever was in his prime.” We agree with that. People gravitate to watching AJ. He is just such a heavy player. Essentially, he’s like punk rock drummer.

TST: The poster for the show says, “Plus Special Guests.” Can you say anything about whom that might be?

GM: We’ve been friends with John Surette from Boys Life for a few years now. Boys Life opened for The Jam at The Channel and again at the Orpheum in ’82, which was their final tour. So there’s that connection. We figured that would be great to bring in to this because not everybody knows that. So we’re going to pay a little bit of tribute to Boys Life because they were a great Boston band.

All Mod Cons with Didn’t Planet and The Cretins. ONCE Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. Friday, January 10. Doors at 8:00 p.m.