Just watch the doc "About The Young Idea" for a quick and entertaining intro to The Jam.  (You could say The Jam's songs helped define a certain period of time from the late 70s to the early 80s in Thatcher's Britain the same way Oasis did for a different time in the 90s -- they were gutsy, high-energy songs about the struggles of real people in the spirit of punk but with more of a melodic Beatles/Kinks and obviously Mod influence. Of course, it must be said that Paul Weller has spent most of his life NOT in The Jam, and has a whole other career you can also get into ... The Jam was one musical phase of many, which might be what Noel admires most.)  

Though The Jam never really “made it” in America, they did tour here (friend of mine partially lost his hearing at a Jam show) and Weller to this day has an extremely devoted following, not huge but loyal like crazy. Great atmosphere at his shows because we rarely get them.

Back then, you had to work for it if you were American – as a kid, I found British music mags in the library (yep, the library) and ordered records from the UK (with my baby-sitting money) having never heard a note off them, then waited a month or sometimes more for them to arrive at the store. Such different times it almost sounds made up now.

I’m a massive Weller fan now after being more casually aware of his work in my teens/20s.

The Jam were obviously great but as others point out, Weller has a huge catalogue and his sound has varied over 4/5 decades now. Something Noel aspires to but has only scratched the surface of.

Weller is also a big rip off merchant, which is maybe another reason him and Noel get along so well 🤣

I’ve always felt that with The Jam, they harnessed the anger and urgency of punk to make melodic music in the vein of The Kinks storytelling and songwriting. So I’d identify them, at least in the first couple years of their career, as a punk band. But I can see the other side as well. They are too hard to pin down with just one label. In that respect they are very much like the other most successful British punk bands, The Clash and Buzzcocks because they were able to go beyond limitations of style.

I remember you saying that you got into The Jam very young. How did that happen for you?

My sister got into The Clash first. We were very close as sisters. Unfortunately not now anymore.
My sister was a fan of Mick Jones and soon Joe Strummer became my hero (he still is).
I think the first Clash record my sister got was Give 'em Enough Rope. We got into The Jam for one or another reason and the first Jam record I bought was Setting Sons. The Jam were bloody cool, always dressed well and they always had shinny shoes. Young Weller was sharp as a knife.
The Clash and The Jam were the soundtrack of our youth and British music, culture and all that were everything for us. We immitated ourself to be a "Brit", drinking tea with milk, buying imported British music papers, having the posters of our favourite bands on the wall, reading Allan Sillitoe, playing records so loud that our parents had to step in to stop us often. Queuing all nights outside at front of the shop to get tickets for the gigs.
Going to gigs, meeting bands and hanging around with friends who were in a band.
All these made me what I am today as it had a big influence on me at that time.
I can't imagine my life without music although I can't even play any instrumental.
It's just music, but it does have power.

I'm old enough that the The Jam were my gateway drug into music. I found them in 1979. I was heavily into the Mod revival, 1960's music and ska / 2-tone. The Jam were a fantastic band on and off-stage. Was heartbroken when they split in 1982, but looking back, it was exactly the right time and I'm so pleased they have never re-formed.