The Jam would have failed in today's music industry, says Weller

Paul Weller has branded record companies "scum" and claimed that his former band the Jam would not have succeeded in the industry today.

The musician spoke out during a debate on the British music scene broadcast on BBC Radio 2. Weller said: "Unfortunately, these days if you don't get a hit single, or your first album doesn't sell one-point-whatever million, you don't get a chance to make your second one."

The singer-songwriter said the music business today would probably have lost patience with the Jam, the band he formed with his Woking school friends Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler.

The band emerged during the latter stages of the punk era with their first two albums, In The City and This is The Modern World. But it was their third album, All Mod Cons, which brought them to prominence and helped inspire the Mod revival after its release in 1978.

Weller said: "I wonder whether the Jam would have got on to All Mod Cons - we would have probably been dropped by then, as the first two records didn't sell that well." After the Jam, Weller went on to enjoy further success with The Style Council before beginning a solo career.

His criticisms were backed by the R&B singer Beverley Knight. She said: "Back in the day, the chances were that, unless it was a novelty record, it was a really good song.

"It's hard to sit at home and watch bands you know have been put together by a TV show. It's mediocrity dressed up as greatness."

But Tony Wadsworth, UK chairman of EMI, gave a rosier picture, saying the singles market was "undergoing radical surgery" and would not die out.