Remembering when Australia rugby league team brawled with rock stars The Jam at Leeds hotel
Have you heard about the time the Australia rugby league team got into a brawl with English rock band The Jam at a hotel in Leeds? It sounds like an urban myth, but is actually a true story.
Australia will be in Leeds for Saturday’s third ABK Beer Ashes Test against England at AMT Headingley. Back in 1978, the Queens Hotel, in City Square, was the Kangaroos’ base ahead of the third - and deciding - game against Great Britain on the same ground and it’s also where The Jam were drinking following a gig in the city.
The resulting clash of cultures wasn’t pretty. According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, dated November 15, 1978, trouble began when Aussie team manager Jim Caldwell was “jabbed in the face with a broken glass at the team’s hotel”.
The report claimed: “The incident triggered a brawl between members of a punk rock group The Jam and some members of the Australian team.” Violence erupted after Caldwell, 59, accidentally bumped into a member of the group. In the ensuing commotion, he was left needing stitches and a member of the team, Larry Corowa, was allegedly punched after he tried to intervene.
The player rushed off to find reinforcements and other members of the team were quickly on the scene. The rock stars, not surprisingly, came off second-best in the resulting fracas, being handed what was later described as a “hiding”. The Jam’s Bruce Foxton suffered badly bruised ribs while Paul Weller faced a court appearance the next day, though the wounding charge was dismissed.
Note on the back cover of the band’s final live album, Dig The New Breed, refer to the incident, mentioning “a night in the nick in Leeds. ‘Paul Weller is innocent’ chalked on the steps of the Leeds Court”. The band were moved to another hotel and the Aussies, cleared of blame, remained at the Queen’s.
According to an article on NRL.com to mark the 40th anniversary of the infamous punch-up, that wasn’t quite the end of the matter. Former Australian captain Max Krilich recalled being attacked and “clawed” in the lift of the team hotel a few days later, after a female fan of The Jam heard his Australian accent.