The Eton Rifles The Eton Rifles "The Eton Rifles" was the only single to be released from the album "Setting Sons" by The Jam. Recorded at Townhouse studios and released on 26 October 1979, it became the band's first top ten hit in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 3. It is also the only official Jam single for which a video was not recorded. The song was produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven and The Jam, and was backed by the B-side "See-Saw". Eton College is a famous English public school located in Berkshire, which is regarded as the epitome of Britain's privileged
The Eton Rifles elite. Their cadet corps is the Eton College Combined Cadet Force, which was founded in 1860 as the Eton College Rifle Corps. The lyrics of the song recount the difficulties faced by the unemployed and lower-paid working class in protesting against a system stacked against them. The song recounts a street battle Paul Weller had read about in the newspapers concerning elements of a right-to-work march through Slough in 1978 breaking off to attack pupils from Eton who had been jeering the lunchtime marchers (hence "Hello, Hooray, an extremist scrape with the Eton Rifles"). The song's lyrics, in common with