Bands/Artists We Love – Paul Weller/The Jam/The Style Council
The final
act in this series of ten is my all-time favorite recording artist and my
musical hero, the one and only Paul Weller.
I have said
about this series that I would present the 10 acts in no particular order, but
in reality I always planned for my favorite “active” band Stone Foundation to
be the first (I say active as other bands I love like The Beatles and The Jam
are not together anymore) and I also planned for Paul Weller, my favorite
artist to be the headliner in this series. I include The Jam and TSC in this
post as I consider it all to be Paul Weller. When people ask me if which of
Paul’s “bands” I prefer I honestly don’t see it as different bands but more as
different stages in Paul’s amazing career and evolution.
I
discovered Paul’s music back in college and my life was changed forever. I
worked at a radio station in college and was getting into 70’s punk when I
discovered The Jam while at the same time I found a Days Of Speed CD in the
station library. I initially got into both The Jam and Paul solo simultaneously
not knowing it was the same guy, fortunately it didn’t take me long to realize
is was the same guy. I started buying and consuming Paul’s music and was hooked
immediately. It took me a bit longer to get into The Style Council, but over
the past five years I honestly think that TSC has been the most played part of
Paul’s career here at our house.
I could
talk endlessly about my love for Paul’s music and about each and every of his
albums… yes, I love every single album he’s released (except for one, but I
won’t say which one), so I will mention my favorite Weller record from each of
the 5 glorious decades in which he’s released music: from the 70’s I have to go
with All Mod Cons, in the 80’s Our Favourite Shop, 90’s Stanley Road, 00’s As
Is Now and in the 10’s A Kind Revolution. Again, I love every album he’s
released and how he’s always looking forward, never repeating himself and never
ever banking on nostalgia. Paul truly is The Changingman, built on shifting
sand.
Another
life changing moment for me came the day I was finally able to make a trip to
see Paul play live. My wife and I had already made a few concert trips together
and loved them, but after seeing Paul, some of the acts were we’ve seen before
were ruined after that. Paul and his amazing band are true musicians and when
you see them live you get to witness magic happening before your eyes. It’s not
about the lights, it’s not about screens or a show…it’s all about the music.
After seeing Paul live, we’re only interested now in seeing similar live acts
who produce all their magic onstage.
Unlike with
most acts, when you see Paul live you want to hear the new songs, not the greatest
hits, that had never happened before to me. At a past Weller concert my only
complaint (if I could call it a complaint) is that I didn’t get to hear more
songs from the new album he was promoting. That feeling is echoed by many of my
fellow Weller friends which I think speaks volumes of the quality of Paul’s
music forty plus years into his career.
We have
been fortunate enough to have seen 13 PW concerts so far and twice we’ve seen
him as part of the audience for TV shows where he’s performed. Each concert has
been memorable but my favorite venue has to be The Fillmore in San Francisco
where we’ve seen him twice. The last concert there in 2017 was definitely the
best concert of my life, I will quote Paul talking about that gig when asked
what gig has meant the most to him: “San Francisco 3 weeks ago to be honest
with you. It felt like we transcended us and the audience, it felt like we were
all going somewhere else, it was incredible. It’s hard to pinpoint or
articulate those feelings sometimes, but it’s just when it elevates and goes
beyond just being a good gig to something else you know”. That was an
experience I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.
One very
important thing I have to thank Paul besides from his music is the many friends
I’ve made because it him. I have meet many dear friends from all over the world
thanks to our shared love for his music. Some are internet friends, some are my
Weller gig buddies and some have become close friends for life. Going to a
Weller gig nowadays feels like a family reunion. Weller fans are the kindest
and most generous in my personal experience and I think that’s a reflection of
the artist and how much he cares for his fans. We’ve been fortunate to meet
Paul and his band various times and he’s always very kind and attentive. He
always has time for a pic and a little chat. Don’t meet your heroes they say,
well that certainly doesn’t apply to Paul.
One final
but very important thing to mention about PW is how fantastic his band is.
First time I saw Paul live was in 2012 so I’ve seen the same core band in all
my gigs and what a pleasure that has been. They are always amazing live and
their output as a unit is truly incendiary. I am sure the reason why Paul has
continued to produce amazing new music at a time when most of his
contemporaries are slowing down is because he’s formed a band with highly
talented individuals who are all amazing on their own projects but have the
ability to ensemble as a perfect team/unit when working with Paul. His current
band consists of Steve Cradock, Andy Crofts, Ben Gordelier, Steve Pilgrim and
Tom Van Heel.
I am
posting a few pics from my Weller collection on this post but it’d be
impossible to include every single album, single, CD and DVD in this post, so I
just included a few of my favorites.
As always I
will leave you with a short playlist of my favorite Weller songs. In Paul’s
case, the short list is composed of 145 songs…. I know I know, but believe me,
I can’t make it any shorter, actually a few of my favorite songs are not
available on Spotify so this should have been longer and I had to cut a few
other songs I love in other to keep it from going over 200 songs lol. I know
most of you know them all, but give it a follow and play it on shuffle, it’ll
be the best companion you can have:
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