Paul Weller Biography
Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989
- 2005
b.
John William Weller, 25 May 1958, Woking, Surrey, England.
The rise and fall from critical grace, and subsequent rise
of vocalist and guitarist Paul Weller could occupy a small
chapter in any book on UK rock music of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
The recipient of almost universal acclaim and "spokesman
for a generation" received accolades with the Jam. After
the release of the Style Council's second album his relationship
with the press became one of almost total antipathy, some
might argue with good reason; the thread of soul-stirring
passion that had always seen Weller at his most affecting
had been squandered in a less earnest quest for dry musical
sophistication. The fact that he was now married (to Style
Council backing vocalist D.C. Lee) and a father of two children
contributed to what he later admitted was a lack of thirst
for music.
By 1990, he found himself without
either a band or a recording contract for the first time in
13 years. This period saw him reacquaint himself with some
of his old influences, the omnipresent Small Faces/Steve Marriott
fixation, as well as discover new ones such as house and acid
jazz, as well as Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Tim Hardin and Tim
Buckley.
Inspired
enough to write new material, despite his recent travails
with the Style Council having drained him of confidence, he
began to set up a new band in the autumn. Comprising Paul
Francis (bass), Max Beesley (keyboards/vibraphone), Jacko
Peake (saxophone/flute), Joe Becket (percussion), Damon Brown
(trumpet/flügelhorn), Chris Lawrence (trombone) as well
as Jam biographer and "best friend" Paulo Hewitt
(DJ) and Style Council drummer Steve White, the band was christened
the Paul Weller Movement. They made their live debut on UK
tours in November and December, with a second spree in April
1991. These served to renew Weller's previously unimpeachable
self-belief and test new songs like "Round And Round"
and "Kosmos". The line-up now saw Henry Thomas (formerly
of music education television programme Rock School) on bass,
with the brass section reduced to Gerard Presencer (trumpet/flügelhorn),
with Zeta Massiah and Lina Duggan on backing vocals.
Weller
released his first solo single, "Into Tomorrow",
on his own Freedom High label in May, before contributing
seven compositions to D.C. Lee's Slam Slam project. However,
he was still refining his muse and the vast majority of the
Movement and the name itself were dispensed with, leaving
a kernel of White and Peake with guests including Robert Howard
(aka Dr. Robert of the Blow Monkeys), Marco Nelson of the
Young Disciples, Style Council bass player Camille Hinds and
singer Carleen Anderson. The debut album was delayed for almost
a year while he searched for a suitable label. It was initially
released on Pony Canyon in Japan, where Weller maintained
a formidable personal popularity, six months before a UK issue
on Go! Discs.
Paul Weller was strangely overlooked
by the UK press, who at this stage seemed resistant to the
artist's revival, despite the presence of fine songs in "Clues"
and "Strange Museum". Further line-up changes accrued
during the quiet early months of 1992, with Orange Juice drummer
Zeke Manyika joining, as did former Style Council compatriot
Helen Turner (organ). The subject of second single "Uh
Huh, Oh Yeh" was Weller's Woking youth, and its Top 20
UK status kindled a prodigal-son welcome from the UK press.
Weller's
renaissance was confirmed in 1993 with the release of "Sunflower",
a breezy, Traffic-inspired folk rock enterprise, and Wild
Wood, arguably the finest collection of songs Weller had written
since the Jam's All Mod Cons. With a fresh, natural production
from Brendan Lynch, and multitudinous musical accompaniment
from White, Turner, Beesley and Howard plus Mick Talbot (Weller's
former Style Council songwriting collaborator), D.C. Lee,
Simon Fowler and Steve Cradock (Ocean Colour Scene), the set
was nevertheless firmly located in the classic English singer-songwriter
pantheon. Live favourites "The Weaver" and "Hung
Up" again reached the charts as Weller was at last able
to shake off the albatross of his previous musical ventures.
He was joined on tour in Japan
by new bass player Yolanda Charles in October, while early
1994 saw him jamming on stage with Kenny Jones (Faces), James
Taylor and Mother Earth for the filming of The History Of
Acid Jazz. The summer of that year saw euphoric performances
at the Glastonbury and Phoenix Festival stages, before a 1994
double live album drawn from four different sets between late
1993 and mid-1994.
For the first time in a decade
Weller had cultivated a new set of fans, rather than dragging
existing followers with him, and this fact drew evident satisfaction.
Stanley Road was titled after the street in which Weller grew
up, and featured Oasis' Noel Gallagher on a cover version
of Dr. John's "I Walk On Gilded Splinters". Of more
enduring interest were the Weller originals, however, which
spanned a wide range of musical styles unified by the "live"
approach to recording.
The
follow-up Heavy Soul showed Weller to be at the peak of his
musical powers and still retaining the support of the majority
of the music press.
Weller's fans were forced to
wait another three years for the follow-up, Heliocentric,
and although much was promised, the album lacked the punch
and sparkle of previous efforts. Much more gutsy and electric
was 2002's Illumination. On this album Weller sang with renewed
conviction, in particular his duet with the Stereophonics'
Kelly Jones on the fabulous "Call Me No. 5". Fly
On The Wall, released in 2003, was a 3-CD box set of b-sides
and rarities, featuring some excellent cover versions including
Neil Young's "Ohio" and Traffic's "Feelin'
Alright", and a number of credible Beatles' interpretations.
Weller continued in covers mode on the following year's Studio
150, tackling an eclectic range of material including Rose
Royce's "Wishing On A Star", Gil Scott-Heron's "The
Bottle", Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain",
and Neil Young's "Birds".
Paul Weller, The Jam, A Mods
Story. Billy McLellan, 2005
When
the Jam hit London in 1977 they could hardly have been more
at odds with the times. Fashionable, razor-sharp in their
suits and short hair, a cut above the rest, and Weller with
his incredible attitude and style. The year 1979 - I was fourteen
years of age, just heard the single - “When You’re
Young”. I was hooked, I had just joined that very exclusive
club of “MODS” - there was no way out - once a
MOD, always a MOD (as the great man once said). Middle partings
and white socks. Lonsdale shirts and bowling shoes. At first
sight these youths look like an undifferentiated mass, but
nothing could be further from the truth. If you knew what
to look for, you could see that they were engaged in a kind
of style war, the like of which has not been seen since the
original Mod era of the ‘60s’.
That’s
when I discovered that Northern Soul, Ska, Skinhead and Rude-Boy
were all an extension of Mod. (Cousins). I was a Mod, we were
different from the rest; carried ourselves differently, attention
to detail that’s what mattered, and it stays with you
for the rest of your life... It’s a mod thing.
A Jam concert was more than
a live event, it was almost spiritual. The relationship between
band and audience was so strong you could touch it, see it
and most certainly hear it. Paul Weller now plays solo but
I still hanker back to the days of The Jam. What it meant
to me as a teenage Mod was more than just music, it was an
attitude of life, The Jam were one of those bands whose music
remains with you over the years, merged with your history
and identity.
I
saw them for the first time in 1981 at The Glasgow Apollo.
I was dazzled not only by their formidable energy but also
by a peculiar tenderness.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s
The Jam’s musical legacy has been seen as an influence
on hundreds of bands, some as successful as Oasis, Blur and
Ocean Colour Scene. Paul Weller can also boast a songbook
to rival any of his peers - some of his cleverest lyrics and
most enduring tunes have been buried away on albums and b-sides.
The sheer scope of his musical adventurism is impressive.
As he enters a new phase of
his career with a fresh collection of songs written in 2005,
we see Weller going back to his Jam roots. For influence -
“As Is Now” is complex, passionate, soulful, in
both texture and tempo - another quantum leap for the great
man.
Evidence of Paul Weller's continued
popularity was provided by a poll run by British national
radio station Virgin Radio in December 2002 to find the Top
100 British Artists of all time. More than 25,000 listeners
voted, and in the final results revealed on 31st December,
The Style Council came in at No. 97, Weller as a solo artist
at No. 21 and The Jam at No. 5 - ahead of such acts as The
Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Clash and Weller's own heroes
such as The Who and The Kinks.
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