COOL @ NIGHT
ON TOUR
BY IRA ROBBINS
Special to Newsday
January 25, 2007
When Paul Weller shut down The Jam in 1982, England mourned one of its most reliable hit factories. From his teenaged Class of ’77 origins alongside the Sex Pistols and the Clash, Weller was an outspoken oddity: He wore suits and ties, refused to accept the „punk“ title, praised such ’60s idols as The Who and Small Faces, paid homage to American soul music and celebrated Britishness.
His subsequent work – first in the jazz-soul of Style Council and then in an even more subdued solo career – has kept Weller a venerated star in his homeland, earning him a Lifetime Achievement Brit Award last year. „It sounds cool,“ he says tartly by phone from London, „but when you realize the Spice Girls got it [six] years before, it takes the edge off a little bit.“ He’s selective about his accolades, however, and recently declined the queen’s offer to make him a Commander of the British Empire.
Although Weller has never been a big record-seller in America, a touring suggestion from his U.S. label, Yep Roc, has generated an unprecedented measure of buzz. Tied to the release of the retrospective „Hit Parade“ (available as a single disc and four-CD box), Weller is doing three sold-out shows at Irving Plaza next week, playing Jam songs on Monday, Style Council songs on Tuesday and a career sampler on Wednesday.
„I don’t want to give too much away,“ he says, „but we’ll start off and do 10 Jam or Style Council tunes, and then a normal set. People [shouldn’t] expect us to do a greatest hits thing – we don’t really do that. Hopefully, my audience will understand that it’s going to be more B-sides or album tracks as opposed to [The Jam’s 1980 British chart-topper] ‚Going Underground.'“
With his former Jam bandmates long estranged (drummer Rick Buckler now leads an uncanny-sounding Jam tribute band called The Gift), Weller has no qualms about doing this without them. „This isn’t any sort of a revival thing. It’s just my old tunes. I understand that people associate these songs with a certain time and mostly with a certain band, but – for me – they’re my songs.“ He’s got a point: the context and brand by which the music was originally issued may endure for record-buyers, but he looks on it all as a body of work.
Weller normally includes a few Jam oldies („That’s Entertainment,“ „A Town Called Malice,“ „In the Crowd“) in his sets, but others, he says, „I haven’t played since I wrote them, which is a long, long time ago. So I’ve had to relearn them [using] songbooks, which is quite weird. As a middle-aged man of 49, which I’m going to be this year, I have to find an emotional connection to sing them properly.“
Weller is bringing his regular band over for these shows, whose format will not be repeated anywhere. (His U.S. visit will conclude with three regular-set dates in Los Angeles next month.)
Drummer Steve White has been with him since the Style Council days. Tuesday’s show highlighting that band’s repertoire, Weller says, „will be special for me and Whitey, ‚cause we haven’t played those songs for 20 years or more. It brings back good memories for us.“ And, undoubtedly, for fans.
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