| Paul Weller |
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
John William Weller |
| Born |
May 25, 1958 (1958-05-25) (age 49) |
| Origin |
 Sheerwater, Woking, Surrey, England |
| Genre(s) |
Mod |
| Occupation(s) |
Singer-songwriter
Guitarist |
| Instrument(s) |
Guitar
Vocals
Piano
Bass
guitar
Cello |
| Years active |
1977–present |
| Label(s) |
Polydor |
Associated
acts |
The Jam
The Style Council |
| Website |
http://www.paulweller.com |
| Notable instrument(s) |
| Rickenbacker
330 |
Paul Weller (born John William Weller 25 May 1958, Sheerwater, near
Woking, Surrey) is an English singer-songwriter.
Weller was the leader and creator behind the formation of two
successful bands, The Jam
and The Style Council. In
the UK,
he is recognised as something of a national institution, yet because
much of his songwriting is rooted in British
culture, he has remained essentially a national rather than an
international star. He is also the principal figure of the Mod
revival.
|
Contents
- 1 Career
- 1.1 The
Jam
- 1.2 The
Style Council
- 1.3 Solo
career
- 2 Legacy
- 3 Personal
life
- 4 Trivia
- 5 Solo
discography
- 5.1 Studio
Albums
- 5.2 Compilation
and Live Albums
- 5.3 Re-Issues
- 5.4 Singles
- 6 External
links
- 7 References
|
Career
The Jam
Weller first burst onto the national music scene in 1977
with his first band, The Jam, which he formed four
years earlier as a teenager in Woking with his friends Steve Brooks (lead
guitar), Rick Buckler (drums) and Bruce
Foxton (rhythm guitar). Weller himself took
lead vocal duties and bass guitar, although a talented lead guitarist.
When Steve Brooks left the band, Weller and Foxton swapped guitar roles.
The Jam's 1982 album The
Gift.
1977 was the year after the first wave of punk bands
such as The Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks,
The
Clash and The Stranglers had arrived
in the public eye. Although The Jam's music had much of the fire and
the passion of those bands, in terms of songwriting ability and lyrical
content, The Jam were more in the mould of the so-called 'new
wave' bands who came later. Also, being from just outside of London rather than
in it, they were never really part of the tightly-knit punk clique.
Nonetheless, The Clash seemed to take the most notice of the
band. Joe Strummer even supposedly
had a conversation with the young Paul Weller and suggested he write
songs about things that affected him, and songs that involved society
and politics. The Clash were also suitably impressed by The Jam to take
them along as the support act on their White Riot
tour of 1977. The Jam went on to be far more successful, at least in
terms of the singles charts, than The Clash in the UK.
"In the City" took The Jam into the UK Top 40
for the first time in May 1977, and although every subsequent single
had a placing within the Top 40, it would take another two years and
eight singles before they were sufficiently engrained in the British
national consciousness for "The Eton Rifles" to break the Top 10,
hitting the No. 3 spot in November 1979.
From then on their blend of pop tunes and politically-aware
lyrics made them hugely popular, and in 1980 they hit number
one for the first time with what many believe to be the definitive Paul
Weller song, "Going Underground", which was to become in effect the
band's signature tune. A popular story has it that hitting the charts
at all was in fact an accident for "Going Underground": it was supposed
to be a double A side with "Dreams of Children", a less-remembered
song, but a mistake at a French pressing plant meant
"Going Underground" was given 'A' status on the label. Whether this is
true or apocryphal is not known, but whatever the case, after "Going
Underground", The Jam - and Weller in particular - were UK superstars.
Weller was strongly influenced by 1960s bands such as The
Kinks, The Small Faces and The Who,
all three great favourites of his and whose influence can be heard in
much of The Jam's material. However, that did not mean that he was
averse to finding inspiration in the works of many other artists: the
Jam's second number one single, "Start!" lifts the bass line
from The
Beatles' "Taxman", for example. The group's third chart
topper, "Town Called Malice", which found renewed fame on the Billy
Elliot soundtrack (2001), has a driving bass
line taken straight from one of Martha Reeves
& the Vandellas' less-remembered hits, "Gettin' Ready for Love."
By the early 1980s, The Jam had become possibly the biggest band in
Britain. They became the only band other than The Beatles to perform
two songs ("Town Called Malice" and "Precious") on one edition of Top
of the Pops (the feat would later also be
equalled by Oasis and Manic Street Preachers).
The Jam even had one single, "That's Entertainment", reach No. 21 in
the UK singles chart despite not even
being released in that country - it got there purely on the strength of
the huge number of people buying import sales of the German single
release. Weller, however, was eager to explore other musical avenues he
felt he could not follow with The Jam. Later Jam songs such as "The
Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow)" - often described by critics as
"a Style Council song
pretending to be a Jam song" - showed that he longed to write in a more
melodic, soulful style. He felt he had taken The Jam as far as he could
and was eager to move on.
Thus in late 1982, Weller shocked fans and the press - as well
as his fellow band members Buckler and Foxton - by announcing that The
Jam would disband at the end of the year. Their final single, "Beat
Surrender", became their fourth UK chart topper, going straight to No.
1 in its first week, which was still a rare achievement at the time,
and their farewell concerts at Wembley Arena were multiple sell-outs.
Their final concert took place at the Brighton Centre on the 11
December 1982.
The Style Council
At the beginning of 1983, The Jam had disbanded, and the press
and public wondered what was next for Paul Weller. The answer emerged
in the form of a collaboration with a friend, keyboard player Mick
Talbot, to form a new group called The
Style Council. Soon after 1983 Weller brought in Steve
White to play drums at the age of just sixteen. White has
been playing with Weller ever since (apart from a two year break in
1989-1990).
A very different band from The Jam, The Style Council played a
whole range of musical styles, from outright pop
to jazz, soul and the
occasional ballad.
The band was at the vanguard of a jazz/pop revival that would continue
with the emergence of bands like Matt Bianco, Sade,
and Everything But The Girl,
whose members Tracey Thorn and Ben
Watt contributed vocals and guitar to a Style Council song,
"Paris Match". However, the Style Council were not completely untouched
by the spirit of The Jam - indeed, one of their early singles "A Solid
Bond In Your Heart" was originally written and recorded during The Jam
era, this earlier version later turning up on that band's Extras
compilation. And as "The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow)" is
sometimes labelled a Style Council song pretending to be a Jam song, so
1985's "Walls Come Tumbling Down!" is often compared to a Jam song
disguised in Style Council colours. "Walls Come Tumbling Down!",
incidentally, did well in North America, appearing with "The
Internalionalists" on the Live Aid album and getting airplay on some college radio
stations.
The Style Council's 1988 album Confessions
of a Pop Group.
Although the Style Council were never as successful chart-wise
as The Jam had been - they never had a No. 1 single - that did not stop
the mid 1980s from being possibly the peak of Weller's public profile
in the UK. Weller is reported to have said at the time that it would be
pointless for people to like The Style Council just because they liked
The Jam.
He appeared on 1984's famous Band
Aid record "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (although his major
contribution was probably to mime the unavailable Bono's part on the Top
of the Pops performance of the song) and the Style Council
were the second act to appear in the British half of Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985.
At around the same time as the Band Aid single, in December
1984, Weller put together his own charity ensemble, the Council
Collective, to make a record ("Soul Deep") to raise money for the striking miners. The
record featured the Style Council plus a number of other performers,
notably Jimmy
Ruffin and Junior Giscombe. In spite of the
song's political content it still picked up BBC
Radio 1 airplay and was performed on Top
of the Pops, which led to the incongruous sight
of lyrics such as "We can't afford to let the government
win/It means death to the trade unions" being mimed amidst
the flashing lights and party atmosphere of TOTP.
It also gave us the unprecedented sound of Paul Weller rapping.
Despite their success at home, the Style Council were only
marginally more successful internationally than The Jam had been, with
"My Ever Changing Moods" providing them with their first of only two
singles to ever make the US Billboard Hot 100, the other being
"You're The Best Thing". As the 1980s wore on, the Style Council's
popularity in the UK itself began to slide, with none of their singles
even reaching the Top 20 any more. For the first time in Weller's
career, he found himself somewhat in the shade, and the death-knell of
The Style Council was sounded in 1989 when their record company refused
to even release their fifth and final studio album,
Modernism - a New Decade,
although this did eventually have a limited vinyl run and appeared on The
Complete Adventures of the Style Council,
retrospective CD
box set. Perhaps indicative of the growing British impatience with
Weller, the line: "kick out the Style, bring back the Jam" was included
in the Tears for Fears' song,
"Sowing The Seeds of Love"
Solo career
Weller performing at V-Fest.
In 1989, Weller disbanded The Style Council and disappeared
from the public eye for a couple of years, before returning to
prominence as one of the major influences of the mid 1990s (beginning
in 1991 as The Paul Weller Movement and later simply as Paul Weller).
With his long term drummer and friend Steve
White in tow, Weller successfully joined the 'Britpop'
movement that gave rise to such bands as Oasis
and Blur.
Oasis in particular cited being heavily influenced by The Jam . Weller
even appeared as a guest guitarist and backing vocalist on "Champagne
Supernova", on Oasis's seminal 1995 album (What's the Story)
Morning Glory?, perhaps the defining moment of
Britpop. During this time Weller's music was also marketed amongst the
emerging Acid
Jazz scene. Some of early solo tracks (mostly the B-sides of his
first few solo singles) epitomize the genre. These tracks include
"Here's a New Thing", and "That Spiritual Feeling" (which was recycled
from the then-unreleased "Modernism: A New Decade" sessions).
Noel Gallagher also appeared on Weller's album Stanley
Road, providing guitar and backing vocals on
the cover
of Dr.
John's song "I Walk On Gilded Splinters". In particular, Weller was an
important influence in the development of Ocean Colour Scene, and
members of that band, particularly guitarist Steve
Cradock, who has been a regular fixture in Weller's band
since the early 1990s except for 99-2000 when Ocean Colour Scene had
reached their peak and guitar duties went to Matt Deighton of Mother
Earth. Paul Weller went back on the road performing Jam and Style
Council covers, under the guise of The Paul Weller Movement, eventually
releasing a single "Into Tomorrow" on his own Freedom High record
label. His first solo album, the self-titled Paul
Weller, featured photography from Nick Knight.
The album was financed partly from the sale of his London West End
based recording studio, Solid Bond. The difference between his last
work, the house music workout Modernism - A New Decade
and this solo album four years on were astounding; the new sound saw a
return to a raw guitar sound, enriched with samples and a funk
influence, with shades of The Style Council sound. His new producer
Brendan Lynch contributed to his new sound.
Fans and critics hail Wild Wood
as one of his finest albums. Recorded deep in the English countryside,
it had the sound and style of the new "get out of the city" Weller, a
man matured and married with children.
Weller's 1995 solo album Stanley
Road reached #1 in the UK.
However, his role was not that of a mere influence: his own
1995 album Stanley Road
took him back to the top of the British charts, and went on to become
the best selling album of his career. The album was named after the
street in Woking
where he had grown up. It marked a return to the more guitar-based
style of his earlier days, albeit with a more grown-up mature edge than
the sheer adrenaline rush The Jam had provided. The album's major
single, "The Changingman", was also a big hit, taking Weller back into
the Top 10 of the UK singles charts (Weller's detractors, however,
noted that the song's descending guitar riff bore a strong resemblance
to the one used on the Electric Light Orchestra's
debut single, "10538 Overture"). The album also
featured a second popular single, the ballad "You Do Something To Me".
The album also featured Wings of Speed inspired by the famous painting
The Lady of Shalott,which he had seen in the Tate Gallery.
Heavy Soul, the
follow up to the million-selling Stanley Road saw
Weller twist his sound again. The album was more raw than its
predecessor, Weller now obsessed with playing live in the studio and
with doing as few takes as possible. The album failed to top the chart,
mainly because a limited edition was deemed to have too many 'freebies'
included to be chart-eligible. The issue was that the images featured
in the booklet of the main release were separate in the limited
version. This would also include a small but often unrecognised use of
Gil Scott Heron's "Lady Day & John Coltrane" on the track
"science"
New Jam and Style Council 'best of' albums took his earlier
career back into the charts, including a reissue of "The Bitterest Pill
(I Ever Had To Swallow") and his own solo 'best of' collection Modern
Classics was a substantial success in 1998.
The year 2000 saw the release of his fifth solo studio album,
and seventh solo effort overall, called Heliocentric
(as well as the Modern Classics compilation, there
had also been the 1994 live album called Live Wood).
There were rumours at the time that this would be his final studio
effort, but these proved unfounded when he released the No. 1 hit album
Illumination
in September 2002, preceded by yet another top ten hit single "It's
Written In The Stars". Between these two albums he had also released a
second successful live album, 2001's Days
Of Speed, which contained live acoustic
versions from his world tour of the same name. The LP included some of
his best-known songs not just from his solo career but from The Jam and
Style Council] back catalogues as well. This was mainly due to the fact
that Paul had again found himself without a record contract and the
tour provided him with the opportunity to view his works as one back
catalogue.
2003 saw Weller team up with electronic-rock duo Death
in Vegas on a cover of Gene Clark's "So You Say You Lost Your
Baby" which featured on the album Scorpio
Rising.
In 2004 Weller released an album of covers entitled Studio 150.
It debuted at No. 2 in the UK charts and included Bob Dylan's,
"All Along the Watchtower",
better known by the flinky-fingered guitarist Jimi
Hendrix. The album also contained the singles "The Bottle" originally
performed by Gil Scott Heron, "Wishing On A Star"
by Rose
Royce, "Thinking Of You" by Sister Sledge and "Early Morning Rain"
by Gordon Lightfoot. This was a
limited edition, coloured vinyl only, double A-sided 7", along with a
cover of The Beatles' "Come Together". There was live concert film
featuring the material, and accusations followed that perhaps Weller's
handlers where trying to "pull a Rod Stewart" on his image.
His 2005 album As Is Now featured
the singles "From The Floorboards Up", "Come On/Let's Go" and "Here's
The Good News". Weller released a double live album titled Catch-Flame!
on 12 June, 2006 with songs from both his solo work and his career with
The Jam and The Style Council.
In late 2006, the album Hit Parade
was released. This collected together all the singles released by the
Jam, Style Council and Weller during his solo career. Two versions of
this album were released. A single disc with a selection from each
stage of his career, and a four disc limited
edition, which included every single released and came with a sixty
four page booklet. However, the album did not include the new "Wild
Blue Yonder" single, which was released on the same day.
Legacy
- Three of Weller's songs - two Style Council numbers and one
song from The Jam - appeared on the soundtrack to the film Billy
Elliot.
- His influence upon the 1990s generation of British guitar
bands, coupled with his love of 1960's Mod-era music, had earned him
the affectionate nickname "The Modfather".
In 1995 he collaborated with Oasis's guitarist/songwriter Noel
Gallagher and Paul McCartney to form a
one-off 'super group' called The Smokin' Mojo Filters, releasing a
charity version of The Beatles' hit "Come
Together" in aid of Bosnian children.
- The Style Council came in at No. 97, Weller as a solo
artist at No. 21 and The Jam at No. 5 in British national radio station
Virgin
Radio's poll in December 2002 to find the top 100 British artists of
all time.
- In February 2006 Paul Weller received the Lifetime
Achievement award at the BRIT Awards. At the presentation, he
played his solo tracks "From The Floorboards Up", "Come On"/"Let's Go",
"The Changingman" and also The Jam's "Town Called Malice".
- With Steve White, Weller also set up a website called
checkemlads.com following a chat with a fan Philly
Morris who was going through cancer treatment in 2003. The cancer
awareness website
is now the most viewed cancer website by men in the UK.
- In 1983, The Jam broke The Beatles' record of 7 singles in
the Top 100 simultaneously. The Jam placed 14 singles in the same week.
This happened when Polydor rushed to re-release their entire back
catalogue following the split.
Personal life
Soon after the formation of the Style Council, Weller and
Style Council backing singer Dee C. Lee
formed a romantic relationship. The couple married, and
have two children, Nathaniel and Leah. The couple are now divorced.
Weller has five children in total, two with Lee, one from a
short relationship, and two with his current girlfriend.
Trivia
- Paul Weller's song catalogue is published by BMG
Music Publishing.
- He once got thrown out of a nightclub for punching Sid
Vicious
- Weller played guitar on Peter
Gabriel’s 1980 album Peter
Gabriel
- He also played lead guitar on the song Champagne
Supernova by Oasis on their album (What's the Story)
Morning Glory
- Morrissey has covered the Weller
song 'That's Entertainment', on his 'Best of' Album.
Solo discography
Studio Albums
- Paul Weller
(1992) - #8 UK
- Wild Wood (1993) -
#2 UK
- Stanley Road
(1995) - #1 UK
- Heavy Soul (1997)
- #2 UK
- Heliocentric
(2000) - #2 UK
- Illumination
(2002) - #1 UK
- Studio 150 (2004)
- #2 UK
- As is Now (2005) -
#4 UK
Compilation and Live Albums
- Live Wood (1994) -
#13 UK
- Modern Classics
- The Greatest Hits (1998) - #7 UK
- Days Of Speed
(2001) - #3 UK
- Fly On The
Wall - B Sides And Rarities (2003) - #22 UK
- Catch-Flame!
(2006) - #17 UK
- Hit Parade
(2006) - #7 UK
Re-Issues
- Stanley Road
(10th Anniversary Edition) (2005) - #51 UK
- Wild Wood (Deluxe Edition)
(2007)
Singles
From Paul Weller
- "Into Tomorrow" (as The Paul Weller Movement)
(1991) - #36 UK
- "Uh Huh Oh Yeh" (1992) - #18 UK
- "Above The Clouds" (1992) - #47 UK
From Wild Wood
- "Sunflower" (1993) - #16 UK
- "Wild Wood" (1993) - #14 UK
- "The Weaver" (1993) - #18 UK
- "Hung Up" (1994) - #11 UK
From Stanley Road
- "Out Of The Sinking" (1994) - #20 UK
- "The Changingman" (1995) - #7 UK
- "You Do Something To Me" (1995) - #9 UK
- "Broken Stones" (1995) - #20 UK
- "Out Of The Sinking" re-issue (1996) - #16 UK
From Heavy Soul
- "Peacock Suit" (1996) - #5 UK
- "Brushed" (1997) - #14 UK
- "Friday Street" (1997) - #21 UK
- "Mermaids" (1997) - #30 UK
From Modern Classics
- The Greatest Hits
- "Brand New Start" (1998) - #16 UK
- "Wild Wood" re-release (1999) - #22 UK
From Heliocentric
- "The Keeper" (2000) - Did Not Chart: The
first and to date only single by Weller (whether solo, or as a member
of The Jam, The Style Council or The Council Collective) to completely
miss the UK charts. This broke a string of 54 straight chart singles
for Weller over 23 years.
- "Sweet Pea, My Sweet Pea" (2000) - #44 UK
Non-album single
- "Brother To Brother" (Terry Callier & Paul Weller)
(2002) - #81 UK
From Illumination
- "It's Written In The Stars" (2002) - #7 UK
- "Leafy Mysteries" (2002) - #23 UK
From Studio 150
- "The Bottle" (2004) - #13 UK
- "Wishing On A Star" (2004) - #11 UK
- "Thinking Of You" (2004) - #18 UK
- "Early Morning Rain"/"Come Together" (2005) - #40 UK Charted
as double A-side. "Come Together" does not appear on Studio
150.
From As is Now
- "From The Floorboards Up" (2005) - #6 UK
- "Come On/Let's Go" (2005) - #15 UK
- "Here's The Good News" (2005) - #21 UK
Non-album singles
- "Wild Blue Yonder" (2006) - #22 UK
- "This Old Town" (Graham Coxon & Paul
Weller) (2007) - #39 UK
- "Are You Trying To Be Lonely" (Andy Lewis
& Paul Weller) (2007)
External links
References
- Munn,
Iain (2006). Mr Cool's Dream. The Complete History Of The
Style Council. Wholepoint Publications. ISBN
0-9551443-0-2.
