Paul Weller @ the Eventim Apollo, London (Photo: Alberto Pezzali for Live4ever Media)
We exist in a time when a quick search online can give a good indication of what someone will play before you’ve been to the gig.
After Paul Weller‘s lengthy encore on Friday night (December 4th) at London’s Eventim Apollo, not one body moves towards the exit, as if expectant of more to come. Perhaps they’d already looked it up and seen he’s recently taken to doing a couple of encores per show. A surprise or not, Weller and his band duly appear one last time for a much shorter second encore, ending in an erupting rendition of ‘Town Called Malice‘ that has the mostly reserved crowd, until now, dancing on their feet.
The consistent respect that Weller has garnered over nearly four decades is evidenced in two hours’ worth of music backed by a group including, unusually for someone who isn’t a metal-head or Phil Collins, two drummers along with the ever-present Steve Cradock. Weller belies his 57 years, moving animatedly over the floor, framed by a huge hexagon of light. His mop of grey hair, more lank than usual, flops about as he figures like the sprucest of dads in trousers and a grandad collared t-shirt — his lifelong love of modish clothing no secret.
It takes just two songs before The Jam, surely one of the Britain’s most overlooked exports, is referenced in ‘Boy About Town‘ and ‘Ghosts‘. The former is something of a tamer take on the original, while the latter sees a snippet of extracurricular entertainment in the form of two children spilling out from the side of the stage, briefly jumping and rolling about beside an oblivious Weller.
Steve Cradock performing with Paul Weller @ the Eventim Apollo, London (Photo: Alberto Pezzali for Live4ever Media)
It’s an envious position to have at your disposal; a back catalogue of tunes that can skip glibly between punk rock (‘Start!‘), synthpop (‘Long Hot Summer‘) and even bossa nova (‘Have You Ever Had It Blue‘), and all these from the first quarter of his career. Newer numbers off his latest solo album ‘Saturns Pattern‘ don’t excite quite as much as the more worn solo efforts, but this feels more down to a lack of entrenched familiarity than any shortfall in quality. For example, ‘Going My Way‘ is a delicate piano-led ballad shaken up by an ELO influence that deserves to grow old long into future sets.
Indulgence rears up on occasion. ‘Porcelain Gods‘ receives the extended jam treatment and ‘Into Tomorrow‘ is an excuse for Cradock to flex his dexterity over a guitar solo, albeit an ovational one. Paul Weller is an artist as multi-faceted as the other Paul (the Beatle one) and, like McCartney, one with the privilege of being able to pick out a completely different bundle of songs for each performance if he really wanted to, without ever leaving fans unfulfilled.
The steam might be coming out a little mellower these days, but he still packs a live punch as heavy as anyone else around.