PAUL WELLER | LIVE REVIEW
Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Sun 22 Nov
With a back catalogue as vast as Paul Weller’s, it’s impossible to please everyone. Yet he gives it a gallant go tonight, with selections from multiple eras of his 40-year career. It’s surprising that some of his biggest hits are ignored though: That’s Entertainment, Eton Rifles, Shout To The Top and Wild Wood to name a few.
Hence, it’s a curveball when he opens with new album tracks I’m Where I Should Be and Long Time. A double-header of Jam songs gets everybody back onside (Boy About Town and Ghosts), but it’s not until a blistering version of White Sky that Weller really hits his stride.
The energy levels are sustained throughout a boisterous trio of Come On / Let’s Go, The Attic and From The Floorboards Up; however, the momentum is lost when an excess of mellow songs follow. Regardless, some of Weller’s best songwriting is conveyed when he’s behind the piano, as exemplified by Saturn’s Pattern, Going My Way and Above The Clouds.
The ‘Modfather’ keeps chatter to a minimum and there’s no targets of his infamous venom, as he tries to cram in as many tunes as possible. Extended versions of Into Tomorrow and Porcelain Gods contradict this approach, but it’s unfair to quibble when nearly 30 songs are performed. Plus, they demonstrate what fine musicians are onstage as two drummers deliver solos whilst Weller and Steve Cradock shred their fretboards.
Despite the beers flowing on a ‘school night’, the audience remains largely subdued, and one of the biggest cheers is reserved for a song not actually written by Weller. Local boy Andy Fairweather Low appears as a special guest, and his 1969 number one single (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice is raucously received by the Cardiff crowd. A third encore is then milked for all it’s worth, with traditional set-closer Town Called Malice stealing the show.
The most intriguing thing about Weller is his chameleon-like approach to music in an age when the charts are dominated by the bland and transient. Never prepared to rest on his laurels, Weller broke up The Jam at the height of their success to “sell classical music to the masses” with The Style Council. With that band he once wrote a hit called My Ever Changing Moods (performed mid-set), which is a reflection on his volatile temper. It could also depict a man who’s never satisfied with his art and is constantly seeking both inspiration and perfection.
Yet in a setlist encapsulating rock, soul, reggae and new wave, there’s one song title that captures the essence of Weller more than any other – The Changingman.
words NEIL COLLINS photos SIMON AYRE