Mod Almighty

My only previous encounter with Paul Weller was in the gentleman’s toilet at Oxegen 2006. He duded in, said “nice barnet, mate!” to a friend of mine who was running a comb through his feather-cut and then disappeared into one of the cubicles to contemplate the enormity of life. I was hoping he might have remembered me, but sadly not.

“Sorry about that!” Weller grins. “I never forget a haircut, but I’m not so good with faces. That’s one of the drawbacks of getting older – your memory goes!”
He may have reached his first half-century – “plus VAT!” – but the 51-year-old still looks as razor sharp as he did in the ‘70s when he burst onto the scene with The Jam. While many of his contemporaries have betrayed their younger selves, Weller – from the tip of his Bottega Veneta brogues to the top of his own spiky barnet – has remained 100% true to the Mod aesthetic.
“I’ll never waiver from or fall out of love with it,” he reflects. “It’s so much a part of me now that I can’t imagine my life being any other way. The first time I heard the word ‘Mod’ was probably when they showed the seaside riots and all that shite on the TV news. I was too young to hop on a scooter and go down to Brighton, but by 1969 I was into the skinhead/suedehead thing, which was pretty similar clothes, music and attitude-wise to Mod. It was that white working-class love affair with Afro-American music and, because you’ve otherwise got fuck all, wanting to look as good as you possibly can on Saturday night. I think it’s become a lot broader since then – every generation that’s come along and discovered it has added its own mark, which is good because it’s not just sad old bastards like me droning on about 40 years ago!”
Talking of those Mod v Rocker rumbles in Brighton, what did Paul make of Phil Daniels’ recent revelation that John Lydon screen-tested for the part of Jimmy in Quadrophenia, and would have got it but for the fact that no one was prepared to insure him?
“Yeah, I never realised that until Phil said it on the radio. Lydon was alright in those butter ads, but Quadrophenia? I don’t think it would have worked.”
Does Weller have a favorite music film?
“Not really. I imagine from everything I’ve heard about it that I’m going to love Telstar – The Joe Meek Story. That whole thing of recording in the bathroom ‘cause it gives you a certain type of echo – brilliant! One I did see recently and really liked was the Ian Dury movie, Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll. To be honest I expected it to be a bit pony, but the guy who played Ian (Andy Serkis) was amazing. I bumped into one of the Blockheads, Chaz Jankel, yesterday by chance and he said they got it spot on.”
Researching the new Runaways movie recently, I came across a killer YouTube clip of Paul discussing “the new wave” on a late-night American talk show with Joan Jett, Runaways manager Kim Fowley, promoter Bill Graham and some beardy bloke from the LA Times who got right up his nose.
“That’s weird you say that ‘cause my girlfriend showed me that a few months ago – she Googled it or whatever they fucking do these days. It looked like something out of Mad Men with us all chain-smoking. It was on my first trip to America in 1977 and the label thought it’d help us sell loads of records there – which of course we never did.”
An inability to make the cash-registers ring isn’t a problem Weller has had in the UK where it’s been 27 years since an album of his has failed to make it into the top 10. That unbroken run is guaranteed to continue next month with the release of Wake Up The Nation, the loudest, angriest and, well, Jam-iest collection of songs he’s come up with since beat surrendering in 1982.
“It was a lot of fun to make,” Paul enthuses. “We had a couple of days where we just fucking ploughed through it all, and got as much down as possible. We were literally working on ten songs at the same time, which was completely different to how I normally operate. Lyrically I was making shit up on the spot, and seeing what worked and what got wiped so it’ll never, ever be heard by anybody again! I’ve done albums in the past, which because the spirit or the songs weren’t there were like pulling teeth, but this one almost made itself. To be around as long as I have and suddenly discover a new way of doing things was very liberating.”
Having issued its “Get your face off the Facebook/And turn off the phone” clarion call, Wake Up The Nation’s spiky title-track goes on to bemoan “the death of the post-box.” Bit of a technophobe, are we Paul?
“Yeah, I’m a card-carrying Luddite,” he says proudly. “The internet’s the fucking devil’s window as far as I’m concerned.”
The track that older Weller fans are likely to make a beeline for first is ‘Fast Car/Slow Traffic’, a 1min 59sec get in there, do the damage and get out again stomper, which finds him kissing and making up with his old Jam mate Bruce Foxton.
“Yeah, you can tell straight away that it’s Bruce on bass. What opened up the dialogue between us was that my dad and his wife, Pat, both became ill at around the same time (in 2008). I phoned Bruce to see how she was getting on and, well, I think we both realised that life’s too fucking short to be bearing grudges. He was the one who said, ‘If you’re ever in need of a bass-player give me a call’, so when it came to doing ‘Fast Cars/Slow Traffic’ I thought, ‘We’ve got to get Foxton on this ‘cause he’ll sound great!’”
Was there much reminiscing?
“Not a whole lot. We mainly talked about what we’d been up to recently, had a laugh and made music – just like we used to in the old days. It was good that when Pat and my dad subsequently passed away we were there for each other.”
John Weller was a music industry greenhorn when he scored The Jam their deal – Polydor had to pay him the band’s advance in tenners because he didn’t have a bank account – but went on to successfully manage his son for over 30 years.
“The things I’m proudest of in my career are making 22 Dreams; being on the tour bus in the early days with the Style Council, which was like a sort of mobile youth club; the band I’ve got now – there’s a great camaraderie and brotherhood amongst everybody; and drinking in every hotel and airport bar in the world with my dad! It was a real best mates sort of a relationship.”
Whereas Bono says he found it highly therapeutic to write about his Dad Bob after he died, there are no obvious signs of any of the tracks on Wake Up The Nation being about Paul’s old man.
“I just thought it would be too much of an obvious thing to do. There is a track called ‘Trees’, which is about old age and people coming to the end of their days, but it’s more of a general observation. If I did write a song about my Dad, it would be a celebration of the fact that he was always fucking having it!”
Along with the aforementioned Mr. Foxton, Wake Up The Nation also features guest appearances by former Move and ELO drummer Bev Bevan; 72-year-old Tornadoes drummer Clem Cattino who was one of the people Joe Meek had in his bathroom; and – cue swelling of national pride – Kevin Shields.
“I love the freedom of being able to call someone up and say, ‘Hey, do you fancy coming into the studio for a couple of hours?’ Bev, who I’ve fucking loved since I was a kid, plays on two songs, which we wanted to give a bit of a ‘60s psychedelic feel to. Clem took a bit of tracking down but I’m glad we did ‘cause he was genius on ‘No Tears To Cry’, which is an homage to Dusty Springfield, The Walker Brothers and that sort of Phillips – as in the record label – sound. Clem played on ‘The Sun Don’t Shine Anymore’ and ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’, so he was definitely the man for the job. Kevin turned up with a huge big bag of effects pedals but turned out to be a pretty fast worker like the others.
“There’s quite a thick, dense sound on the record,” he reflects. “Even though the songs are very short, they’re constantly darting around and doing their best to mess with your head!”
Would Paul agree with his good friend Noel Gallagher’s assertion that being a musician is the Rolls Royce of professions?
“I certainly wouldn’t change it for the world, man. Since I was 10 or 11, all I’ve wanted to do in life is write and perform songs. It’s a lucky person who can hand-on-heart say they love what they do. That’s why I don’t get jaded or feel cynical about it. I still count my blessings that I’m not in some poxy office or factory counting down the minutes until I can go to the pub and get pissed.”
How does he think the young, straight out of Woking, Paul Weller would get on with the more worldly wise gentleman sat in front of me today?
“I don’t know if he’d like him as a person, but he’d definitely go out and buy Wake Up The Nation. I’ve still got a lot in common with the younger me.”
Returning to Noel Gallagher, I’d like if I may to quote a few lines from a 2003 Hot Press interview of his. Asked whether Ian McCulloch is one of the most full-on characters he’s ever met, Noel said: “He’s in and around the top 10, but nowhere near as mad-for-it as, say, Paul Weller. What was really scary was a session I had with him, Liam and Messrs. Craddock and Fowler from Ocean Colour Scene. Apart from anything else, they’re completely fascist about their musical taste. Liam’d say he liked such-and-such band and Weller’d go, ‘Yeah, but look at the fucking shoes they’re wearing!’” Ring any bells?
“He does tell a good story Noel, doesn’t he?” Paul chuckles. “I’m a fucking boy scout compared to Mac! On a sliding scale of one to ten, I’d be a ‘5’ compared to his ‘9’ in the bad behaviour department. Noel’s a ‘6’ and Liam depending on the mood he’s in a ‘7’ or an ‘8’! We’ve had some good nights on the beer though, that’s for sure.”
Was he forced to take sides during the recent Oasis divorce?
“Nah, I love ‘em equally. They’re both top boys who are going to do something really good. It’s sad for their fans, I know, but creatively I think it’s going to be much better for them. I’ve heard stuff of Liam’s that’s been fucking mega, but for whatever reason never made it on to an Oasis record.”
I hope having nicked the name ‘Pretty Green’ for his clothing company that Liam sent Paul a load of free clobber.
“He did, bless him. It’s Mod clothing – parkas and the like – some of which have made it into my wardrobe. I think it’s aimed at a slightly younger clientele than me, but it’s quality stuff and doing quite well I hear.”
Who out of the Gallaghers and him is the biggest Beatles fan?
“You trying to start a row?” he deadpans. “I’m probably the saddest fan in that I once went to the house John Lennon had in Ascot and picked up a leaf which had fallen from a tree in the grounds. I wrapped it in Sellotape and kept it for fucking years. I’m an out and out fucking spotter!”
Has he ever confessed this to Paul McCartney?
“Er, no! As lovely and gracious as he’s been when I’ve met him, I always get completely tongue-tied. There are a million things I’d like to ask, but I can’t get the words out.”
When did his Fab Four obsession start?
“The moment I saw the ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ promo film on Top Of The Pops in grainy black and white. If a new book comes out about The Beatles – I Was Ringo Starr’s Grandmother’s Gardener and the like – I have to have it!
“I definitely inherited wanting each of my records to be different from The Beatles. That and the fact that I’m a person who naturally gets bored and restless with the same sound. As much as possible I try to move on and in a respectful way challenge my audience.”
Wake Up The Nation is actually one of two new records Weller’s got in the shops, with Northern Soul guru Keb Darge asking him to co-compile the latest in his Lost & Found: Real R’n’B And Soul series.
Featuring long-lost gems from the likes of Big Mama Thornton, The Brothers Of Soul, Epitome Of Sound and Velma Cross & Her High Steppers – they had proper band names in the ‘60s – it explains where a lot of Paul’s inspiration has come from down through the decades.
“I’m pretty sure I just saw Keb dancing on the new Plan B video, ‘Stay Too Long’, which is a fantastic tune. It’s basically a load of the songs I get to play the odd time I DJ. One of the things I regret is being just a bit too young and skint to go up to those Northern Soul all-nighters in Wigan. I did a reunion-style thing with Keb in Soho recently that a lot of the old faces were at, and that was a laugh.”
Has Paul got a stupidly big record collection?
“I wouldn’t say stupidly big, but I’ve a few, yeah. My pride and joy is one by John Lucien called ‘In Search Of The Inner Self’, which I bought for about seventy quid 20 years ago in a place called Boogaloo Records in Leicester, and is now going for something ridiculous like a grand.”
Lest you think that his tastes atrophied in the early ‘70s, Weller wants you all to know about his favourite new band.
“The record that made me go: ‘Wow, there’s another fucking world out there!’ before Christmas was Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age by Broadcast. They’re on Warp, and make this bonkers noise, which is verging on Stockhausen. While not making a record exactly like it, I can see myself becoming more experimental in the future.”
Although a relatively happy bunny these days, Weller blew a gasket recently when David Cameron said of his time at public school, “It meant a lot, some of those early Jam albums we used to listen to. I don’t see why the left should be the only ones allowed to listen to protest songs.”
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – which part of ‘Eton Rifles’ doesn’t he get?” Paul snaps. “They can re-brand all they want, but there’s fuck all difference between the Tories now and the way they were under Thatcher.”
Paul made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2008 when he split with his girlfriend of 13 years, Samantha Stock, and shortly afterwards moved in with 22 Dreams backing-singer Hannah Andrews who the tabloids delighted in reporting is 27 years his junior. While wanting to keep that side of his life private, Weller looks rather chuffed when I mention something else that Noel Gallagher told me about him – he’s a great Dad.
“I’ve five kids, so I’m not lacking in practice,” he smiles. “They mean the world to me, and already it looks like a couple of them are going to be following in the family trade. My eldest son is shopping around for a deal at the moment, and my daughter’s made two fantastic demos that I’m on at her to send to people.
“Whatever they do, I’m happy as long as they’re happy, but I can’t think of a finer profession than being involved in music or something else creative. I just want them to have an amazing a life as I’ve had.”