Brighton Magazine

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Selected Brighton Magazine Article

Monday 21 October 2024

Review: Paul Weller @ The Brighton Centre

The Brighton Centre has opened its doors to Paul Weller countless times over the last forty-five years. As frontman of The Jam and The Style Council and even more times through his current three-decades-plus solo career.
Credit: Andy Sturmey

Still the sold-out signs are posted on the venue's website months before the event. The Weller-related chat rooms are buzzing - tour or no tour.

Following Weller has for many, including myself, been a lifetime's pursuit. 

Many became hooked via early doors (The Jam), got married, had children, often divorced (The Style Council), and then gave up (hopefully) the hedonism for something a little more sedate (Paul Weller solo - the purple patch - circa 2008-to-?).

Those changes have been soundtracked by a man who has the gift to articulate what many of his generation struggle to express.

That soundtrack was played out at The Brighton Centre, on Saturday night, by Weller and his water tight band - Steve Cradock (guitar), Jake Fletcher(bass guitar), Steve Pilgrim (drums), Tom Van Heel (keys), Ben Gordelier (percussion) and Jacko Peake (flute and saxophone).


The clock struck 8.42pm, the stage lights dropped and entrance music Tomorrow Never Knows (The Beatles) pumped through the PA - the bar cleared and the auditorium floor filled.

8.45pm prompt - up came the lights and on strode Weller and his band. No greetings, just straight into Cosmic Fringes (Fat Pop - 2001) and we were into the twenty-eight song set. 

A set generously sprinkled with tracks from across his forty-five year recording career.

New songs from the recent release of Weller's 66 album (Jumble Queen, Soul Wandering, Nothing and Rise Up Singing), sat well alongside the likes of The Jam's (Start, That's Entertainment and A Town Called Malice), and The Style Council's (My Ever Changing Moods, Headstart For Happiness, and Have You Ever Had It Blue?).

But the most recent songs in the set weren't written by Weller alone. He now looks to collaborate, farming out musical ideas to the likes of Bobby Gillespie, Suggs, Earland Cooper and Noel Gallagher and receiving back full sets of lyrics.


Weller feels he's proved himself in the lyrical department and would rather retain quality via collaboration. 

And the same applies on stage. The band are tight, engaged and creatively open when it comes to musically expressing the many different styles and genres Weller has forensically investigated and subsequently recorded throughout his recording career.

Weller gave a special shout-out to his 2020 album, On Sunset, An album that couldn't be toured because of Covid lockdowns. A situation likely to be rectified next year with some On Sunset themed shows.

Second of the evening's shout-outs went to Chalky, a friend of Suggs (Madness) who, via a poem, contributed to the lyrics of 66 track, Nothing. Chalky was up in the seated balcony looking as proud as punch.

Twenty track in and Out Of The Sinking (Stanley Road) started a run of older material that lasted through to the encore's final anthem, A Town Called Malice (The Gift).

Weller and band received a rapturous farewell from the 'up-for-it' Brighton crowd. On current form there's no reason why those sold-out signs won't be displayed outside The Brighton Centre for many more years to come.

Catch Paul Weller on tour until 9th November 2024. CLICK HERE for details. 

by: Mike Cobley




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