Review Of Derby Show From 'This Is DerbyShire'!

BY KELLY SHORROCK
KSHORROCK@DERBYTELEGRAPH.CO.UK

08:00 - 13 May 2008

The 'modfather' Paul Weller came to Derby last night - and was worshipped by a sell-out crowd. Many of the 2,000 fans at the Assembly Rooms gig had queued for hours in the cold when tickets went on sale in March.

And the verdict after the concert was that it was well worth the wait. For super-fan Chris Spencer, it was the fourth time he had seen Weller perform.

Speaking before the gig, the 21-year-old, of Frederick Street, Riddings, said: "Weller has always been a huge influence in my life, his songs always strike a chord.

"I really admire him, he's moved with the times and keeps reinventing himself."

Tim Barker, 22, of Tavistock Avenue, Ripley, agreed that attracting big names such as Weller was great for the city. He said, "It's fantastic that he's playing the Assembly Rooms. Derby is going through a really good phase musically at the moment - I hope it continues."

Sam Warrington, 57, and his 19-year-old son Joe were ecstatic when they managed to get tickets for the gig after standing in line for an hour-and-a-half. Mr Warrington, of Main Avenue, Allestree, said, "It was well worth it, I'm a massive fan and it's brilliant that he's come to Derby."

Weller entertained the capacity crowd with a mixture of old and new material, playing songs from his new album 22 Dreams, due out next month.

But it was the old favourites such as Eton Rifles which attracted the biggest cheers.

Jean Mannion, of Normanton, had been given tickets for the gig as a 56th birthday surprise from her partner Michael Smith and said it was the best present she had ever had. She said, "The man is a genius with a guitar, he is an amazing musician and it has been a brilliant night."

Mark Knutton, of Derby, summed up the feeling on the night. The 47-year-old said: "That was a god up there on stage tonight - better than I ever expected."

Comments

Steve White On The Passing of John Weller...

It wasn't unexpected to get the news that John Weller had passed away , it was a beautiful sunny morning in fact , but the news still stung even though the anticipation existed .

I finished work today , a day peppered by texts and calls , I missed the call that mattered but made ammends and spoke to the one person I needed to speak to , I raised a glass at dinner and reminisced with my beautiful partner of days of travel and nights of glory that followed , and after a little to much wine the drowsiness lifted and the harsh reality that someone very special had passed hit me , I wanted to say that , with my emotions bubbling very much to the surface , I wanted to remember those decades and shows and nights that we all spent together , indestructible , laughing and making the music of our dreams , wide eyed vagabonds not quite believing .

I remember the day on arriving back from Sydney, John telling me it was all over and he had enough of "this lark" , that was 24 odd years …

John Weller Obituary From The Independent...

For thirty years, John Weller managed the career of his son Paul, through the salad days and success of The Jam in the Seventies and early Eighties, the ups and downs of The Style Council and Paul’s re-emergence as a solo artist in the Nineties. Theirs was a unique father-son relationship in the music industry, built on John’s unwavering belief in Paul’s talent and shared values like hard work and pragmatism.

John could be blunt, and once refused to have lunch in a record company’s executive dining room, remarking to the managing director: “I didn’t come here to eat, I came to do business.” But his bark was worse than his bite.

John’s success was all the more remarkable since he started in his forties after years working in factories, on building sites and driving a taxi. When The Jam signed to Polydor in February 1977, for a £6,000 advance and a six per cent royalty rate, John admitted he didn’t have a bank account and asked for cash instead of a cheque. A&R man Chris Parry duly we…

Paul Weller's Son, Natt Gives A Candid Taxi Interview

Where else to meet the musician son of the agelessly groovy Modfather but at London’s trendy Met Bar? And there’s more than a hint of moody Mod style about the Japanese parka that Paul Weller’s eldest child Natt has slung over his Vivienne Westwood top.

Yet there all similarity ends, for singer-guitarist Natt has inherited the exotic beauty of his mother – former Wham! and Style Council backing singer Dee C Lee – rather than the famously angular features of his father.

‘Everybody always goes, “Luckily he took after his mum…”’ laughs Natt, whose mother is from France and St Lucia and whose great-great grandma was Japanese. Hence Natt’s fascination for Japan, where he moved in 2006 for a year to learn the language.

To pay for his studies, he modelled and deejayed, ‘I felt like an outsized monster,’ confides Natt, 21, a 6ft 1in beanpole. He returned a fan of Japan’s popular culture – from manga cartoons to punk-goth music – and with a different spelling to his name, which now features two ‘…

Paul Weller News!

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