22 Dreams Review From The New Zealand Herald!

Paul Weller
22 Dreams
Rating: * * * * *

As he hits his 50th year with eight solo albums already under his belt, as well as a further dozen in his time as the frontman of The Jam and Style Council, Paul Weller could be excused for taking it easy.

After all, he'll forever remembered as the guy who swung from the anger of Eton Rifles to the languor of Long Hot Summer within a few confusing years.

His solo albums - save for Wild Wood and Stanley Road - have become increasingly interchangeable. Solid efforts but hard to take to heart, even if you're a long-time follower of Britrock's modfather.

But then along comes 22 Dreams.

If the only surprise with past Weller solo albums was which one of him was going to turn up first or most - folkWeller, soulWeller, or rockWeller - then this one confounds expectations. They all front up but so do a couple of other Wellerfellas, on a free-ranging double-album of multiple genres and personalities.

But somehow - though sheer energy and some robust songs interspersed among the experimental bits- this holds up.

After the strident folk-rock opener Light Nights, Weller is off on his own magical mystery tour.

Soon he's channeling Marvin Gaye on Empty Ring, talking to the man upstairs on the spoken- word God, and getting melancholy on the keyboard on the Costelloesque ballad Invisible.

The indulgence this all craves is offset by a momentum frequently given a nudge by the rock sparks of the title track, as well as Push it Along and the Oasis-assisted Echoes Around the Sun.

It's a long perplexing album from a guy seemingly tired of his own predictability. But it's still a dream run.

Russell Baillie
New Zealand Herald

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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 ‘…

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 …

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