Skip to main content

Paul Weller - Review From The Halifax Evening Courier

From The Halifax Evening Courier.

Published Date: 06 May 2008
By Suzanne Rutter
The Victoria Theatre, Halifax

IT WAS almost too good to be true, like a Bank Holiday gift from heaven – The Modfather played Halifax. I like to think being born when the Jam's Going Underground was number one gave me a good ear for a decent tune. So I had high expectations of Paul Weller's sell-out Victoria gig. And I was not disappointed. Last night, the intimate venue felt like a communal living room for his Calderdale fans. The consummate showman, he strutted around the stage showing that performing was truly his only business. There was little chit-chat in between.

It was a bit of slow start as he played tracks from his new album, 22 Dreams, to be released in June. "New songs, new band, so we're kind of still practising," he told us.

So it was a relief to hear tunes such as From The Floorboards Up and Porcelain Gods – songs we knew the words to. A highlight was Paul's new single, Have You Made Up Your Mind? Following that was a four-man acoustic set, including On A Misty Morning and Brand New Start.

People got on their feet for Peacock Suit and Changing Man but, disappointingly, crowd-pleasers You Do Something To Me, Wild Wood or A Town Called Malice were missing from the set. A sound collection of new material, but some more of the old would have thrilled the audience even more.

But when he sings live Paul Weller shows he knows the science of music.

Now, that's entertainment.

Comments

  1. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 13:10

    well he did it for me!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 13:12

    well he does it for me!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 14:48

    well he could have sung ba ba black sheep..he does it for me!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BBC's Review Of Paul Weller's "WUTN!"

BBC Review "A parade-worthy triumph from an artist rediscovering his experimental side." Chris Lo 2010-04-09 Over the course of Paul Weller’s career, he has displayed the kind of restless genre-hopping that saw him dissolve The Jam at the height of their powers in favour of experimenting with Motown, funk and synth-jazz with The Style Council. His resurrection as solo artist and exalted figure of the Britpop scene in the 90s saw this experimental spirit recede somewhat in the face of traditional rock releases that propelled him to the peak of the UK charts. As a result, casual listeners tend to identify Weller with the kind of dad-friendly trad-rock that blights record store shelves every time Father’s Day rolls around. However, with 2008’s 22 Dreams and now Wake Up the Nation, fans are being reacquainted with Weller the innovator. Here the Modfather is making full use of his exceptional musical vocabulary, and Wake Up the Nation feels like an unrestrained sonic explo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Paul Weller Interview With The Quietus!

Sins Of The Modfather: Paul Weller Speaks About Leaving His Comfort Zone Julian Marszalek , April 19th, 2010 06:55 A feature on the musical landscape since the late 1970s, it can become all too easy to take Paul Weller for granted. Indeed, the popular perception of a gruff geezer stuck in some kind of 60s timewarp is one that does a disservice to a artist who has, over the course of his career, challenged himself as much as his audience. This, after all is the man who broke up The Jam – one of the most popular and important bands of their generation – at the height of their fame to pursue new ideas in a new realm. Certainly, the passage of time has served to obscure Weller's sonic detours with The Style Council in the 1980s, while his early endorsement of house music evidenced not only a then lone voice on the wilderness, but an artist whose keen musical ear kept him excited by what music still had to offer. 2008's 22 Dreams found Weller rekindling his muse as he explored...
Post a Comment
Read more

Paul Weller Interviewed During Maida Vale Appearance For BBC Radio 4!

Fresh back from a short tour of the US and Japan, Paul Weller talks about the 30th anniversary of The Jam's sixth and final studio album, The Gift, and where he's at right now. Repost From The Huffington Post By: Jason Holmes Paul Weller bounds into his chair, an electronic cigarette gripped in his hand. We're in the BBC's Studio Three in Maida Vale. Visibly calm owing to post-tour exhaustion and a morning trip to the gym, Weller is here to be interviewed by John Wilson for BBC Radio 4's Mastertapes series. "Back in those days, bands put out an album a year, you toured with it for a year, then you went back in the studio and repeated the process. Looking back, I was glad I experienced that pressure. It helped me refine my craft and find myself as a writer. It kept me on my toes," says Weller, Gibson acoustic on knee. "It wasn't a treadmill, it was just what bands did back then. I never questioned it." Lest the passing decades dim...
Post a Comment
Read more