Paul Weller News!

Modfather Plays The Stuff Of Dreams Tuesday 29 Jul, 2008 From 7 Days - UAE Those of a certain age would have first clapped eyes on Paul Weller performing his debut single ‘In The City’, aged just 18. That was 1977, and punk was in full swing. Noisy, skinny youths were everywhere, but there was something special about this particular angry young man.Weller had more to say than merely taking a swipe at the Monarchy, as the Sex Pistols did that same year, and The Jam’s songs would go on to tackle small-town mentalities, the monotony of nine-to-five jobs and other universal themes of love and life.Wrapped in timeless pop melodies and an energetic mass of guitar, bass and drums, Weller’s songs came from the suburbs south of London but spoke to the everyman all over the country - so much so that by the time he controversially disbanded The Jam at the height of their fame in 1982, they’d become one of the biggest-selling and passionately supported British groups since The Beatles. Performing ...

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Paul is scheduled to appear on BBC2's "The Culture Show" tonight at 10pm. In addition to an interview about the new album, there will be an acoustic performance.

Many thanks to Pete aka The Eton Rifle Paul Weller at Osborne House Review From This Is Hampshire QUEEN Victoria's Island holiday home made a fittingly regal setting for a performance by one of the kings of British rock. Admittedly the sound of Establishment-baiting Jam classics ringing out across the manicured grounds must have had the empire-ruling monarch spinning in her grave. But for the hundreds of music fans packed on to the stately pile's back lawn, the combination of glorious summer sunshine and one of pop's classiest back catalogues was irresistible. Following a punchy warm-up by Walthamstow indie-rockers The Rifles, wearing their Jam and Clash influences with pride,Weller got stuck straight in with The Changingman - one of several numbers lifted from his 1995 solo album Stanley Road, an acknowledged career highpoint. Looking good at 50 and still sporting his trademark feather cut barnet, the Modfather delivered a crowd-pleasing set made up of past glories and mor...

Paul Weller 22 Dreams By: Jim Farber New York Daily News Maybe facing 50 did the trick, but on Paul Weller's ninth solo CD, he sounds defiantly reborn. Released just two months after hitting the half-century mark, the latest album by the prolific leader of the Jam and Style Council finds a man who boasts a long string of strong, but familiar, solo albums radically shaking things up. On "22 Dreams," we hear Weller venturing into instrumental jazz, experimental electronica, spoken-word poetry, even '70s Krautrock, all for the first time. Veteran fans shouldn't steer clear. There's plenty of the soul, folk, R&B and neoclassic rock that has long defined Weller's criminally under appreciated solo work. (At least there's a lack of appreciation in this country. In Weller's native U.K., "22 Dreams" opened at No. 1.) As its title implies, "22 Dreams" isn't just long (70 minutes with 21 cuts, despite the CD's name), it takes t...

From The Northwest Herald Paul Weller “22 Dreams” (Yep Roc) 2-1/2 stars By BRYAN WAWZENEK Why do musicians bother comparing their latest albums to past masterpieces? Has setting the bar high ever worked as a marketing ploy? As if listeners don’t instantly expect the “new ‘Born to Run’” is born to fail? So when Paul Weller – the ex-Jam and Style Council leader, mod revivalist and British songwriting saint – compares his bloated “22 Dreams” to “Sgt. Pepper” and “Pet Sounds,” you know he’s in trouble. Weller’s ninth solo album appears to have been designed to encompass every single type of music that the 50-year-old rocker enjoys. There’s folk and jazz, psychedelia and garage rock, instrumentals, some kraut-rock and a spoken word piece. Weller doesn’t like when music is put in “boxes,” so he’s unpacked everything. Great if it works. Unfortunate that it doesn’t. Although the music veteran loves to play in all these different genres, he’s only really good at a few. After starting out well,...

SFGate - home of the San Francisco Chronicle POP QUIZ: Paul Weller Aidin Vaziri Friday, July 25, 2008 Paul Weller has just made one of the best albums of his career, which is quite amazing, considering that he started doing this more than three decades ago as the front man for seminal British punk band the Jam (a.k.a. the Greatest Band Ever). While most of his contemporaries have succumbed to death and making music with pan flutes, Weller has mostly stayed on course through the pop-soul years of the Style Council and his Britpop solo career. If all goes well, "22 Dreams" will finally get Americans to rediscover his genius, sadly overlooked around these parts since "My Ever Changing Moods" scraped the charts. He'll be at the Fillmore Sept. 4. Q: How do you always manage to look like you're 21? A: I don't know about that. It's amazing what they can do with photography these days. The grim truth might be a lot different. Q: So it's not the copi...

Paul Weller 22 Dreams Rating = 8 by Mike Mineo PopMatters.com Upon reflection of Paul Weller’s respectable career, it makes little sense why he would feel any incentive to release a sprawling album like 22 Dreams, the lengthiest and arguably most stylistically diverse album of his 30-plus-year span as a songwriter. After all, anyone with even the slightest understanding of the Modfather’s illustrious discography as both a solo artist and frontman of the Jam and the Style Council would already recognize him as being one of the most successfully eclectic songwriters to come out of England in the past several decades; he simply has nothing left to prove. The Jam emerged in the late ‘70s with a new breed of punk, R&B, and power pop that would be later deemed “mod revival”, with the trio being one of the forefront innovators of the genre. Weller distanced himself from the Jam’s style in 1983 upon the formation of the Style Council, a four-piece whose roots rested more in key-led blends ...

Paul Weller 22 Dreams - 4 1/2 Stars Stephen Thomas Erlewine allmusic.com Of all the many things Paul Weller has done in his career, he has somehow managed to survive three decades without a double album to his credit. 22 Dreams rectifies that wrong, offering a luxurious sprawl that's proudly, staunchly classicist, just like Weller's solo career itself. Weller's embrace of rock & roll tradition might suggest that he has taken his double album as an opportunity to offer a summation of his career, to summarize where he's been and perhaps where he's going. Tempting though this may be, especially given the record's elastic, elegant eclecticism, this isn't quite a self-conscious summation, nor is it quite a risk-taking tour de force in the vein of the White Album, even though this encompasses everything from fragile folk to the resurrection of the sophisticated collegiate jazz of the Style Council. Instead, 22 Dreams has a floating romantic quality that justif...

Listen to music critic Ben Sisario's review of "22 Dreams."

Paul Weller: 22 Dreams Yep Roc 2008 Rating: 7.9 More than 30 years into his career, Paul Weller has made his most varied and surprising album. He's made plenty of good and even great records in the past, with the Jam, the Style Council and on his own, but 22 Dreams is really something unique in his catalog, and it's refreshing to hear him changing the script like this so late in the game. The album's 21 tracks (dream #22 is a story by Simon Armitage, included in the CD booklet) simultaneously introduce a host of new ideas to Weller's music and play like a microcosm of his career and musical life, ranging from crunching rock to piano ballads and truly dream-like psychedelia. It may be his finest solo effort, and easily hangs with its closest contenders, 1997's Heavy Soul and 1993's Wild Wood. There's a real sense on 22 Dreams that Weller had no expectations for it going in, that he simply let it flow, in somewhat the same way a dream can take you from a sandy...

Dennis Munday's "Shout To The Top" is set to be released in paperback in October. This new edition will be updated to include details of Paul's new album 22 Dreams , ongoing changes in the line-up of his band as well as the emergence of From The Jam .

PAUL WELLER has urged fellow Brit JOHN LYDON to stop clinging to the past - because the punk icon has become the "antithesis" of JOHNNY ROTTEN. The Jam founder admits he shudders every time he sees Lydon on reality TV shows or hears of another planned Sex Pistols reunion. And he has two simple words of advice for the punk star: "Leave it." Weller says, "I don't really understand him anymore. He's become the antithesis of what he once was. Does he need the money? "Perhaps he misses the adulation, the buzz. Nostalgia has become a whole industry in itself... and I don't like it. You can never recapture what has gone." Paul Weller And John Lydon At The Mojo Awards

Album Preview: Paul Weller Recruits Noel Gallagher, Thunderstorms to Share His “22 Dreams” “You get to this stage in life where you say ‘I’ve done everything that I can do,’” says Paul Weller. As he passes the half-century mark, Weller easily could have returned to his old stomping grounds, whether it was the mod-punk of his first band the Jam or the pop leanings of the Style Council. But rather than reliving past glory, Weller spent the last year recording 22 Dreams, the most expansive and experimental album of his career. “I was conscious when I walked into the studio that I wanted to do something different. I didn’t want to make As Is Now Part 2,” Weller tells Rock Daily. “There was this mentality where it was like, ‘Let’s try anything that comes into your mind.’” Weller sequestered himself in his country studio, recruited some famous Britpop friends like Oasis‘ Noel Gallagher and Blur’s Graham Coxon and spent hours improvising with his band. The result was 22 Dreams, a genre-leapin...

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Photos Courtesy Of Andrew (A22TAY) Set List Courtesy Of Jane (Sweet_P) Songs not played were: All On A Misty Morning Lite Nights Butterfly Collector Brand New Start

Weller Plays Jam Paul Weller speaks about bringing back Jam classics at his gigs! 03 July 2008 - Paul Weller has been dipping into his back catalogue – as well as playing the odd unexpected cover at his recent shows. At his intimate London gig as part of the iTunes Festival on 2 July, Paul Weller played a spontaneous cover of All You Need Is Love by The Beatles and surprised fans with The Jam’s hit Eton Rifles. Speaking exclusively to 6 Music before the gig, the Modfather explained why he has rarely revisited his former band’s old material. The former Jam front man said that his decision was not for any profound reasons, but because he never thought they would fit into his set lists. He also explained how his attitude to the classic songs has changed with time: “Sometimes you need some kinda of opening really, for me anyway, to play some of these old songs. I think about them in a different way these days.” And that it wasn’t always easy for Weller to revisit old material: “For a while...

Photo By Greg Nolan Courtesy Of Paul aka Pretty Green Songs actually played: Peacock Suit From The Floorboards Up All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You) Out Of The Sinking Sea Spray Have You Made Up Your Mind Wild Wood Broken Stones Picking Up Sticks Wild Blue Yonder Shadow Of The Sun Invisible You Do Something To Me The Changingman - not on set list 22 Dreams Come On/Lets Go Eton Rifles - was on set list as first song of encore ******** Whirlpools End All You Need Is Love - not on set list

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