Skip to main content

Paul Weller Catches Youth Football Match In Bristol


Paul Weller Turns Up To Bristol Football Match
Story Posted: Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 07:00

The players may have had no idea who he was but when the man in the shades and parka arrived their parents found it hard to concentrate on the game.

Rock star Paul Weller, 51, caused a sensation when he turned up to watch a boys' football match in Longwell Green on Sunday.

The former frontman of The Jam and The Style Council, now a long-established solo artist nicknamed "the Modfather" by fans, was on the sidelines for an under-9s clash between Longwell Green Sports and Coalpit Heath FC.

He was there with his girlfriend, singer Hannah Andrews, 23, to see Hannah's eight-year-old brother Jake play for the away side.

Weller's presence obviously inspired Jake, of Yate, and his team- mates, who ran out 8-2 winners.

But for parents who grew up listening to his music the scoreline became irrelevant as they waited for an autograph or a photo with one of their heroes.

Lee Evans, 40, of Shellards Road, Longwell Green, is one of the managers of the Longwell Green team. He said: "I didn't even know what the score was, I was so starstruck.

"He's an absolute legend in my eyes and a cool dude. He still had his green parka and a pair of shades.

"The kids were probably thinking 'who the hell's that?'"

Parent and self-confessed die-hard fan Mike Henry, 42, of Willsbridge Hill, Willsbridge, made it back from a wedding in time to meet his idol.

He said: "There's probably as much chance of spacemen landing in Longwell Green as Paul Weller showing up. It's one of those amazing moments.

"I've been a massive fan ever since I was a kid. He's the absolute Modfather and was looking as tall as you like. He told my son how he'd started guitar when he was 12 and to keep playing."

Mr Henry has also brought up his children, eight-year-old twins Jasmine and Max – who plays in the football team – and five-year-old Angus, to love Weller's music. "They won't get into the car unless Paul Weller is playing!" he said.

Mr Henry's wife, Mandy, 41, said that on meeting Weller Max said: "I could have fainted. He's my hero."

Captain of the Longwell Green Sports First team, Ryan Gardner, 25, of London Road, Warmley, said: "I was watching the kids but left the game to try to find him. He walked around the pitch kissing and cuddling his girlfriend."

Mr Gardner said on match days his team listen to Weller's music in the changing rooms before a game and on the coach.

They were listening to his greatest hits before their FA Carlsberg Vase, second-round away match against Alton Town on Saturday and Mr Gardner said Weller's music "spurred them on" to a 2-0 win.

Coalpit Heath manager Mark Fletcher, 46, of Frampton Cotterell, said he was only given 20 minutes' notice that Weller was coming to watch Jake play.

He said the youngster had already given Weller a hand by playing tambourine at one of his concerts.

From This Is Bristol

Comments

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