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Paul Weller at Liverpool’s Olympia is a perfect combination. The old-school grace of the building lends itself well to the rich heritage that runs through the seams of Paul’s long and varied career. Filled tonight with mods of all ages, the atmosphere is already there in the foyer and bars as sharp-dressed fans stand against the backdrop of gold-painted pillars and rich red and blue walls.
Setting the mood onstage tonight is Liam Baileywhose new album Zero Grace is an exercise in classic reggae fused with sweet soul. His other collaboration this year with Blundettothe album Heavy Soul, shares its name with Paul Weller’s 1997 album. Coincidence or homage, you decide. Whilst Liam’s recorded work is tight and beautifully produced, the performance tonight feels a little too frenetic.
Admitting he had made it there by the skin of his teeth perhaps hints that he is unprepared. Despite fine musicianship from his band, the set is haphazard, with much jumping around in the audience’s face, ungraciously dropping the mic twice, and perhaps showing excessive excitement where a more relaxed approach would have worked. “Dance with Me” works the audience up a step, but there is a sense that Liam is overbearing. In fairness, the amount of Weller kit on the stage means he is right on the edge with little space to work. Maybe with more room to move and time to build momentum, Liam’s fine music would have benefitted.
When Paul takes to the stage he is clearly loved up. Walking on to The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows,” the beaming singer greets our “Fair City” and promises that the show will be as good as the “Legendary” one he played here four years ago. A huge Beatles fan, we know that Paul is a fan of Liverpool (the city not the club), and his pleasure to be here is certainly apparent.
Opening with “Cosmic Fringes”, the swaggering album opener from 2021’s Fat Pop (Vol 1) is a great move. A song that, whilst relatively new, holds all the hard-edged charm of The Jam and the best points in Paul’s solo career. It’s a crowd-pleaser bar none. “Soul Wandering” from Paul’s most recent “66” album follows a very similar path but is more akin to The Style CouncilPaul’s journey into political Jazz/soul that dominated his 80s output.
The Style Council loom large tonight. Originally snubbed by many Jam fans as Paul “going soft,” history has taught us that The Style Council were an important component of anti-Thatcher pop throughout the decade, and the band had as much to say as The Jam in the 70s. Tonight, Paul dedicates “My Ever Changing Moods” to Palestine and makes no bones about his disgust that the world is allowing such war crimes to happen.
“The past is knowledge, the present our mistake, and the future we always leave too late.”
Paul Weller ‘66’ album artwork
More Style Council follows with “Have you ever had it blue?,” from the 1986 movie Absolute Beginners. Described as Paul tonight as “A great song from a shit film”. Paul’s collaboration with this song dismayed him when director Julian Temple turned one of the singer’s favourite novels (by Colin McInnes) into a gaudy ’80s-inflected musical.
“That Pleasure” from Fat Pop continues the theme of feeling hopeless in crisis and stepping up to fight. It has been dedicated to the situation in Palestine on previous nights of the tour. Paul cannot be accused of not being passionate and relentless about his beliefs.
“All the Pictures on the Wall” is a welcome reminder of Paul’s folky era at the start of his solo career, and “Village” from 2020’s “On Sunset” shows that this theme has not dissipated at all. Tonight, this song is dedicated by drummer Steve Pilgrim to his son, whose birthday it is. Steve is a Liverpool singer/songwriter in his own right who played an intimate gig in The City’s St Michael’s church last year with Paul on guitar and keys. A very special night.
More Style Council with “Headstart for Happiness” keeps the buoyant mood of the night high, followed by a run-through of upbeat classic ’90s Weller, “Above the Clouds,” “Out of the Sinking,” and “Stanley Road.” The recent “Glad Times” and “Father Tyme” quieten the audience into a natural mid-time lull before Paul dedicates “Hung Up” to his long-time collaborator, Steve Craddock.
We get even more Style Council with the evergreen “Shout to the Top” and we finally get a Jam track, a subdued if meditated take on the 1980 single “Start!”.
“Broken Stones” makes its usual appearance and gives Paul time to sit at the piano for a spell. The “Stanley Road” album from 1995 dominates tonight with 6 songs, twice as many as from Paul’s current release “66”. Whilst the new album does contain some fine tunes, it does fail to ignite in the way that previous albums have, reflecting in some way the late period of the artist’s career. On stage, however, Paul shows no signs of slowing down at all.
He does check if we are still with him as he takes to the piano, and comments like “You might know the words or you might not, who gives a fuck” also suggest that he is not quite feeling the love tonight. The audience is definitely loving it but clearly prefers Paul’s rockier side.
The sedate and soulful “Nothing”, a Suggs from Madness co-write from “66” allows a little more piano time before the rumbling Faces style “Jumble Queen”, a “66” highlight co-written with Noel Gallagher.
’90s mod rock classics “Peacock Suit” and “Into Tomorrow” close the main set on a flourish, but we know this is not over,
A solid gold first encore of “Changing Man”, “You do something to me,” and “Wild Wood” remind us of how incredible the pairing of the “Wild Wood” and “Stanley Road” albums were across 1993-95.
The Jam have been largely ignored tonight, but this is made up for with a final encore of “That’s Entertainment” and “Town Called Malice” that finally raises the balcony crowd to their feet in an air-punching closing frenzy.
It’s a brilliant gig and shows Paul Weller at his very finest. With a catalogue of songs such as this, it’s difficult to fail. There may have been a sense of doubt in Paul at times that he was not reaching the peaks of that previous “legendary” gig, but this didn’t affect the quality of the show tonight, and his dedicated audience left more than satisfied.
66 is now available on Polydor Records.
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