Third Time Lucky
It’s called third time lucky, because it is the third time I have bought tickets to go and see Paul Weller, but the first time I have actually got to the gig. I had tickets for his show at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall in April 2022 but was too ill to travel and ended up selling them to someone I used to go to school with. I also had a ticket for the 2008 show at Crawley’s K2 Leisure Centre (a strange place for any gig) but was too ill to even get the bus there, and didn’t have anyone to sell onto. But this time I did make it, the lurg didn’t kick in until a few days after the gig this time around. After all, it had taken me more than thirty years to see a solo gig of his. Granted for two thirds of that I wasn’t a great one for going to gigs, I don’t think I went to a single gig in the nineties, and only two in the noughties.
But I had gone to a fair few gigs in the eighties and I had seen Paul Weller before, but never as a solo artist. I saw The Jam in 1982 at Leicester’s Granby Halls, and The Style Council at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall in 1985, but it’s been nearly forty years since seeing him live in any guise.
It was a long time from buying the tickets to the date of the gig, and by time of arrival I had no idea where I had got them for, only knowing I’d gone for seats, as three hours standing isn’t really within my capabilities nowadays. I was pleasantly surprised to find they were on the front row of the balcony, and side on, in a line with the pit in front of the stage which separates the stage from the heaving mass of humanity standing watching the show in the standing area. We had gone down to Brighton the day before so there was no rushing anywhere for a change. Typically, though the 66 Supplemental EP was trying to be delivered whilst we were in Brighton, so playing that had to wait until the midweek after the gig.
More vinyl to add to the now packed Paul Weller related cube in the living room.
I had checked the Brighton Centre rules pre gig and had taken my camera, only for it to be the artist’s rule that no cameras of any kind allowed, only phones. Which really is a piss take and annoys the fuck out of me. I can’t take a couple of photos for personal use, but countless muppets can have their fucking phones lit up all gig recording the whole fucking thing and livestreaming the thing on social media. If you are banning all cameras, then do just that and ban all the phones as well.
The support is Liam Bailey, who we hadn’t heard of before. We had checked a few videos out on YouTube pre gig, and he looked decent and so we got there just as he was starting. He only did a half hour set, but was good, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him do a longer gig. Although I’m not sure his feet would allow a longer set, he spent a lot of time on his knees and sat down, so must have an issue with his feet.
Helen had heard someone say that it wasn’t very full during the interval, but I think that person may have been blind as it was packed.
There is a great atmosphere when Paul makes it on to the stage and he kicks off with “Cosmic Fringes” my favourite track from his previous album “Fat Pop,” before moving onto a track from the new album he is touring for, “66”, and then a third solo track. He then does a couple of Style Council tracks after joking the crowd seemed a bit quiet.
It was too much for one poor young woman as I can see security leaning over the barrier into the crowd and then heaving out an unconscious looking woman from it and dragging / carrying her to the side of the stage where she could get treatment from medical staff. A second Style Council track is underway before she is gingerly making her way out with the assistance of the medical staff, but conscious at least.
Being side on does give a different perspective of a gig, as there were two occasions where security came along the front row of those behind the barrier offering up trays full of plastic cups of water. It didn’t seem that warm, and I wonder whether that is usual procedure which we don’t normally see as we are well behind the front, or whether it was down to the fact that they had already had to carry one person out.
During the main gig, there were numerous guitar changes, and Paul ventured onto the piano a couple of times as he ran through a varied back catalogue of mainly solo tracks, four (of the much underrated) Style Council tracks, and a solo The Jam track, “Start”, which he introduced with a mention of he had seen a photo in the Brighton Centre of The Jam’s gig there on the 11th December 1982, as Brighton was the venue for that band’s last ever gig. In addition, their December 1979 gig there is one of seven double albums of live gigs released over the years, so it is as if there is a connection between Paul Weller and the Brighton Centre.
The band leave the stage before coming back for an obvious encore, where they rattle through half a dozen well known solo hits and leave the stage again. Only to come back for the final encore, where it is two The Jam tracks, neither unexpected, with first up “That’s Entertainment”, which sounds a lot different with full instrumentation, rather than the simple acoustic guitar and occasional drum beat of the original, before the final track of the night “A Town Called Malice”, where to be honest Paul doesn’t need to do a lot of the singing, the crowd are more than happy to try and drown him out with their own versions.
And then it is over, Paul and his band, including former Ocean Colour Scene stalwart, and long-time collaborator, Steve Craddock, all take a bow and leave the stage for the final time and the lights are turned on meaning it is time to go.
I’m not sure whether I was expecting more of The Jam and The Style Council songs, but when I stop and think about it, why would there be. The Jam were releasing stuff from 1977–1982, the Style Council from 1983–1989, so eleven years between them. Then he has been doing solo stuff from 1991 to date, so only the thirty-three years and counting, three times as long as both bands put together. There is so much to pick from, and only two hours to do it in. I am happy with what they did manage to get through, as if I had had every track I wanted, the gig may still be going now. But in an ideal world I would have liked The Jam’s “To Be Someone,” The Style Council’s “A Solid Bond In Your Heart,” and his solo “From The Floorboards Up,” and “That Dangerous Age.” But you can’t have everything, and I’m sure that every person at the gig has their own personal favourites from all eras of his career (ever King Truman, Council Collective, or Smokin’ Mojo Filters), which they wish would have been played. It is that long and varied back catalogue which attracts such a large following.
Once the music has stopped there is time to get some merch, with a tour t-shirt picked up, and to retrieve my camera from safe storage, before heading off into the Brighton night. It is amazing how quickly the venue clears after a gig, and how many snippets of conversation you pick up as you make your way out. From awed exclamations about the gig, to questions on where the after parties are.
I loved it, and I’ll try to get more tickets for the next tour and not leave it another forty years before seeing him in concert again, both of us will probably be dead well before then anyway.
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After years of prevaricating, I have finally gotten around to self-publishing some books. I now have three books available. The first is the novel “Where The Lights Shine Brightest”, this is available on Amazon at
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Finally, there is an autobiographical work, released under my alter ego of Kevin Rodriguez-Sanchez, which covers a two year period in the early noughties when I lived in Manchester — “Five Go Mad In Manchester”. Again, this is available on Amazon at
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