Mod Almighty
He was one of the leading lights in punk, helped create the template of the British mod and was unofficial father figure to Oasis and the britpop generation. Now Paul Weller has written perhaps his finest solo album since Stanley Road. Kicking back in London, he talks about the death of his father, his adventures with the Gallagher brothers and his roping in My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields to play guitar on the new LP
Stuart Clark, 07 Apr 2010
My only previous encounter with Paul Weller was in the gentleman’s toilet at Oxegen 2006. He duded in, said “nice barnet, mate!” to a friend of mine who was running a comb through his feather-cut and then disappeared into one of the cubicles to contemplate the enormity of life. I was hoping he might have remembered me, but sadly not.
“Sorry about that!” Weller grins. “I never forget a haircut, but I’m not so good with faces. That’s one of the drawbacks of getting older – your memory goes!”
He may have reached his first half-century – “plus VAT!” – but the 51-year-old still looks as razor sharp as he did in the ‘70s when he burst onto the scene with The Jam. While many of his contemporaries have betrayed their younger selves, Weller – from the tip of his Bottega Veneta brogues to the top of his own spiky barnet – has remained 100% true to the Mod aesthetic.
“I’ll never waiver from or fall out of love with it,” he reflects. “It’s so much a part of me now that I can’t imagine my life being any other way. The first time I heard the word ‘Mod’ was probably when they showed the seaside riots and all that shite on the TV news. I was too young to hop on a scooter and go down to Brighton, but by 1969 I was into the skinhead/suedehead thing, which was pretty similar clothes, music and attitude-wise to Mod. It was that white working-class love affair with Afro-American music and, because you’ve otherwise got fuck all, wanting to look as good as you possibly can on Saturday night. I think it’s become a lot broader since then – every generation that’s come along and discovered it has added its own mark, which is good because it’s not just sad old bastards like me droning on about 40 years ago!”
Talking of those Mod v Rocker rumbles in Brighton, what did Paul make of Phil Daniels’ recent revelation that John Lydon screen-tested for the part of Jimmy in Quadrophenia, and would have got it but for the fact that no one was prepared to insure him?
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