A CHAT WITH MOD ALMIGHTY PAUL WELLER INTERVIEW

Rip It Up, Issue 84, 1 July 1984, Page 18

A CHAT WITH MOD ALMIGHTY PAUL WELLER INTERVIEW

Richard Langston

At the Style Council’s first tour appearances in Britain you could spot the old Jam fans, some shuffling uncertainly, looking a little lost. Others, arms folded disapprovingly throughout, complained at the end where’s the substance? The cohesion? Paul Weller’s decision to end the Jam bewildered an army of fanatical anoraks and his subsequent supplanting of rock

aggression for the sound of the disco, the cabaret of black America, has left more than a few scratching their heads. The sound of the Style Council’s debut album Cafe Bleu is as undefined as the Jam’s was unmistakable. But inevitably, Weller has attracted a new fan older, seemingly more sophisticated ... and a dance enthusiast.

"Obviously there is still a bit of rock atmosphere but the more shows we do I think that will go away. It was really encouraging that at the last gig we did in Holland on our (recent) European tour there was a totally different audience. I don't know what sort of people they are I had never seen them before.

For a lot of people who weren't really sure, like the old Jam fans, that was sort of the clincher. It was either they did understand it after that or they were totally put off. One way or the other I think that is a good thing.'' The words come slowly but thoughtfully, in a thick London accent. Paul Weller, hair greased back off his pale face, is sitting at one of his regular central London cafes in the same street as the Polydor office sipping cappucino and working through maybe his third or fourth interview of the day. His manner is confident and these days he is certainly not beyond a smile. His dress is smart but soberly English.

Weller obviously never relished becoming the next Pete Townshend. A soul-based song like A Town Called Malice', produced in the Jam's latter days, was the sound of an ageing mod growing tired of the limitations of rock, its dumb politics and the guitar-as-cock mentality. "When the Jam broke up I got a sort of mixed reaction. Some were really upset and sad about it but they understood it as well. There were others who couldn't understand it and thought it was some kind of ploy, which I didn't understand. I didn't see how it could be seen as a ploy when I could have earned more money with the Jam than what I earn now. I think the majority of people respected and understood it. "I just don't think rock music gets people anywhere or progresses at all. There are limitations to pop music but rock even more so and I don't think it has got any politics at all. You know, for all it professes to be. I think it is quite apolitical and liberal as well and I don't like all that liberal shit. It doesn't advance people and the attitude is just so traditional and a lot of time it is quite reactionary as well. Rock has a habit of institutionalising people. The same old boring rebel poses. Bands like U2 had the 70s to learn from and they learned fuck all." Weller chose former Dexys/Bureau organist Mick Talbot to partner him in the Style Council. Talbot had previously done a bit of work with the Jam, had a mod past (he had a period in the Merton Parkas) and there were more than a few similarities between his and Weller's record collections (only three months separate them in age).

"I thought the album The Gift was us trying to get back to our roots. Before we got signed we used to do a lot of R&B and Motown covers. The song is just kind of presentation. I am not sitting down writing soul songs or nothing. It's just the way we play them, you know what I mean? I don't know how you can sit down and say write a soul song. The soul label is a bit... I don't think the category is important, it's enough to say whether it's good or bad. I just find all that categorising a bit boring." Because the Jam were so essentially English

the European flavour of the Style Council all the publicity shots and record covers featuring the pair at the cafe, the French album title is bound to be seen as pretentious. Even the name ...

"Some of that is supposed to be pretentious anyway. It does get up people's noses, but some of it I am really serious about. People think of me as being anti-fashion, which is true to some extent, but style is different and very important. It's not transient but classic and ageless and more than just about clothes, it's about lifestyle. I love art deco architecture. French and Italian style, symmetry and sparseness, things that are made to last, not trends or tacky Americaninfluenced disposable pop. "I don't like that nationalistic fervour. I used to be quite patriotic a few years ago but things happened in England that just pissed me off. I think there are aspects of Europe that would do England a lot of good. Like everything here shuts at 11 o'clock and everyone has to fuck off home to get a good night's sleep so they can be good workers in the morning. I like that sort of anarchy in Italy ... the people there just don't give a shit aobut who is in Government and what their policies are. There are so many/ules and regulations here."

But for all it seems that Weller has discovered life beyond those oppressive working class urban scenes he sketched so skilfully with the Jam, there are moments when he continues to fulfill that role of social discontent Money Go

Round' and the album's bonus track 'The Whole Point of No Return'.

"I don't think a lot of people notice that. They think I have laid off the lyrics a bit. I just think they have stopped listening to the lyrics. It has a lot to do with their first reaction, which is predetermined anyway. "I think my writing has become more direct. I would never have written things like 'Money Go Round' or A Gospel' before. I am not getting into a Bob Dylan thing! It seems popular now that lyrics don't matter anymore. No one really gives a shit. They did when the punk thing first started, they put quite a lot of emphasis on the words, which I thought was the good thing about punk. That has dropped off and I think it is a shame that nobody bothers to write good lyrics. "Potentially, pop music has this unifying quality but it depends on how people handle it. Pop music is seen as being trivial and nobody takes that much notice of it because most people are used to it, as it has been around so long. When the Beatles first came it was really important. Now I think you have got to reassess it. I'm not sure what you can do with it really. I don't know how much power it has got. I used to think it could change the world but it's too small. Out of the 60 million people here only a million or so buy records. So until you can get through to 40 million or so you are not going to have much impact."

Weller is on record as saying he believes the Style Council have produced three classic

singles 'Speak Like A Child’, ‘Money Go Round' and 'My Ever Changing Moods' and he is reasonably happy with the album. "I don’t say it was great because you can always do better. I think it is just so much better than most of the records around. It is so safe to stick to one sound, a whole album of the same type of song, of one sound. We're trying to do different things. It's because of the nature of the industry there are not many people who could get away with what we have done because there are so many limitations put on by it.” Mick Talbot puts in a word: "I think the British music press could have accepted it a lot better if Paul didn’t have a past history. I don't know if we would sell many records but we would be a bit of a cult band with the journalists." The hold of the industry was a factor in the establishment of Weller’s own label, Respond Records. It has similarities with the old Motown setup the sound, the smart packaging and the stable of mutually servicing writers and performers, who are paid wages rather than advances. But because the acts notably Tracie and the Questions were associated with Weller they had to grow up in public. They were left rather quivering in the spotlight. "The quality of the records could have been 10 times better but I don't say that because we haven't been accepted by the NME. I couldn't give a fuck what they think. Just from a very personal point of view, they could have been better.

"A year is nothing. Motown wasn't built in a day. I mean, for people like Tracie, it's the first time they have done this sort of thing a year ago she was in college or on the dole or something. I know it's a bit of a cliche about paying your dues but I believe that. A lot of people these days go straight in at the deep end without playing the club circuit and that is why they only last six months. With Respond they are paying their dues in public. I didn't so much have a sound in mind but it is soul-influenced because all the people on the label are soul fans."

Weller has pointed out in the past that the true mod legacy is all those boys and girls walking down the High Street to go and see the American soul bands that came over. It is clear he has drawn a lot of his inspiration from black music.

“I like all the eras of black music but there is still a lot of white music I like as well. My favourite band of all time is still the Small Faces, the ultimate group. The last two or three years have seen a resurgence in black music. The actual music is really hard and some of the lyrical stuff is good as well. People just pick up on a fad and I hate the way they do that. Maybe some people would accuse us of doing that but I wouldn't drop it. Some white entrepreneur says rap is dead because he's finished with it I find that really cynical." Jl

The recent Style Council concert, like the album, had a disjointed, dabbly feel to it. It wasn't helped by Weller walking on and off stage (as he doesn't feature on all the numbers). Or the idea of opening and closing the evening with the support acts, as admirable as it was. "There was a danger of these concerts becoming an event' because they are the first live dates I have done for over a year. But I am not trading in any of that crap there will be no big build-up or mystique, you only end up with enigma on your face if you do!” But Weller gave the impression during the interview that he wasn't too happy with the shows either ("one set is better because it gives you a chance to warm up") and they will revert to the customary format on the Japanese and three date American tour they are to undertake (‘My Ever Changing Moods' was at 67 in the Billboard American charts the day we spoke, higher than any Jam single ever went). The irony of the evening was that the song that worked best, besides the steamy, bouncy. Speak Like A Child' was Money Go Round'. There was Weller, teeth gritted, flailing away on his guitar showing all his old aggression.