The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Weller shows he’ s not lost any style
Effortlessly cool for someone who topped the album charts in every decade since the seventies, Paul Weller took Aberdeen music fans on a fantastic journey through his extensive catalogue.
Piercing screams and roars of applause welcomed the 63-year-old who kicked off his Aberdeen gig with a song called White Sky from his 2015 album Saturns Pattern.
Releasing two albums since the start of the pandemic – with the third (An Orchestrated Songbook) being released tomorrow – the singer also had a lot of new material to showcase when he took to the Music Hall stage.
And since his original show had to be postponed due to the pandemic, Paul was clearly making up for some lost time and performed a great selection of songs from his 16 albums for well over two hours.
“This song’s really old,” announced Paul, moments before his Aberdeen fans started to Shout To The Top as he played the banger from his The Style Council days.
Dressed in a red jumper, Paul looked stylish and was enjoying declarations of love and admiration from the excited audience, even blowing a cheeky kiss back to the thrilled lady in the crowd.
Constantly reinventing his sound, he also played a number of songs from his newest album Fat Pop (Volume 1).
And even though not as many fans were singing along, one had to appreciate the singer’s unique sound.
Not only was the musician switching between acoustic and electric guitar, he also played the piano and his soulful performance of Broken Stones was definitely one of the highlights of the evening.
It was also refreshing to see a lot of people being “in the moment” and enjoying the show rather than watching the performance through their phones.
His band, which included Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Cradock who was seen shopping at Aberdeen Vinyl Records on the day of the gig, was brilliant too.
Although he went solo in 1992 and never looked back, Paul knew that his north-east fans would also want to be taken back to his years with The Jam.
He dedicated his encore – That’s Entertainment and Town Called Malice – to the generation which loved the songs when they were first released but also the new generation that had just discovered them.
The Jam’s final anthems even brought the crowd in the stalls to their feet.
Paul’s support act John Rush also deserves a mention.
Having been to an indie rock concert with a garage punk support band, I now have even more appreciation for support acts who set the mood just right for the main event.
Glasgow-based singer John engaged with the audience and delivered a string of folk-tinged pop songs which accompanied the main set by The Modfather pretty well and saw the fans moving and nodding along to John’s tunes including Drink With Me and Gold & Green.