Paul Weller At IndigO2

Earlier this week a friend and ex-colleague was kind enough to take me to see one of my heroes, Paul Weller, at an exclusive gig at IndigO2, the ‘smaller’ room at the O2.

Off the back of his ‘return to form’* album, 22 Dreams, Weller was on amazing form and delivered a rocking set. He was also very amusing, commenting before one of the songs off of one his more recent albums:

This is a song off an album that no-one thought was any good. Apart from me

Highlights included Walking On Broken Stones, You Do Something To Me and a very apt Eton Rifles (I’m glad that I’m not the only one who wonders whether David Cameron has ever read the lyrics of Eton Rifles, as he claims it’s one of his favourite songs?) With the election of Eton-ite Boris Johnson, and Cameron’s ratings in the polls, maybe it’s time the Mod Father re-released this storming track.

I apologise for the terrible photo above; Weller just wouldn’t stop moving & I’m still getting used to my new camera-phone. I did manage to get a rather nice one on the ferry from the London Eye to the O2 (which I highly recommend, especially as Boris doesn’t control them and you can have a lovely Brahma beer as you motor up the Thames).

*PS – Am I the only one who thinks that a note must have gone round all the critics saying, “Right – Weller’s cool again, let’s all say this is a return to form”? If they’d actually listened to any of his albums since Heavy Stereo they’d have noticed that he’s done some pretty good stuff in the meantime.

UPDATE: All Mod Cons (from the comments below) was also at the gig and managed to get some better pictures.

UPDATE 2: The gig was shown on TV last night (I missed it) and is available on ITV2 for 1 month.

3 comments

  1. A return to form? I’m still shocked that anyone ever thought that he was “out” of form. Cretins. And really, do you think he cares what some idiot music “critics” are saying about him anyway.

    Weller Rules. Enough said.

    Incidentally, I completely agree. His gig at the IndigO2 was excellent. Roll on the Koko in 2 weeks time!

  2. I’m sure that Weller doesn’t care what critics say (in fact I’m pretty sure that I’ve read a quote from him saying as much); I guess what bugs me is that those poor reviews mean that albums like Illumination which, for me, stand up there with his best, haven’t had as large an audience as they should have done.

    Entered the comp for the Koko but no luck unfortunately – hope you have a great time, and chuck me a link when you’ve been if you do a review…

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