He is one of the great songwriters of his generation and Paul Weller certainly showed why he was the first act to sell out at this year’s Summer Sessions in Southampton.
A huge setlist of songs, perfect for a festival-style headline appearance, spanned the generations from The Jam and The Style Council through to what is now a 35-year solo career that shows no signs of finishing yet.
“We’ll be going through the decades tonight,” Weller told the crowd as he was joined by band mates including Steve Craddock, back again after playing with Ocean Colour Scene here last year.
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Whilst on the piano for classics like You Do Something To Me and Stanley Road, which Weller dedicated to all of his “old mates” from his hometown Woking, the frontman was otherwise on guitar, leading from the front, on numbers like Shadow of the Sun.
An acoustic duo of English Rose was another favourite, while The Changingman and Broken Stones took everyone back to the Nineties, when Weller rode out the Britpop storm and influenced so many of the bands from that time.
The Style Council numbers Shout to the Top!, Long Hot Summer, and My Ever Changing Moods brought the infectious jazz, pop and R&B influences that were the surprising hallmark of Weller’s work in the 1980s, while a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s Move on Up was also squeezed in to the set.
Earlier, Liverpool’s Miles Kane, a good pal and long-time collaborator with Weller, brought hits Don’t Forget Who You Are and Sunlight in the Shadows. The popular singer was last here with his own headline show at The 1865 in January.
Guildhall Square is the latest iconic venue Weller is playing this summer, after shows on Liverpool’s Pier Head, Lincoln Castle and Piece Hall in Halifax.
But whatever else has happened since, Eaton Rifles, a song released in 1979 when The Jam played The Gaumont in Southampton, and Town Called Malice, which ended the seven-song encore, resonated most with the adoring crowd.
Here was a lifetime in music, an astonishing career chronicled, and a stunning performance in Southampton. That’s Entertainment!
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