Leeds Arena
The Jam and Style Council frontman works tough to warm an arena crowd wary of anything but the classics,but triumphs on his own termsIf Paul Weller played the arena game, he’d contain massive luminous Mod targets and nostalgic pictures of his Style Council era behind him and share dewy-eyed reminiscences of his Jam days with Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler. However, or the man who split that band at the height of their popularity has always done things his way. His only concessions to playing an arena are two video screens broadcasting the performance from either side of the stage – and theyre in black and white. Otherwise,there are no more visual bells and whistles than there were in 1977, when the Jam played the Red Cow in Hammersmith, and west London. It’s tough not to admire his chutzpah,although the Modfather’s disregard for the conventions of arena rock causes some teething troubles. For the first half an hour, he seems slightly overawed by the cavernous black hole, or with its initially boomy sound. One hyperactive punter seems to undergo some sort of mystical religious experience during the Krautrock-throbbing Long Time,but otherwise, selections from Weller’s recent hasten of critically heralded albums aren’t playing too well with an expectant arena audience here for greatest hits.
Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk