Half An Hour Of Weller Remixed And Live At The Apollo

Paul Weller played The Apollo on Friday night, I was there courtesy of a ticket from a friend (who also took the photo in the middle, capturing the curving sweep of the Apollo's balcony rather beautifully). Weller and his band took the stage at eight thirty and played a two hour set, long standing guitarist Steve Craddock present and at the front and two drummers. The first few songs were largely drawn from recent albums, White Sky and Long Time from Saturn's Pattern from 2015, Cosmic Fringes from last year's Fat Pop, sounding tough and very Seventies, lots of guitar and rhythms. From The Floorboards Up, with its Wilco Johnson inspired riff, kept the tempo up. From there Weller dipped in and out of his back catalogue: a slightly ragged Headstart For Happiness; a lovely, low key Have You Ever Had It Blue?; the 90s single Hung Up; recent songs like Fat Pop and Village set against older solo ones like Stanley Road; a dip into the later period Style Council with It's A Very Deep Sea, a song which has aged unexpectedly well. The crowd, many of whom seem to have been out all day in the warmth of some Good Friday sunshine seem a little subdued at times- maybe some are just waiting for the hits or maybe too many beers have sapped the energy (not the two blokes near us who were ejected by the bouncers following a couple of scuffles with people around them).  

The run in towards the end of the set- a trippy version of Above The Clouds, the circling psychedelia of Into Tomorrow, a raspy Shout To The Top, the quickfire blast of Start! followed by full on guitar heroics of Peacock Suit and Brushed- demonstrate the riches in his cupboards, songs from different decades and different parts of his life all sounding like the work of one person, a lineage despite the stylistic differences each one had when first released. When they band return to the stage for the first encore Paul sits at the piano, the fluid, rolling Broken Stones followed by You Do Something To Me (not a favourite of mine I should add), a crowd pleasing That's Entertainment (a definite favourite of mine I should add) and then the slowed down, folk tinged shuffle of Wild Wood. The second encore is the two song punch of The Changing Man and A Town Called Malice, the Apollo's crowd now dancing and singing along in full voice. Weller's reputation as a prickly character and as a traditionalist (the Dadrock tag of the 90s sticks to him) is undeserved- his albums over the last ten years have been full of detours into krautrock, psychedelia, drones and noise and whatever The Style Council were, the weren't unadventurous. His band tonight are young (mainly) and give the songs a thumping (two drummers should do that) but they're delicate when required too. Paul Weller himself doesn't seem to have any less desire in his sixties than he had in his twenties, a man who just wants to get the songs out, get them written, recorded and played. 

For today's thirty minute mix I've pulled together some of the remixes of Weller's songs, drawn from the range of his solo career and taking in trip hop of Portishead, the crashing noise and thumping beats of Richard Hawley's take on Andromeda, some lovely widescreen Balearica courtesy of Leo Zero and Drop Out Orchestra (on Weller's own mid 2010's Balearic groove Starlite), some psychedelic adventures with Amorphous Androgynous and Brendan Lynch's still stunning psyched out/ dubbed out version of Kosmos from 1993 (a record Weatherall used to play as a set closer to fried minds at Sabresonic). 

Thirty Minute Paul Weller Remix Mix

• Wildwood (Portishead Remix)
• Andromeda (Richard Hawley Remix)
• No Tears To Cry (Leo Zero Remix)
• Aim High (The Higher Aim) (Amorphous Androgynous Remix)
• Starlite (Drop Out Orchestra Remix)
• Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)

This blistering Two Lone Swordsmen remix from 2000 didn't seem to fit in the mix, Weller sent to some place where Killing Joke and krauty- techno co- exist, but I though I should share it again anyway. It's never had an official digital release and when it came out in 2000 it was a white label 12" limited to just 75 copies worldwide. One of which sits is downstairs from where I type this. 

Heliocentric (Swordsmen 4UR Mix)

Love Is Magic

I was back at The Albert Hall on Saturday night to see John Grant, the venue far fuller than it was the night before for The House Of Love (and in an unprecedented turn of events I was offered a ticket for Parquet Courts on Sunday night but 3 nights on the bounce was pushing it). I'm not really familiar with much of John Grant's work and was offered the ticket by a friend who'd got a spare. Grant is promoting his new album Love is Magic and spent much of the gig alternating between standing centre stage at the mic singing in his rich baritone over club-inspired thumpers, Roland synth basslines squiggling away, and sitting at the keyboards and playing more personal songs, accompanied by a full band including ex- Banshee and Creature Budgie on drums. Budgie's contribution was immense, live kit plus electronic drum pads. Dressed in cowboy shirt and trucker gap with a heavy beard Grant looks like he's come straight out of the Mid-West but his dancing suggests time spent in nightclubs and his lyrics are full and frank and witty. I'd listened to this one before going out...



I'm not enough of a fan to be able to tell you exactly which songs were played- the internet tells me that Glacier, Disappointed, No More Tangles, Pale Green Ghost and Voodoo Doll were favourites among those who were there. A lot of his songs reminded me of film songs or show tunes, clever lines detailing a life lived with mistakes but few regrets. Set closer Queen Of Denmark, a song I did know before the gig, was a highlight, the crowd singing along with him and waving their hands in the air. The last few songs saw Richard Hawley appear, double denim and red guitar, spraying feedback across the front of the stage and then playing face to face.

This song was second up, Grant's hips wiggling and hand gestures cutting shapes in the light show. Well worth a few minutes of your time today. 

Early Morning Rain

I'm going to ease myself into Monday with this sprightly Richard Hawley cover of Early Morning Rain. The song was written by Gordon Lightfoot, a hit in 1966, and has been covered by many, from Bob Dylan to Elvis to Neil Young to Paul Weller. In the song, the narrator stands at a wire fence watching a Boeing 707 take off, taking someone far away. This mood seems about right for a Monday morning in September.

Early Morning Rain

Thinking about it now, with some time distance between us, I vastly prefer this Richard Hawley to the grungy riff monster of his last album.

Now I want to hear the fragile post-acid trip comedown Hawley of Can You Hear The Rain, Love? from the Late Night Final album which may well be the best, most beautiful thing he's ever done.



The richness of his voice, the lyric and the musical box melody set off against that hum and throb noise underneath is stunning.

Fifteen

Our son Isaac is 15 years old today. Born at break of day in 1998, with a genetic disease we knew nothing about and had never heard of (Hurlers Disease, MPS 1), he has had a life punctuated by hospital, illness and medical appointments. He also lives his life to the full. He goes to a special needs secondary school which he loves, wears a hearing aid and a cochlear implant (which has changed his life in the last two years), and as the picture shows he enjoys the ladies underwear departments of major retail outlets. He joins two young people with special needs groups for activities and a social life with peers locally- services which the Tory bastards at Trafford Council are trying to cut by over 50%, allegedly in the name of 'personalisation'. I think we may end up seeing them in court. Given that he has been within minutes of death several times in his early life, and survived both meningitis and a minor stroke in 2008, I sometimes think it's a miracle he's made it to 15. Not that I believe in miracles, not your religious type of miracle anyway. And on he goes, defeating and confounding expectations along the way. Happy birthday Isaac.

This is Mr Richard Hawley, live on BBC 6 Music.

As The Dawn Breaks (live session version)

Nights Under Canvas

I'm off camping after work tonight, three nights in a field with the family and three other families in the Lake District. Weather forecast is dry enough not to cancel. Red wine and airbeds ahoy! Pop the corks and let the nippers run free. See you late Monday or Tuesday my amigos.

The Nights Are Cold (acoustic version)

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 91

Not strictly rockabilly but it's from Sheffield's premier 50s throwback Mr Richard Hawley, and let's face it, at the moment the nights are cold.

Pint of best bitter please bartender, something warming.

The Nights Are Cold (acoustic version)

Hawley Philharmonic

Richard Hawley performed a set accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for 6 Music recently, a selection of songs off his latest album and some older ones. You can listen to it here (but only for the next few days). Introduced by Jarvis Cocker at the Great Hall at Magna near Sheffield, it's in two parts and doesn't start until about half an hour in. I'm not always a fan of orchestral versions of pop songs but this is stunning in parts. Hawley has a track record of playing in off the beaten track places, playing in gig in The Devil's Arse a few years back. The Devil's Arse is an underground cavern in Castleton, Derbyshire.

Standing At The Sky's Edge

A teaser for Bagging Area's favourite 50s throwback Richard Hawley, where a dollop of deep, rich psychedelia gets added to the pot. Album out May 7th, a single Leave Your Body Behind out Monday (also at Youtube). Another Sheffield reference too.

I'll Declare My Intent To Race Again

There are people I know who don't 'get' Richard Hawley- 'country and rockabilly from Sheffield, so what?' they say. One of them got into Coles Corner a few years back, so I lent him the first three albums (the mini album debut, Late Night Final and Lowedges). He didn't like them. Eh? Bagging Area likes Richard Hawley, his sincere devotion to it, his northerness, his dress sense, and especially those first three records; lower budget maybe but the songs are great. Run For Me from Lowedges was a stately guitar led tribute to motorcycle racing, open armed and wide eyed but with a side helping of melancholy. The version of Run For Me here was recorded for a BBC 6 Music show, a re-working of the song- just piano with some pedal steel guitar coming in half way through and Hawley's rich vocals.

Run For Me (Live 6 Mix)

Guiding My Boat

Richard Hawley has never sounded better than on this 2003 B-side (Run For Me was the single, from the Lowedges album). It's a cover version but sounds much like a hymn. In Hawley's hands, with a huge guitar sound and his deep, enveloping voice it's a song that picks you up, gives you a hug and sends you on your way.

Troublesome Waters.mp3

Hearts Are The Easiest Things You Can Break

When The Jesus And Mary Chain covered someone else's song it came with shards of feedback, broken glass, earsplitting volume and a gallon of Special Brew. So it seems only fitting that when covering them Richard Hawley should head in the other direction- keeping the girl group drum pattern, and then layering rich vox, twanging guitars and some lushness to the Reid brothers ode to a girl, or drugs, or possibly just candy. Cracking cover version to set off an unseasonably sunny Sunday.


06. Some Candy Talking.mp3

Richard Hawley 'Happy Families'

Richard Hawley seems like a decent chap. When this first solo record came out back in 2001 he seemed like Morrissey and Marr wrapped up in one package, but filtered through the 50's rock 'n' roll and the pubs and working mens' clubs of Sheffield rather than Salfordian kitchen sink dramas and early Stones' singles. As he's gone on his records have got bigger sounding, acquired better production, more players and gained more sales as a result, but to me he never sounded better than on this little track, the final song from his self-titled mini-album debut. With more echo than the Mersey Tunnel, and some deft lyrical touches ('The night is long, the DJ's gone, there's only us, the friendly ones') this is perfect, like the last swig from the bottom of a good pint.

07 Happy Families.wma

The Modfather 'Andromeda' (Richard Hawley Remix)

The naysayers (and I'm pointing this finger partly at my friend Mr A.N. of Ealing) have always had Weller down as an arch-conservative, songs carved from traditional oak, a meat-and-two-veg man, and granted his mid 90s renaissance contained some duff albums, as did his dadrocking, Later with Jools Holland presence, and Gallagher brother association tendencies, but from The Jam onwards he's never really stood still and at least once changed so much he shed thousands of fans.

The jump from In The City to Sound Affects to The Gift contains more stylistic leaps than most bands will ever make (certainly the ones you see tramping round today), and the quantum shift into The Style Council was too mind-bending for many. One of the things that was most disappointing about the Modfather's return in the 90s was his seeming dismissal of the Style Council. Bagging Area thinks the early Style Council singles and some of the album tracks are the equal of The Jam's. Similarly the move from Mod-pop to soul to modern jazz to house The Style Council made is unlikely to repeated by, say, The Editors or (insert current band's name here). His first two solo albums (Paul Weller and Wild Wood) contain ideas aplenty, before the rot began to set in with Stanley Road. Even then, he was churning out top singles like Hung Up, and being remixed by Portishead and Brendan Lynch (his Kosmos remix is fantastic).

Last week his latest album Wake Up The Nation was released, following 2008's 22 Dreams, which had a crack at every leftfield musical style you can think of. Wake Up The Nation is a blast, 16 songs in under 40 minutes, fizzing and crackling, jagged riffs, loud funky drums, noise, energy and abandon. I'm sure some people are only just getting over January's single with very non-mod Kevin Shields 7 & 3 Is The Strikers Name. The double cd edition of the new album contains this- Richard Hawley's remix of Andromeda, sounding like neither Weller nor Hawley, but like a lost underground psyche classic, The Walker Brothers freaking out while My Bloody Valentine fall down the stairs behind them. Something even the non-believers can enjoy. All of which makes it more of a shame he never properly released the Weatherall remix of Heliocentric- but that's another story.

Acknowledgements and thanks to Phil Spector at the wonderful Plain Or Pan blog, whose review last week convinced me to get the double cd, which this remix is taken from.

2-05 Andromeda (Richard Hawley Remix.mp3