It's good
to hear Paul Weller laugh. Well, it's a not a laugh as such. More a harrumph
masquerading as a chuckle. The
57-year-old Weller has a reputation as Britrock's foremost grumpy uncle –
forged long before Oasis grumbler Noel Gallagher made a play for the mantle.
Not that Weller views it that way.
"I've
got a different sense of humour to other people," he says. "The
things that make me laugh don't necessarily make other people laugh."
Weller is
in the middle of a story, remembering a time when his grey-feathered Modfather
barnet was unexpectedly recognised "in Thailand, in the middle of f---ing
nowhere".
"This
little couple were playing music in the evening, they recognised me and played
me a song as a tribute. Thing is, they played Don't Look Back in Anger, they
played me one of Noel's f---ing songs. That was pretty weird."
But, then,
fans have always had a weird relationship with Weller and his songs.
It is
nearly 40 years since his first band, The Jam, materialised fully formed from
the hard suburban streets of Woking. Frontman Weller was a precocious, driven,
ambitious teen with a knack for writing sharp, three-minute statements – In the
City, A Town Called Malice, That's Entertainment and the class-warfare anthem
The Eton Rifles. Controversially, conservative UK Prime Minister David Cameron,
himself an Old Etonian, once named the song as one of his favourites.
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