Paul Weller's biography

In a period of rising 'yoof' unemployment, Weller's socially aware lyrics seemed timely. The bile-spewing attack on class, Eton Rifles, would become the band's first Top 5 single in 1979, proving that Weller had come closer than anyone to updating The Kinks%u2019 Ray Davies' class conscious agenda. The resulting album, Setting Sons also hit the Top 5 and spawned a further hit single in Strange Town.

In February 1980the band went straight in at No.1 with the single, Going Underground, another snarling attack on the establishment. Follow up single, Start, taken from their new album, Sound Affects, also entered the charts at No.1. The song, complete with the bassline rip-off of The Beatles' Taxman, marked a further musical development for the band as they allied studio trickery and sophistication to their musical anger. Sound Affects, released in 1980, marked a shift away from power-punk aggression with subtle acoustic strums on That's Entertainment and the use of horns on tracks like Pretty Green and Man In The Cornershop. By now The Jam were one of the biggest bands in Britain although their defiantly British sound didn't translate to American success. The band were at No.1 again in 1982 with the Motown-tinged single, Town Called Malice.

The resulting album, The Gift would prove to be their swansong as Weller broke up the band at the peak of their fame later that summer, signing off with another No.1 single, Beat Surrender. Weller announced he was off to explore his soul fixation with The Style Council - the first of many musical rebirths. Bassist Foxton went on to join Stiff Little Fingers in 1990 while drummer Rick Buckler forsook musical polish for the real thing and became a furniture restorer.

Within a matter of months Weller had formed his new soul collective with former Merton Parkas keyboardist Mick Talbot and drummer Steve White (who would go on to partner Weller in his solo ventures). Inspired by the 70s soul of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, Weller fashioned a mixture of white funk and breezy pop, scoring immediately with the Top 5 hit, Speak Like A Child. Later that year the group went Top 3 with the Long Hot Summer EP, its sultry lead track creating a blueprint for the Style Council sound. The band's debut album, Cafe Bleu was a lush fusion of summery jazz and high street soul spawning the sumptuous 1984 hit My Ever Changing Moods.

As the %u201880s wore on, Weller became increasingly political - the rousing funk of Shout To The Top and Walls Come Tumbling Down also hinted at the direction The Jam may have taken had they still been together. With the miners strike in 1984, Weller released a benefit single, Soul Deep, under the Council Collective banner. The project included Jimmy Ruffin, Junior Giscombe and Style Council backing singer Dee C. Lee, who Weller married. 1985's album My Favourite Shop was a well-crafted series of funk outings on such topics as industrial decline, political violence and social change and included the hit Walls Come Tumbling Down. By 1986 The Style Council were heavily involved in the Red Wedge movement alongside the likes of Billy Bragg and The Communards. The aim was to educate music fans into voting Labour at the upcoming elections. The movement proved a failure as the Tories romped home to victory and the failure of the project seemed to inform the band's next album, the doleful The Cost Of Loving. 1988's follow up album, Confessions Of A Pop Group lacked focus, sinking in a series of string arrangements and classical pretensions and Weller disbanded the group when Polydor refused to release a proposed new album.

Now without a band or a record label Weller was forced to re-evaluate his career. He regained his passion for music with the new look, low-key Paul Weller Movement, featuring Steve White, Jacko Peake, Paul Francis, Max Beesley, Damon Brown, Chris Lawrence and DJ and ex-NME scribe Paulo Hewitt. The band's first single, Into Tomorrow, on the Freedom High label, suggested Weller had been holed up with his favourite 60s R&B and psychedelia records. The single was a Top 40 hit and Weller subsequently whittled down the group, signed with Go! Discs in 1992 and released the single Uh Huh Oh Yeh. The song shot into the Top 20 and the Paul Weller revival was up and running. His eponymous debut album followed - politics were ditched for intensely personal songs and 1993 follow up album, Wild Wood was decidedly pastoral, drawing on 70s influences such as Traffic . The title track and single Sunflower saw our working class hero in meditative mood and the album reached No.2, forcing the music press to reassess the chino-soul of the Style Council years. And now, with the emergence of Britpop and the likes of Oasis citing Weller as a guiding influence, Weller came to be known as the Modfather (a title he hates) - a guiding light to the hordes of mop-topped, baggy-trousered chancers clogging up the charts.

Logically Noel Gallagher guested on Weller's next album, 1995's Stanley Road. The record was earthier than anything Weller had released since The Jam. Peviewed by the blistering single The Changingman, the album included a cover of Dr. John's I Walk On Gilded Splinters and the tender ballad You Do Something To Me. The album debuted at No.1 in the UK album charts and despite a few critical cries of tired dad-rock, Weller's star was in the ascendancy once again. He kept his profile high with numerous live appearances including a guest spot at Oasis' triumphant Knebworth shows. Now signed to Island Records after the demise of Go! Discs, Weller returned in 1997 with the Heavy Soul album, a raw blend of mod, psychedelia and rock. After a Greatest Hits set, Weller released the Heliocentric album in 2000, a life affirming blend of soulful, retro influences, especially on the brooding There Is No Drinking After You're Dead.

After 2001 live album Days Of Speed, Weller returned in 2002 with the Illumination album. Fending off cries of tired dadrock, the album found Weller refining his art and Modfather status. With contributions from Noel Gallagher and Stereophonics Kelly Jones the album was alternately rustic and muscular.

Fly On The Wall, released in 2003, was a 3-CD box set of b-sides and rarities, featuring some excellent cover versions including Neil Young's Ohio and Traffic's Feelin' Alright, and a number of credible Beatles' interpretations. The following year saw Weller making a musical stopgap with the covers album, Studio 150 which featured hit and miss covers of The Carpenters, Sister Sledge and Jimi Hendrix. Any cries of %u2018creative block%u2019 suggested by Studio 150%u2019s release will soon be allayed with Weller's new album, As Is Now. Recorded swiftly over a fortnight at Oasis' Wheeler End Studio, the new album finds Weller at his most relaxed, sporting and funky. We might even see him smiling...