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Jam bandmates reunited

Jan 19, 2010

Old sods they may be, but this is quite sweet. Basically, ex-Jam colleagues Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton have reunited, with Foxton playing bass on two songs from Weller's forthcoming Wake Up The Nation LP.

Speaking to NME.com, Weller explained the reason for the reunion:

"It came about because we had both lost loved ones last year," he explained. "He lost his wife at the early part of the year, and I lost my dad, and it opened up a bit of a dialogue, and it seemed like a nice thing to do at the time. In fact it was a wonderful thing."

Aaaaaahhhh. Wake Up The Nation is released in April, and is the follow up to Weller's acclaimed (by us as much as anybody) 2008 LP 22 Dreams. Rather enticingly, the new album also features a collaboration with My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields. Even when he misses the mark, you have to have some admiration for Weller's continued diversity. Gallagher (and the rest of you dad rockers), I hope you're taking notes.

Comments

Jan 20, 2010 - 01:08 PM

jp wrote:

I'm rather partial to the Weller - he's a bit like Neil Young in that he's always changing (though less so in the 90's) and often makes patchy or crap albums...but follows his muse regardless. The first side of the penultimate Style Council LP 'Confessions of a Pop Group' was the last thing I liked by him for a long-time (there's a great piece on The Style Council in Ian Svenonius' book The Psychic Soviet btw). I'm sure there are some good songs in the dad-rock era - I shall go back and investigate. 'From the Floorboards Up' was fantastic and reminded me of Sound Affects by The Jam (which was influenced by Joy Division and Wire). Apparently the new material with Foxton recalls that. The LP before (Heliocentric) has some interesting attempts at r'n'b and some material with Rob Kirby (Nick Drake, Vashtin Bunyan et al). I bought Heavy Soul for 50p as Robert Wyatt rated it - so will attempt to see if it's a lost classic (the title 'Peacock Suit' rankle

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