#PAUL WELLER WILTERN ARCHIVE#

вЂњI said to everybody beforehand, I donвЂ™t want a fucking surprise party whatever you do. And when heвЂ™s caught his breath, heвЂ™s presented with a guitar-shaped birthday cake, complete with fountain-wheel fireworks. When an unsuspecting Weller arrives, heвЂ™s greeted by a spontaneous round of applause. The drinks are free, and trestle-tables creak under the weight of quarter-cut sandwiches and sausages on sticks. By the bar, Ian McLagan is deep in conversation with everyone from Bobby Gillespie to Mick Talbot. In another, Noel Gallagher is congratulating The OfficeвЂ™s Martin Freeman on the quality of his tailoring. In one corner, Roger Daltrey and Sir Peter Blake are reminiscing about mid-вЂ™60s Who gigs at The Marquee.

Now, a surprise birthday party is being held for him in the upstairs bar of the Apollo. The show has ended with a roaring version of The JamвЂ™s вЂњEton RiflesвЂќ, a song heвЂ™s not played live in London for 25 years.

Words: Paul MoodyДЇorty-eight hours before his 50th birthday, and Paul Weller has just come offstage. And we learn that, like any good mod, Weller remains вЂњmore interested in the future than the pastвЂќ. We are invited into the GuvвЂ™norвЂ™s inner sanctum, to his star-studded birthday party, and into dressing rooms across Britain and America.

#PAUL WELLER WILTERN ARCHIVE#

The deluxe reissue of The JamвЂ™s final album, The Gift, is reviewed in the new issue of Uncut (December 2012, Take 187) вЂ“ so for this weekвЂ™s archive feature, weвЂ™ve stepped back to UncutвЂ™s December 2008 (Take 139) issue, to spend a year by Paul WellerвЂ™s side, as he celebrates his 50th birthday.

Paul weller wiltern