Paul Weller, Royal Festival Hall, review: Career-spanning show from an artist ageing with grace and beauty

Rarely heard tracks from across the Modfather’s career, from ‘The Jam’ to new folk-rock solo album ‘True Meanings’, are performed with an orchestra. By Elisa Bray

Paul Weller performs at the Royal Festival Hall (Rex)

Watching Paul Weller stride onto the stage and perch serenely at the grand piano to serenade us with opening song “One Bright Star”, you could almost forget the angry punk roots from which he emerged as frontman of The Jam in the Seventies.

But then a fight breaks out in the stalls of the civilised, seated Royal Festival Hall. It’s safe to say that this venue won’t have seen many fights in its auditorium, especially judging by the length of time – at least two songs of Weller’s set – that it takes to stop it. If he notices, he doesn’t let on.

In interviews, Weller has voiced his disapproval of his contemporaries on “the nostalgia circuit”, forever touting their decades-old greatest hits. His forward-looking goal to stay relevant has meant consistently putting out a new release every one or two years since his first solo album in 1992 (just one, Saturns Pattern, arrived after a three-year hiatus), experimenting with genres as he did so. And in the year the Modfather turned 60, he has reinvented himself yet again, abandoning the dad-rock of last year’s A Kind Revolution with the pastoral folk-rock and new-found reflectiveness of True Meanings – the majority of which he brings to glorious life tonight alongside an orchestra and his band.

The lullabic, dreamy “Glide” is resplendent, with strings, rippling harp glissandi and harmonising backing vocals. The wistful introspection of the lilting “Gravity”, with its lyrics “Find the child inside of me / This rusty key will set him free”, is augmented by mournful strings, delicate pizzicato and gentle finger-picked acoustic guitar. That Weller, for the most part, sits at the stage front playing guitar, creates a more intimate feel to the performance, adding to the sense of self-reflection. The sparse but majestic ballad “Where’er Ye Go” from 22 Dreams is an affecting romantic highlight; Weller’s piano accompanied by arranger Hannah Peel’s violin.

True Meanings standout “White Horses”, just before the encore, is taken to emotive heights, its buildup of folk-rock instrumentation – strings, percussion, flute and flourishes of brass – a heart-swelling highlight.

This is a crowd of devoted Mod fans, so tonight’s set spans Weller’s career, including rarely heard tracks from The Style Council (“Man of Great Promise”) and The Jam (“Private Hell” and “Boy About Town”). But, above all, this is a showcase for True Meanings, and every song – whatever its era – is put through the new album’s bucolic loveliness, performed with the orchestra.

“Wild Wood”, from his second solo album, shows off Weller’s soulful vocals. It’s followed by that same album’s “Country” which demonstrates his earlier folky sensibilities. Many songs Weller introduces as being ones not played for years: “Strange Museum” for example, last performed the previous century, is sung soulfully at the piano. “Private Hell” and “Boy About Town” are such deep cuts they’ve not been performed since Jam days.

There’s no sign of much-heard classics “Town Called Malice”, “That’s Entertainment”, “Going Underground” or “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight”, but that would contradict his anti-nostalgia determination. That determination is summed up by tonight’s subtle tweak to the lyrics on “Tales from the Riverbank”, on which he seems to remove the very word “nostalgia”.

Tickets range from a lofty £50 to £75 for tonight’s show, but no expenses are spared. On the encore’s melancholic “Books”, as well as Lucy Rose’s soft vocals, a trio of guest musicians, cradling sitar, tampura and violin add otherworldly, hypnotic modal folkiness. It’s an understated and beautiful rendition.

The final song “May Love Travel With You” feels like a parting blessing, its poetic lyrics (“May love travel with you / Forever and without fear / Have grace to see the virtues / Give thanks to them sometimes”) worldly wise and generous in their humanity. Tonight shows an artist growing older with grace, and musical beauty.