Paul Weller

Born in Woking, Surrey, Paul Weller has been a fixture of British pop since the mid-1970s, repeatedly changing setting and aesthetic. First at the head of the trio The Jam, he established in the late 1970s a terse songwriting style between punk, new wave and the mod revival, informed by soul and English social observation. After the group split in 1982, Weller formed The Style Council with Mick Talbot the following year, a more open-ended project where sophisticated pop, blue‑eyed soul, jazz, funk and late-career touches of house intersected. His solo career began in the early 1990s with Paul Weller (1992) and was consolidated by Wild Wood (1993), Stanley Road (1995) and Heavy Soul (1997), records that brought melodic rock, folk, rhythm and blues and soul into a more direct format. Over the years Weller has continued to broaden his musical vocabulary — from 22 Dreams (2008) to Wake Up the Nation (2010), marked by reunions with Bruce Foxton, and on to On Sunset (2020) and 66 (2024). His career also includes collaborations with Noel Gallagher, Terry Callier and Death in Vegas, as well as a regular presence on British rock, pop and soul stages.