Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Town and Country Club, London, Britain, 12-5-1990

I recently posted lots of BBC albums from the first two phases of Paul Weller's long music career: his time with the Jam and then his time with the Style Council. Now, I turn my attention to Weller's history with the BBC as a solo artist. 

Paul Weller has smartly used BBC promotion to his advantage for his entire career. He's played a full concert for the BBC once every year or two, and done many, many studio sessions on top of that. I plan on posting all the studio session stuff. But there are so many full concerts that I'm only going to post some of them. Here's the first one.

This concert took place at a critical time in Weller's career. His band the Style Council had petered out towards the end of the 1980s, then broke up when their record company wouldn't even release their last album. After that, the music industry people considered him washed up, and wouldn't give him a new record contract as a solo artist. This hurt his confidence, and he had trouble writing new songs. But he decided to go on tour in 1990 without having any new record to promote, although he did have some new songs. The positive crowd reaction gave him a shot in the arm, and after more touring and recording he was able to restart his career with his first solo album, "Paul Weller," in 1992.

In retrospect, it's strange the record companies ever doubted his musical talent, and his ability to sell records. He had many hits with the Jam and the Style Council, for instance. But, restarting his career at this point, he didn't want to lean on his old material too much and be seen as an "oldies" act. He only had a few new songs he played at this point: "Round and Round," "Kosmos," and "The Strange Museum." So he largely relied on Style Council songs, plus the cover "Work to Do." He only did two songs from his days with the Jam, and relatively obscure ones: "Precious" and "Pity Poor Alfie."

This concert has been officially released on his box set "Weller at the BBC." However, I noticed that there was virtually banter between songs. I noticed there was a bootleg of his exact same concert. I discovered it has the same excellent sound quality, but it did include all the talking. So I've used that version. With more applause too, there are a few more minutes than the official version. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 My Ever Changing Moods (Paul Weller)
02 A Man of Great Promise (Paul Weller)
03 Round and Round (Paul Weller)
04 talk (Paul Weller)
05 Kosmos (Paul Weller)
06 Homebreakers (Paul Weller)
07 talk (Paul Weller)
08 The Strange Museum (Paul Weller)
09 The Whole Point II (Paul Weller)
10 Speak like a Child (Paul Weller)
11 Just like Yesterday (Paul Weller)
12 talk (Paul Weller)
13 Precious (Paul Weller)
14 talk (Paul Weller)
15 Headstart for Happiness (Paul Weller)
16 Work to Do (Paul Weller)
17 Pity Poor Alfie (Paul Weller)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15335791/PaulW_1990_BBSessionsVolum1TwnandCountryClub__12-5-1990_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at an unknown club in 1990.