Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 20: An Orchestrated Songbook, Barbican Theatre, London, Britain, 5-15-2021

Phew! I can't believe I'm finally posting the last Paul Weller BBC album. (At least for now. I'd be shocked if he doesn't keep doing more BBC concerts and such.) I just checked, and I posted Weller's "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" back in April 2023, and now it's May 2025. Not only that, but I skipped posting eight more solo BBC concerts from him, because I decided they were too similar to the ones I was posting. (In case you're curious, the ones I skipped were from 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2006, and 2015.)

This concert is unusual for several reasons. For one, Weller was backed by a full orchestra. He did that in the last BBC concert I posted from him, but otherwise he's rarely played with orchestras. Secondly, this concert took place during the peak of the Covid pandemic, so even though this took place in a popular concert venue in London, there was no audience. Finally, Weller had some special guests, each of them helping him to sing a song: James Morrison, Boy George, and Celeste.

This concert took place the same month as the release of his latest studio album, "Fat Pop." But what's odd is that there was very little connection between the two. As you can even guess from the album title, "Fat Pop" didn't have much to do with orchestral music. Only two songs from that album were performed at the concert, "Glad Times" and "Still Glides the Stream." Instead, the focus was on songs from all points of his music career that best suited an orchestral treatment.

This concert was broadcast live on the BBC as it happened, and also was a free webcast. You can still find it on YouTube. Later, it was officially released under the same name as the BBC concert: "An Orchestrated Songbook." I already had this recording before the official album came out, but they're basically identical. I did make one minor change though. As I mentioned above, there was no audience per se. That meant no clapping between songs. However, there were a couple dozen members of the orchestra, and there were a few moments when they clapped. Generally, they slapped their legs with their free hands while still holding their instruments. This only happened on the songs when special guests were introduced, plus after the last song. I thought it was odd to have only a little bit of clapping on a few songs. So I got rid of those few instances of applause.

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long.

01 Andromeda (Paul Weller)
02 talk (Paul Weller)
03 English Rose (Paul Weller)
04 talk (Paul Weller)
05 My Ever Changing Moods (Paul Weller)
06 On Sunset (Paul Weller)
07 Carnation (Paul Weller)
08 talk (Paul Weller)
09 Glad Times (Paul Weller)
10 Broken Stones (Paul Weller & James Morrison)
11 Gravity (Paul Weller)
12 talk (Paul Weller)
13 Bowie (Paul Weller)
14 Equanimity (Paul Weller)
15 talk (Paul Weller)
16 You're the Best Thing (Paul Weller & Boy George)
17 talk (Paul Weller)
18 Still Glides the Stream (Paul Weller)
19 Movin On (Paul Weller)
20 talk (Paul Weller)
21 Wild Wood (Paul Weller & Celeste)
22 talk (Paul Weller)
23 You Do Something to Me (Paul Weller)
24 White Horses (Paul Weller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Zn9SMrXX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/hRuPheDpdUCeYFs/file

The cover is a screenshot from this exact concert. I picked a moment that would show Weller, some of the orchestra, and one of his special guests. So Weller is gesturing towards Boy George, standing on the opposite side of the picture, wearing a hat.