It's been seven long years since Paul Weller last made his way across the pond for a proper tour, but this fall will see the onetime Jam and Style Council frontman finally doing another series of live dates throughout the US and Canada.
The tour, which starts on September 6 in Red Bank, New Jersey, will take Weller through several key cities in the Northeast before popping up to Toronto, after which he'll make stops in Chicago and Milwaukee before hitting the West Coast. The 15-date jaunt comes to a conclusion in Los Angeles at the Orpheum Theater on September 27.
The Peter Blake-painted cover art for Paul Weller's upcoming new album, '66'
The tour, as you may have noted in the subhead above, is in conjunction with the release of Weller's latest album, 66, which is set for release on May 24. The LP is Weller's seventeenth full-length studio effort, and it's his first to be released since 2021's Fat Pop (Volume 1), which topped the UK charts and - perhaps predictably - completely failed to chart in the US. (Despite his unquestionable status as a cult hero in America, the last time Weller charted with one of his albums on US shores was with 2012's Sonik Kicks, which topped out at No. 166 on the Billboard 200.)
66 was recorded primarily in Weller's own Black Barn Studio, and it features a plethora of guest stars, including several longtime friends of Weller's. The list of guests includes -- but, since we haven't yet seen the full list of credits, is probably not limited to -- Erland Cooper, Dr. Robert of the Blow Monkeys, Noel Gallagher, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Richard Hawley, Suggs, and Le SuperHomard's Christophe Valiant.
It's been seven years since Paul Weller mounted a North American tour.
As far as what you can expect to hear in the set list on Weller's upcoming tour, well, that's difficult to say at present, but one thing's for certain, and that's that it won't be a situation where you're getting naught but a best-of set.
In a recent interview for Desperately Seeking Paul: The Paul Weller Fan Podcast, Weller declared in no uncertain terms that he wouldn't be going down the road of turning into a so-called "heritage act."
"I had to fight that term, my own little fight in a sense, to get through all that stuff," said Weller. "I probably lost a certain amount of audience along the way in this past ten or so years, the ones that just wanted to hear the Jam stuff. But they’ve kind of gone now, I guess they go and see [former Jam bandmate] Bruce Foxton's band or other people – whatever they want to do, whatever makes them happy. But it’s been worth it, because I’ve proved myself right. If you just plow through that and follow your program and what you think it should be, eventually you will get there. But it’s easy to get sidetracked by people saying, ‘Maybe you should do this, or you could do that, or make it like the old record.' No, just follow your vision...if you’ve still got a vision."
The full list of Weller's US tour dates is below.
TOUR DATES
September 2024
06 Red Bank NJ – Count Basie Center for the Arts
07 Brooklyn NY – Kings Theatre
08 Boston MA – House of Blues
10 Glenside PA – Keswick Theatre
11 Washington DC – Lincoln Theatre
13 Toronto ON – History
15 Chicago IL – Vic Theatre
16 Minneapolis MN – First Avenue
19 Seattle WA – The Moore
20 Vancouver BC – Vogue Theatre
22 San Francisco CA – The Fillmore
23 San Francisco CA – The Fillmore
25 El Cajon CA – The Magnolia
26 Anaheim CA – House of Blues
27 Los Angeles CA – Orpheum Theatre
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