Paul Weller
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.4 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2007
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the musician Paul Weller. As the lead singer of The Jam, the founder of The Style Council and a hugely successful solo artist, he is one of the most revered music writers and performers of the past 30 years and is cited as an influence by countless other singers.
In a rare interview, he describes the chronic shyness he had to overcome; how he is still gripped by fear before each performance and how, after he had been dumped by his record label, he was unable to write songs and found that even picking up a guitar felt alien to him. His father has been a constant support to him - as his mentor as well as his manager - and has always believed that his son had something special.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Tin Soldier by The Small Faces Book: Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes Luxury: A settee to sit on.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello I'm Krestey Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. |
| 0:05.0 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:08.0 | The program was originally broadcast in 2007. My castaway this week is Paul Weller. The lyricism, passion and integrity of his songwriting have guaranteed his place as a platinum-plated icon of music. |
| 0:36.5 | To his devoted fans and the legions of professional musicians he's inspired, |
| 0:40.7 | his position is unassailable. It all started, of course, with the jam, not just in his words, |
| 0:46.2 | three little geezers from woking in black suits, but a band that set itself apart from the outset, |
| 0:51.2 | chronicling the lives of Thatcher's children with bittersweet poetical |
| 0:54.6 | insight. |
| 0:55.6 | But that was all 30 years ago. |
| 0:57.6 | He's moved on, and then some. |
| 0:59.8 | Famously disbanding the jam at the very height of its success, he was determined to pursue creative |
| 1:04.9 | fulfillment whatever the cost. And at times that cost has been high. At one point he was dropped |
| 1:09.7 | by his record label and faced writer's block. For inspiration he returned to his roots and embarked on the next |
| 1:16.2 | stage of his musical journey. You've said in the past Paul Weller that you don't know why people |
| 1:21.2 | bother to ask you all these questions since all the answers are in the music I mean you're known for being quite a guarded character |
| 1:27.8 | Do you do you loathe being asked questions? |
| 1:31.9 | I don't know why we are so I do love it sometimes I suppose, but I don't know if it's just being |
| 1:37.6 | guarded. |
| 1:38.6 | There's some things I can't answer. |
| 1:40.9 | People will say to me, where does that song come from, whatever song it may be? |
| 1:45.0 | And it's like, I don't know, it just arrived at my doorstep, I don't know. |
| 1:48.0 | I mean, sometimes the songs are about something very specific and other times they just they just come to you |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.