Paul Weller played an unexpected cover of The Beatles‘ ‘All You Need Is Love’ last night (July 2) during an intimate gig being staged as part of London‘s iTunes Festival.
In front of a packed crowd at Camden’s KOKO, the former Jam frontman and his band played a mischievous set that drew mainly from his solo career, but included a few surprises, leading one fan to comment that it was “like he’d taken Viagra“.
The creative freedom heard on recent album ’22 Dreams’ has clearly been transferred to Weller‘s live show and a number of fan favourites were given a new slant, not least a dub version of ‘Wild Wood’ that was closer to Portishead’s ‘Sheared Wood’ remix than the original.
Before the shock Fab Four encore The Modfather played a blistering version of The Jam‘s ‘Eton Rifles’.
Speaking to BBC 6Music before the gig Weller said: “For a while I couldn’t play the old songs. I couldn’t get my head round it. But I played with The Rifles a while ago and they’d suggested doing ‘Eton Rifles’. It was weird because I’ve not played it since it came out. But it felt alright. I thought: ‘I can actually do this song’.”
Paul Weller played:
‘Peacock Suit’
‘From The Floorboards Up’
‘All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You)’
‘Out Of The Sinking’
‘Sea Spray’
‘Have You Made Up Your Mind’
‘Wild Wood’
‘Broken Stones’
‘Picking Up Sticks’
‘Wild Blue Yonder’
‘Shadow Of The Sun’
‘Invisible’
‘You Do Something To Me’
‘The Changingman’
’22 Dreams’
‘Come On/Let’s Go’
‘Eton Rifles’
‘Whirlpool’s End’
‘All You Need Is Love’
Support on the night came from Glasvegas. The iTunes Festival runs throughout July.