Paul Weller says he won his fight against being labelled a heritage act.
The former Jam frontman’s career was launched in the ‘Town Called Malice’ group in the seventies and eighties before he went on to form The Style Council following their demise in 1982.
Since 1992, the ‘Changingman’ hitmaker has been a revered solo artist and although some fans expect him to still put Jam and Style Council songs in his setlist, he believes he has “proved himself” as an artist in his own right.
Speaking on his ‘Desperately Seeking Paul’ podcast, he explained: “A few years ago there was a thing where they were talking about heritage acts.
“I am not going down that road, mate – I’m not a heritage act.
“I had to fight that term, my own little fight in a sense to get through all that stuff.
“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 [ex-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 plough through that and follow your programme 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 Modfather has released 16 solo albums, his most recent, 2021’s ‘Fat Pop (Volume 1)’, reached the top of the Official UK Albums Chart.