Bluestown Music

Review: Paul Weller – In The Shadow Of The Sun (Live & Very Direct)

Paul Weller revisits his musical legacy on a 31-track live album recorded during his 2026 UK summer tour

Paul Weller & Band – In The Shadow Of The Sun (Live & Very Direct)
Format: Digital
Label: Parlophone Records
Release date: October 2, 2026

Text: Tom Wouters

Paul Weller is one of the icons of British rock as working class hero and as the Modfather, leading the mod revival in the 70s and 80s with post-punk band The Jam and The Style Council. From the 90s on his solo career established him as one of the greatest songwriters in British rock.

His sound, heavily influenced by sixties bands as Traffic, The Who, The Kinks and The Small Faces and recorded during his first solo albums (‘Wild Wood’ -1993, ‘Stanley Road’ – 1995 and ‘Heavy Soul’ – 1997) gained him tremendous popularity.

And Weller, almost 70, is still going strong, which is evidenced by his 31-track live album, ‘In The Shadow Of The Sun (Live & Very Direct)’, which was recorded during his run of outdoor UK shows in the summer of 2026.

The recordings are intended to retain the direct character of the concerts rather than present a heavily polished recreation of them. Weller describes the shows as particularly special and says the album was taken straight from the soundboard: “All real, all true, more power, more love.”

From moment one ‘In The Shadow Of The Sun’ blasts out of the speakers with the Traffic-like Rip The Pages Up, followed by the Jam’s Precious that seamlessly transitions in the Curtis Mayfield-cover Move On Up and the exciting punk rock of Come On/Let’s Go, excitingly played by a tremendous band and horn section.

Weller’s band features long time companion guitarist Steve Cradock, Andy Crofts on keys, Steve Pilgrim on drums, Ben Gordelier on percussion and Andy Lewis on bass. The master himself shines on vocals, piano and guitar.

Photo by: Robin Clewley

After The Weaver and two more Jam songs (Strange Town and Man In The Corner Shop) the tempo drops slightly in Up In Suze’s Room from ‘Heavy Soul’, featuring Cradock’s guitar, which is followed by four piano driven songs that feature Weller’s tremendous singing (That Pleasure, Hung Up, Village and Broken Stones, from ‘Stanley Road’).

And after a short Style Council hits break (My Ever Changing Moods, Have You Ever Had It Blue and Shout To The Top) the record takes up full speed again with Stanley Road, featuring Cradock’s wah-wah guitar, the tremendously beautiful piano ballad You Do Something To Me and Can You Heal Us (Holy Man), which sound very much like Dr. John’s Walk On Guilded Splinters, a song Weller had on his playing list for years.

And although being the master of catchy short songs (mostly inside four minutes), Weller has also an experimental side, as is to be heard in the six minutes soul influenced More with Bowie-like vocals, and in the title song of the album, the eight minutes jam Shadow Of The Sun, which is followed by the furiously played Peacock Suit (from ‘Heavy Soul’) and a totally unlike Jam song, English Rose, a piano ballad played as an almost solo performance, which underlines the class of Paul Weller as singer and songwriter.

And still, Weller and his band show no sign of stopping and keep on going strong with All The Pictures On The Wall, ‘Stanley Road’’s The Changing Man, the post punk of The Eton Rifles before eventually winding things down with two semi-acoustic songs, Wild Wood and Rockets. But because he can’t help it, Weller ends the album with the post punk of The Jam’s A Town Called Malice.

‘Shadows Of The Sun (Live & Very Direct)’ is an exciting reproduction of Weller’s British Tour 2026. As he said himself: “all real, all true, more power, more love.” What a top-notch guy!

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