Happy Birthday The Modfather

Some of my rants have had a theme of growing older (dis)gracefully and how the older I get the grumpier and more irritable I seem to be (my two daughters will testify to that!) And today is one of these days when, yet again, I feel my age with the news that Paul Weller is 50 years old today.

The original angry young man of the punk era of the late 1970s is no longer young and quite possibly no longer angry (unlike some of us from that era) Weller first came to national attention in 1977 with The Jam, which he had formed four years earlier in Woking with his friends Steve Brookes (lead guitar), Rick Buckler (drums) and Bruce Foxton (rhythm guitar). Weller himself took lead vocal duties and bass guitar. When Brookes left the band, Weller and Foxton swapped guitar roles.

The Jam's single "In the City" took them into the UK Top 40 for the first time in May 1977. Although every subsequent single had a placing within the Top 40, it would not be until the band released "The Eton Rifles" that they broke into the Top 10, hitting the No. 3 spot in November 1979.

From then on their blend of pop melodies and politically conscious lyrics made them hugely popular, and in 1980 they hit number one for the first time with "Going Underground". Legend has it that hitting the charts at all was in fact an accident for "Going Underground": it was supposed to be a double A side with "Dreams of Children", but a mistake at a French pressing plant meant "Going Underground" was given 'A' status on the label. Whether this is true or apocryphal is not known, but whatever the case, after "Going Underground", The Jam - and Weller in particular - were UK superstars.

Weller was strongly influenced by 1960s bands such as The Kinks, The Small Faces and The Who. However, that did not mean that he was averse to finding inspiration in the works of many other artists. For example, The Jam's second number one single, "Start!" lifts the bass line from The Beatles' "Taxman", while the chord progression of "It's Too Bad" from All Mod Cons is heavily based on "She Loves You". The group's third chart topper, "Town Called Malice", which has a bass line taken straight from one of Martha Reeves & the Vandellas' less-remembered hits, "I'm Ready for Love."

By the early 1980s, The Jam had become one of the biggest bands in Britain. They became the only band other than The Beatles to perform two songs ("Town Called Malice" and "Precious") on one edition of Top of the Pops (the feat would later also be equalled by Oasis and Manic Street Preachers). The Jam even had one single, "That's Entertainment", reach No. 21 in the UK singles chart despite not even being released in that country - it got there purely on the strength of the huge number of people buying import sales of the German single release. Weller, however, was eager to explore other musical avenues he felt he could not follow with The Jam. Later Jam songs such as "The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow)" - often described by critics as "a Style Council song pretending to be a Jam song" - were written in a more melodic, soulful style.

In 1982, Weller announced that The Jam would disband at the end of the year. Their final single, "Beat Surrender", became their fourth UK chart topper, going straight to No. 1 in its first week, which was still a rare achievement at the time. Their farewell concerts at Wembley Arena were multiple sell-outs. Their final concert took place at the Brighton Centre on the December 11, 1982.

Like thousands of others, my early adult life was influenced by the music of Weller. I was never particularly keen on The Style Council, Weller's successor to The Jam and it wasn't until Weller went solo some years later that I began listen to his new compositions again.

Happy 50th Birthday Paul Weller - it isn't the bitterest pill you've had to swallow!