Paul Weller's 'Hit Parade' Marches On

NEW YORK: The Modfather made an offer the sold-out crowd couldn't refuse: a chance to hear career-spanning tunes his last night in town.

Though it was with a Heavy Soul that Paul Weller opened the last of his three gigs presented by Spin and Adidas Originals at New York City's Irving Plaza (with that album's "Science"), he seemed to be in great spirits. Before taking the stage, he told SPIN.com that "getting to do three nights is a pleasure," because most of his gigs are one-offs. Focusing each night on a different part of his catalogue was also a curveball that Weller welcomed. "It's been good because there are tunes I haven't played since the times," Weller admitted, adding that it was fun to support his retrospective release, Hit Parade, to "remind ourselves of songs we've forgotten about."

Though Weller and his musical mates may have rediscovered songs that slipped their minds, the sold-out sea of spiky hair and kicky suits (including funnyman/film actor Jimmy Fallon) sang along to almost every one, from the Jam's "The Butterfly Collector" to Weller's more recent works, like "From the Floorboards Up." Taking a break from strutting around the stage and shaking his tambourine, the Modfather lit up a cigarette before sitting on a stool and slowing it down with "Wishing on a Star," a cut from his 2004 collection of covers, Studio 150. By the encore, the audience's arms were either in the air, or around adjacent shoulders, swaying. The banging bass of "Town Called Malice" brought down the house, and by the time drummer Steve White caught his tossed stick, the crowd's conversation almost seemed to be theme-song lyrics from an Anglophile All in the Family: Boy, the way Paul Weller played...songs that made the Hit Parade.BRIANA MOWREY / PHOTOS BY DAVE GUSTAV

On SPIN.com:
Paul Weller

>> Listen to Paul Weller on Napster

We asked: The namesake for Weller's 1995 solo album, Stanley Road, was the street where he had lived as a child. Of all the streets you've lived on, which would you use for an album title?

Name: Stacey Northrup
Age: 43
Hometown: Vineyard Haven, MA
Occupation: Self-employed
"Drummer Lane."

Name: Joel Hirsch
Age: 43
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Occupation: Film editor
"Mermaid Lane."

Name: David Siemenski
Age: 40
Hometown: New York, NY
Occupation: "Design & Build"
"Grove Street."

Name: Reiko Moore
Age: 40
Hometown: Tokyo
Occupation: Translator
"Gift Street."

Name: Cara Fulchino
Age: 37
Hometown:Brooklyn, NY
Occupation: Marketer
"Hampton Road."

Name: Mike Stone
Age: 40
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Occupation: Web designer
"Ohio Street."

Name: Fiona Liston
Age: 32
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Occupation: Floral design studio owner
"Elkenbichstrasse."

Name: Matt Fowler
Age: 34
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Occupation: "I work for a bank."
"Osbourne Avenue."

Raise your hand If you think Paul Weller is brill

Weller's changingman wants to make it alright

Harmonizing help for the Hit Parade

From left: Spin Publisher Malcolm Campbell, Paul Weller, Spin President Tom Hartle

Tom Hartle (right) and friends

Has Jimmy Fallon fallen for one of Spin's own, Sarah Craft?

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