Academic Inspiration

My Powerpoint training session (see below) got me thinking about music and how I listen to it and who I listen to .

I realised whilst preparing my presentation that one of the main music influences ( and influence in general) on my life has been Paul Weller.

If you are old enough to remember Punk you will probably remember that this was primarily a London thing. For me a teenager from a London sattelite town when Paul Weller sang “ I know I come from Woking and you say I’m a fraud./But my heart is in the city where it belongs” I knew exactly what he meant, I came from a town like Woking and I knew my heart was in London where it belonged.

Listening to him and The Jam led me into reading Colin Macinness's  classic book about being young and living in in London  Absolute Beginners and George Orwell's work starting with 1984. For those two things alone I  will always be in debt to him.

Its easy for people to laugh these days at The Modfather, his hair and his personal life and drinking habits but to me and many others he has been an inspiration throughout his career ( OK maybe a few years in the late 90’s weren’t that good and I do struggle to forgive him for inspiring OASIS)

I’m not going to post any of his stuff (last time I did the post  got removed by the DMCA lot ) but I will say if you don’t know anything about Paul Weller, start with his website and play catch up. If you like good music, attention to detail and a healthy respect for what has gone before in music but still looking around you for inspiration, you won’t regret it.