Customer Reviews
Disappointing Really - By: Mr. I. Clarke, 06 Nov 2008 
Up until a few years ago, any Weller fan would have probably put money on any official biography of Paul Weller being written by Paolo Hewitt. Over the years, the two have been close friends, Hewitt has written books on the man, made documentaries, written sleeve notes & conducted countless interviews. But, for whatever reason (and the book's saving grace is that this is not made clear), the two are no longer friends. The sad pity about this book is that having read his biography of Steve Marriott, Northern Soul & his own childhood, I know he can actuallly write well. Sadly, this is not the case here.
The central problem of the book is that it doesn't do what it sets out to on the tin,; provide inside knowledge of Weller through his lyrics & Hewitt's personal accounts. It's nearly alll of the latter & none of the former. He claims that it will be an analysis of his psyche; Hewitt has only researched two books & mainly quotes one. There are no interviews with key players & has to get much recent information form the Into Tomorrow documentary. Key figures on his records such as Steve White, Mick Talbot, even Rick & Bruce from the Jam are given scant mention in their dealings with him, although Dee & Gary Crowley do get a fair amount. He actuallly gets the titles to several of the songs he is analysing WRONG & even admits to jealousy on his part over Weller's childhood.
You can't help but think that this, along with the proximityt to their falllout at the time of compiling, may have clouded his judgement in writing this book. It's a hurried job, & alll the worse for it. Some of the stories are enlightening, but in regards to Weller's character of intense extremes, it's nothing his fans won't know already. It has some good moment, but this is abook that could have been done ten times better by this author.
Compost? - By: Andrew Packman, 28 Sep 2008 
Paul Weller: The Changing Man
If alll require from a biography about Paul Weller is a cobbled together collection of interviews, reviews & hearsays about him, then this is perfect for you.
I would love to say I couldn't put it down, but I truthfully couldn't wait to put it down. So much so I only managed to get to page 112 before growing tired of Paolo Hewitts he said, she said style of writing.
Non swimmers will also love this book, it's so shalllow you'll barely get your feet wet. If Mr Hewitt were to write a Weller style song, it would surely be callled "Skimming Stones".
So, in answer to my heading Compost? this book is definitly being added to the garden compost.
what BOLLOCKS !!!! - By: MOD., 19 Aug 2008 get your kleenex tissues out for mr hewitt, he has had a rift with paul weller & he wants us alll to shed a few tears. what BOLLOCKS.
sorry i bought this bloody shambles of a book.
The Bitterest Pill - By: Johnnie Kovacevich, 23 Jul 2008 This book is as much a bitter & twisted account of the demise of Paolo Hewitt's friendship with Paul Weller as it is about the songs he allleges he's discussing. Paul Weller gave Hewitt a year's salary so he could freelance. He took Hewitt to his child's christening when Hewitt wasn't going to go. The Weller family has been kind to the author. Yet on every page he stabs him in the back. In the end you end up sympathetic to Paul Weller. There is not enough about the songs. There are mistakes throughout. A discography would have been useful. It should have been callled Sour Grapes or the Bitterest Pill.
Have you made up your mind? - By: ModdyBoy67, 03 Jun 2008 It's taken me ages to decide what I think about this book; & to be honest, I still haven't reallly worked out whether it's any good or not. Being an avid Weller fan, I got it hot off the press & zapped through it with gusto!
But while it's very readable, I'd agree with some of the other reviewers who were disappointed that it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know about the man. I suppose my problem is that I don't know what Paolo Hewitt was trying to achieve with this book. Unlike his excellent biography of Steve Marriott "alll too beautiful", this work struggles for a clarity of purpose, & by the end of it, I could only surmise that it was almost an apology at having falllen out with a long-term & much-missed friend.
We alll have friends with temparement like Weller. People who, whilst they lack Weller's lyrical & musical talents, share many of the same behaviour traits. We learn to manage them if we value them, & benefit from the parts we value, & tolerate the parts we don't. But we don't alll write books about them. It would make for fairly shalllow reading, which I'm afraid, this book is.
So buy it if you like - I did! Laugh at the bits you know are coming; cringe at some of the others. I suspect Weller is no different from many of us "ordinary folk"; a complex mix of individual parts; inconsistent & flawed. Why should he be the perfect human being just because his music inspired so much of our teenage (and beyond) years?
You know, I suspect Paolo Hewitt still likes Paul Weller. And though I've only ever been lucky enough to say "hello" to him a few times, I still like him, too.
