A daunting prospect for artist and audience alike: one man, four guitars, two hours and no accoutrements, save for an occasional echo effect. Of course, Paul Weller being Paul Weller, even acoustic and solo, he won't be playing a greatest hits set.
Instead he interweaves occasional solo singles and obscure album tracks, such as Science and Amongst Butterflies, with dips into the Style Council and Jam catalogues. How galling it must be for him that 1978's English Rose (his very own I Will Always Love You) is received with greater acclaim by a crowd bristling with testosterone than anything from the past two decades.
Remarkably trim, Weller remains a compelling live figure, even sitting down, hampered by a guitar, and perspiring lightly in a never-to-be-removed leather jacket. He is typically taciturn, offering only gruff but heartfelt thanks and a digression pondering the meaning of "Come on, son."
Physically, though, he is a man possessed. As if afflicted by the heebie-jeebies, his left leg twitches furiously, even during the sedate Clues; his right leg stomps in time; his torso jerks uncontrollably; his head contorts; and the front rows sometimes find themselves showered with spittle. Clearly, Weller is not coasting, and for that alone he can be forgiven almost everything.
Even so, time occasionally passes slowly. Everything Has Its Price To Pay still sounds like the B-side it actually was. The Butterfly Collector and There is No Drinking After You're Dead, however, soar in their intimate settings.
Paul Weller still being Paul Weller, however, "solo" does not quite mean solo. Noel Gallagher adds acoustic guitar and the higher notes to a pogo-inducing That's Entertainment; Ocean Colour Scene's Steve Cradock stays for four songs. You Do Something To Me is especially pert, and A Town Called Malice a reminder of when Weller chronicled others' lives rather than just his own. Percussionist Steve White and support band Wood are also briefly called upon to assist.
Not, then, quite as daunting as it initially seemed. Nor all it could have been. But there is still a restless fire in Weller's belly.
• Paul Weller appears at T in the Park, Kinross, tomorrow. Box office: 0141-339 8383.
