Dan Jennings: ‘Paul Weller - Dancing Through the Fire’

When people ask me (as inevitably happens about once a month, when someone discovers that I played sax with The Style Council in the 1980s) what Paul Weller is like, I always struggle with a reply. He’s a genuinely good bloke, who is absolutely passionate about music and a hard worker. It’s not a very interesting response. Now, I have the answer - I shall direct everyone to Dan Jennings’s authorised oral history - ‘Dancing Through the Fire’.

In my experience over the years since I worked with Paul back in 1983/4, people are broadly split into three camps - those that loved The Jam; fans of The Style Council; and people who discovered the solo work. There’s something for everyone in Dancing Through the Fire, because journalist and fan Dan Jennings spoke to more than 180 people who have spent time with Paul across 50 years of music.

The book started as a podcast in December 2020 - originally Desperately Seeking Paul and now the Paul Weller Fan Podcast. Dan had a short list of people he wanted to interview to find out more about his hero. The list grew and he eventually managed to not only get an interview with the man himself, but now more and more people who have crossed paths with him.

Dan has taken the interviews and painstakingly extracts the nuggets from each, to tell a chronological, cogent story of a complex man. The fact that it’s an oral history, with contributions from so many people is extraordinary. Some, like me, knew Paul for a brief period, and others weave their way through the pages of this book. Paul himself says at the end: “I mean, I’m just good at being me, I suppose.”

And he is good at being himself. Dancing Through the Fire explores Weller’s unique position in music history (shared with Lennon and McCartney) as one of the few artists to achieve Number 1 albums in five consecutive decades.

It is a pity that this book wasn’t around when John was still with us. He, above all people, would have loved seeing what people said about his son. I hope knowing that it was being written and making her own contribution pleased Ann, Paul’s mum, who sadly passed away in July 2025, just before the book’s release. What I do know is that its publication is pleasing to many, many fans of Paul Weller and his music.

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If you want to hear what I said when Dan interviewed me on Desperately Seeking Paul episode 19, click here

You can hear Dan's chat with me on Harmonious World here.