Celebrity Child Ahoy!

Gilps · August 28, 2007

Paul Weller goth-mod/nu-glam son is about to put a record out. That's sure to be good.

It's three weeks since the club night Dangerous To Know launched at Camouflage on London's Wardour Street. Named after a 1986 Dead Or Alive album (Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, itself a reference to Lord Byron), it specialises in indie and electro and is the brainchild of 19-year-old Natt Weller, a glam impresario who describes himself as "a cross between Marilyn Manson and Victoria Beckham". His dad prefers to call him a "moth", as in a cross between a mod and a goth. But then his dad is Paul Weller.

Natt is the eldest child from The Modfather's marriage to Style Council singer Dee C Lee. After their divorce in the mid-90s, he divided time between his parents, although most of it was with Lee. "Life at my dad's was a bit crazy," he says in a genteel voice utterly devoid of Weller Sr's Woking grit. "It was just easier going to school from my mum's rather than Dad dropping me off. He's cool, but he can be pretty eccentric."

The Jam founder, for his part, had to contend with watching his son grow up listening to Placebo and Evanessence, eschewing Fred Perrys and loafers for band T-shirts and nail varnish. "I think [his music] is f***ing appalling," said Weller, "but he digs it." Yet despite their obvious differences, father and son do share some common ground (Arctic Monkeys, for one) and regularly swap band recommendations. Weller has even tentatively agreed to show his face at next month's Dangerous To Know.

Meanwhile, Natt is already planning to follow in his father's footsteps as a recording star. He is currently finishing a debut EP of what he calls "visual rock pop" and is going to Japan in October to seek out producers and musicians for a follow-up album. He has yet to play anything to his dad because "he'd probably say it was b******s". He is, however, incredibly ambitious. "There haven't been any proper male artists for ages except Robbie Williams, and he's s***," he says. "I'm just sick of all these bands in granddad jumpers and straw hats. I want to be a proper rock star. We need something like a modern Bowie."

Young, cocky and full of bile - a chip off the old block after all.

Kvarme Ate My Food · August 28, 2007

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