When Paul Weller’s dad lived in Chichester

But Chichester – albeit indirectly – has played its part too. Paul’s late father John lived in the city for a while and in fact worked for the Chichester Observer, leaving “because he thought the pay was a bit rubbish,” according to his daughter Nicky Weller. Nicky, as Paul’s sister, has been ideally placed to curate the exhibition which is entitled This Is The Modern World and runs until August 29 in Valley Gardens, Brighton. “I think it has made it much more personal really,” she says. “There are all sorts of bits and pieces that we pulled out of the archives. We are all magpies and we all keep things and I found my brother's school books a few years ago and stuff that he was scribbling when he was 13 or 14 and clearly going to go into a band. It is all that personal stuff that makes the difference.” Paul and Nicky’s father John was Paul’s manager and Nicky started The Jam fan club when she was 14: “So it was absolutely a family business. My mum used to look after all their clothes so it was like a real cottage industry.” John was born in Brighton but moved with his best mate to Chichester: “I think they were a couple of little herberts!” Nicky says: “My dad lived in Whyke Lane with his best mate and he got a job with the Chichester Observer. He said he used to type with two fingers so it must have been one of those old-fashioned upright typewriters. "And he also used to box in Chichester at the Old Chichester Boys Club. He had a job at Shippam's but he hated it. He said it was the most disgusting job he'd ever had. "But he also had a job at the Observer for a while. I think it was in the advertising department. My dad would have been a good junior reporter I think but I think he left because the pay was a bit rubbish.” John was born in Brighton in 1931: “But he was a teenager in Chichester and I remember him talking about his headmaster who was really strict but he let my dad get away with things because he was so good at boxing. ‘You are going to be excused your classes because you're going to go boxing for us.’ He boxed for Chichester as a 14-year-old and he boxed for the RAF. "I think he would have worked for the Chichester Observer in the early 1950s.” It was in Woking that Paul and Nicky were born, but later in life Paul and Nicky's parents moved to Selsey, around 35 or 36 years ago. “With the exhibition I wanted to capture the excitement of The Jam and that punk time. "It was like everything moves at 100 miles an hour. It was a really exciting time for music and all the little bands were starting up. "Before that it was like big rock stars flying around on their planes but now the little bands were coming through and it made it really exciting and refreshing. "I wanted to get that excitement of the whole time, The Jam not being a punk band but part of that scene and then becoming smarter and becoming a mod band and then also their progression through into The Style Council.”