Midway through our interview with Paul Weller in today's Film & Music section, the former Jam frontman has a spit-out-the-coffee moment over Prince Charles: "How fuckin' ridiculous that whole scene and system is ... Especially as he's not even fuckin' Welsh! It's such an insult to the Welsh people." As Weller aficionados know, swearing by the asbo-load is the hallmark of a good interview with the man – but running through this bullish performance is another theme: getting older. Weller is preoccupied with being 52, an age at which functioning pop stars can only look forward to lifetime contribution awards and patronising profiles. Yet Weller has never quite fitted his demographic profile. When he was barely old enough to vote he was already singing with the Jam, and writing the sort of lyrics that would get him labelled spokesman for a generation. That was for lines such as: "Getting a cab and travelling on buses/ Reading the graffiti about slashed seat affairs" from That's Entertainment – but what often passed the post-punk brigade by was Weller's musical subtlety: the allusions to Motown and Stax, the willingness to experiment. That really came to the fore when he started the Style Council, which disgruntled fans wrote off as soulboys. Nor did they welcome the later house-music direction. But not for nothing has Weller referred to himself as The Changingman – a restlessness and impatience that makes him a much more compelling artist. Nice line in knitwear, too.