Paul Weller - Paul Weller Returns To Cbgb Club For John Varvatos Campaign

The style guru has taken over the Bowery space that once housed the club and turned it into his New York headquarters - and Weller, who agreed to front the designer's new mod collection with fellow Brit Miles Kane, admits it was a little odd to return to the site of one of his former band's most famous shows.

Weller tells Rolling Stone magazine, "It was kind of weird going back after all that time, but it was a lot cleaner than I remember it. I think they have mopped up most of the sick in the back. It was cool to see what they'd done with the shop. They kept the walls, which was really cool."

Recalling The Jam's debut there in the 1970s, Weller adds, "It was pretty tough. It was pretty mean, especially on the Bowery. It was scary at first. We don't see places like that in London. So we were three sort of innocent little people from England... It was kind of overwhelming, really.

"We didn't know so much about Cbgb and it turned out to be a bar, which we were very used to playing in England. So it was cool. The Ramones came by, and we met people from Blondie. So that was a real buzz. Especially meeting the Ramones; I was a big Ramones fan as well, so it was cool to meet them.

"It was one of the first times I'd been anywhere in the world, so it opened my eyes, really."