Like Van Morrison and Eric Clapton before him, Paul Weller is now one of those national treasures that audiences will troop out to see regardless of whatever new record he may or may not have in the shops or how buoyant his stock is in the marketplace of the moment. Now 46, he is the only representative from the punk generation to have acquired such hallowed status, and true to form on Wednesday, the first of three nights at the Apollo, Weller all but ignored the material from his current album, Studio 150, and did not even bother to play his new single, Come Together, a sturdy version of the Beatles song which is released on Monday.

A Union Jack was draped over his speaker cabinet, a pair of sunflowers lay on the grand piano and a pair of disco balls were mounted like sentinels at each side of the Apollo stage as he made a punctual and unfussy entrance.

Returning to complete a tour which was interrupted in November when he was admitted to hospital suffering from chronic tonsillitis, Weller appeared fit and relaxed, while nevertheless maintaining his consumption of cigarettes between songs at a decidedly old-school level.

Taking up his position alongside his long-standing backing musicians, the guitarist Steve Cradock and bass player Damon Minchella of Ocean Colour Scene, together with the drummer Steve White, Weller set off with a string of brisk rockers — Out of the Sinking, Into Tomorrow and Friday Street — before switching to the more mellifluous sound of the old Style Council hit My Ever Changing Moods. With contributions throughout from a four-piece horn section and an additional keyboard player, the sound was polished and professional, if a little lacking in bite.

There was still a truculent edge to Weller’s persona, which surfaced momentarily as he spat out the verses of the old Jam song That’s Entertainment. But the whiplash severity of his performances in the past had been replaced by a softer and more genial approach. A wishy-washy acoustic sequence of Wishing on a Star, All on a Misty Morning and Roll Along Summer preceded an appealing new song on which he played a bit of English honky -tonk piano.

Normal service was resumed with a belting version of Peacock Suit and a string of encores, which included Sunflower and A Town Called Malice. The mood was celebratory by the end, and any audience faced with so many great songs from such a long and distinguished career was unlikely to go home disappointed. But it was hard to ignore the nagging feeling that this was a show by a great performer who is now content to cruise on autopilot.

Paul Weller’s tour ends at the Hammersmith Apollo, W6 (0870 6063400), tonight

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