Accordingly, The Style Council were quick to make their feelings known with their second single, the funky, club-friendly hit “Money-Go-Round,” wherein Weller attacked the evils of capitalism and donated the royalties to Youth CND.

during the mid-80s, not least the notorious Miners’ Strike and the divisive nature of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government.

There was a lot to be angry about in the U.K. However, while The Jam played benefit gigs for causes such as Rock Against Racism and CND (Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament), Weller – wary of the ‘voice of a generation’ tag the media repeatedly tried to foist on him – only became more directly involved with politics during The Style Council’s career. The Jam’s signature hits, “The Eton Rifles,” “Going Underground,” and “A Town Called Malice” demonstrated that Weller had developed into not only a singer-songwriter of some repute, but also one of the most vivid social commentators of the post-punk era. Unconvinced by their final album, 1989’s Modernism: A New Decade, Polydor refused to release it, but when it finally surfaced in 1998, tracks such as the blissful “That Spiritual Feeling” – featuring no less than James Brown’s backing band – showed the band had assimilated the contemporary sounds of house music into their sound and created a lost gem in the process.Ĭlick to load video Mixing Pop And Politics (Money Go Round Walls Come Tumbling Down The Lodgers Internationalists Life At A Top People’s Health Farm) Weller and Talbot’s desire to broaden their horizons continued for the duration of The Style Council’s career, with Weller enthusiastically tuning into the burgeoning acid house scene during the late 80s. Arguably the best of these, “Fairy Tales,” was a punchy slice of protest soul pepped up with stabs of Stax-style brass. MacInnes’ book – a vivid portrayal of late 1950s London – was a favorite of Weller’s and he got to work with another of his primary influences the following year, when soul legend Curtis Mayfield mixed several tracks for The Style Council’s third album, The Cost Of Loving. The jazz inflections of Café Bleu were largely absent from The Style Council’s second album, Our Favourite Shop, but Weller and Talbot later scored a Top 20 hit early in 1986 with another blissful, jazz-inflected track, the samba-flavored “Have You Ever Had It Blue?” The song was penned during the Café Bleu period but later made it onto the soundtrack of director Julien Temple’s film adaptation of author Colin MacInnes’ Absolute Beginners, featuring David Bowie, Patsy Kensit, and James Fox. Lee, and the gloriously jazzy “The Paris Match,” featuring a smoky vocal from Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn. The record included contributions from rapper Dizzy Hites, soul singer (and Weller’s future wife) Dee C. Top 20), Weller and Talbot adopted a similarly collaborative approach with their debut album, Café Bleu. and sold over 350,000 copies, categorically proving there was life after The Jam for Paul Weller.Įncouraged by the success of The Style Council’s initial flurry of singles (with “Money-Go-Round” and “Long Hot Summer” following “Speak Like A Child” into the U.K. A wonderful pop record driven by Weller’s funky bassline, Talbot’s classy Hammond organ, and a joyous chorus, the song cruised to No. The Style Council established their collaborative approach from the off, with Weller and Talbot enlisting Orange Juice drummer Zeke Manyika and vocalist Tracie Young to perform with them on their debut single, “Speak Like A Child,” issued in 1983. Broadening Horizons (Speak Like A Child The Paris Match Have You Ever Had It Blue? Fairy Tales That Spiritual Feeling) Listen to the Best Style Council songs on Apple Music and Spotify and scroll down for our list. In retrospect, however, the band amassed a sizable collection of fantastic pop music during their six-year career and their catalog is now ripe for reappraisal. In stark contrast to the fierce, mod-inspired punk-pop sound The Jam perfected, The Style Council’s music could be wilfully eclectic and some of it even alienated Weller’s loyal fanbase.

The style council paul weller