While I wasn't surprised to hear "Long Hot Summer" given the time of year what did force me to do a double take was when I looked up The Style Council on trusty Wikipedia,"Long Hot Summer" was released 30 years ago in the summer of 1983.......has it really been that long ago?
I had been a big Jam fan back in the day,"All Mod Cons" remains one of my ALL time favourite albums EVER but sadly to my eternal shame I never saw The Jam live,by the time I became a regular concert goer in 81 there were more bands than I had pounds to go and see and somehow messers Weller,Foxton and Buckler slipped through the cracks calling it a day in 82.
It's fair to say the new musical direction Paul Weller took along side Mick Talbot w/ The Style Council was a radical departure from what he had done w/ The Jam and several hardcorp Jam fans were less then willing to join Paul Weller's new musical scooter so to speak{sly Mod reference!!} but seriously any Jam fan who heard them cover the Curtis Mayfield standard"Move On Up" couldn't have been shocked by the soulfulness the once"angry young man of pop" had in spades.
I personally liked what The Style Council brought to the table their debut "Speak Like A Child" dripped w/ soul and "A Solid Bond In Your Heart" also makes my Top Five Style Council songs of all time.
1984's double A single "You're The Best Thing"/Big Boss Groove" showed how multi layered Weller's Style Council could be,the soulful ballad of "You're The Best Thing" coupled w/ the bombastic hard hitting "Big Boss Groove" was seldom off my turntable but was nudged to the side in December of that year when "Soul Deep" was released under the moniker of Council Collective.
Never one to shy away from his political opinions Weller launched a musical attack on then prime minister Margaret Thatcher's handling of the miners strike and donated the proceeds of "Soul Deep" to the families of the striking miners,some what surprisingly the single wasn't "banned" by the BBC for being "too political" and was even performed on "Top Of The Pops",to this day "Soul Deep" remains a Style Council favourite and is why I spent the extra dollars to get the deluxe copy of the "Our Favourite Shop" cd just to be able to hear "Soul Deep" over and over again.
The 1985 release of "Our Favourite Shop" would mark the beginning of the end for The Style Council while 1987's "The Cost Of Loving" album yielded a pair of hit singles "It Didn't Matter" and "Wanted" the wheels were slowly coming off and in 1989 The Style Council were no more.
This however would lead to the third chapter of Paul Weller's career which continues to florish and head into it's fourth decade,"The Modfather" continues to record,tour and be a major influence on English music,long may that carry on.
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