The Style Council: Greatest Hits

Many fans of The Jam were secretly horrified when acerbic lead singer/guitarist/main songwriter Paul Weller split the group at, seemingly the height of their powers, just after their fourth UK number one single. While the man commanded a devotional following from his (mainly) male following, their faith was truly tested as he turned himself from a mod to a pastel shades-dressing poncey soul boy - fannying around in Paris, drinking cappucino and pretending to read Le Monde at a café's pavement table. Instead of playing his music in a band with distinctly male mates Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, he was now part of a collective, his main sidekick being the strangely effete-looking and vaguely-irritating Mick Talbot. The pair of them wore make-up (well, Mick did) and lay around sunbathing, punting up and down the River Cam. All very homoerotic. He couldn't be? Could he? Horror of horrors. 

Accusations of pretension abounded along with "he's up himself" jibes. did Weller care? Did he fuck. I admire him for that. I have to wonder if it was one huge, contrived piss-take or if he really meant it. I feel it was a bit of both. For sure, He wanted to change his musical direction to soul, to jazz, to funk-pop and to dabble in classical influences, but he was quite happy to ruffle a few feathers along the way, it seemed. If he lost some fans - so what? Weller was (and still is) very much his own man. Fair play to him. 

So, I'm going to put on my pure white denim jacket with matching white jeans, a black and white matelot t-shirt and some white deck shoes and swan on down to Marlow or Henley-on-Thames for a delightful, sunny summer afternoon. Are you coming along mate, it's what we do now.....

The first single, Speak Like A Child, was the one that shocked all us Jam fans at the time, being a pastiche of sixties pop and soul that based itself around a late sixties organ sound and some blaring horns. I have never been a huge fan of it, to be honest, despite its catchy refrain. I remember at the time being irritated by the way Weller sings "I really like it when you speak an a-child..." What was "an a-child?" or indeed "rank and a er-file...." - a bit like when he sang "succumb-er to the beat surrender.." or "dangle jobs like a donkey's carrOT.." - Weller liked changing words' pronunciations to fit the melody, didn't he?

Money-Go-Round is a full-on piece of driving funk rock. Weller had been flirting with funk on The Jam's swansong The Gift album and this excellent number continues that on seven minutes of politically-motivated funk that rails articulately at the inequalities of big business. It remains one of The Style Council's finest tracks. The same can be said of the blissed-out, laid-back hot summer afternoon groove of Long Hot Summer. The accompanying video and its afore-mentioned homoerotica was as decidedly odd as it was surprising and brave. Musically, it was one of the group's best early recordings. Neither of either Weller or Mick Talbot were (as far as I know), homosexual.

A Solid Bond In Your Heart was a lively, Motown-ish, Northern Soul-influenced stomper of a song that had originally been written and performed by The Jam. It showed that The Style Council hadn't completely discarded their earlier tastes. 

The hit singles My Ever Changing Moods and You're The Best Thing are two songs that featured different mixes - single version and album ones. The Style Council often recorded different versions of the same song. Both are mightily appealing in their poppy, single incarnations. I much prefer Moods in its "full band" single version to its minimalist piano and vocal album version. The smoochy white soul of Best Thing is fine in either version.

The Council liked their funk too, and The Big Boss Groove is a classic example of their poppy, appealing, white funk sound. It is very in tune with the wine bar sound of 1984-85. 

Shout To The Top was a non-album hit single and it was another very much in the catchy, singalong mould. The group were proving that they could deliver these almost on request by now. Incidentally, the girl on the 45 rpm single cover sleeve is dressed just so very 1984, isn't she? It was Paul Weller's then girlfriend Gill Price, I think. i may be wrong on that, though. 

Infectious, too, was the militant, anti-government pop of Walls Come Tumbling Down. Its sound and attitude was exactly as I imagined The Jam would have sounded like if they had continued on together. It is important to point out that as well as being social poseurs, The Style Council were also politically-motivated, riding the wave of anti-Tory sentiments that issues such as the miners' strike had generated. Their hearts were always in the right place, as far as I was concerned. 

1985’s Britain under Thatcherism was, in many ways, a miserable place to be and this theme is continued in the anti-capitalism song, Come To Milton Keynes. The group had mastered the art of moaning about political issues over a very attractive, almost jazzy backing. The Lodgers was in the same vein, griping about Thatcher again to an absolutely infectious jazz-lite melody and some delicious vocals from Dee C. Lee. It must always be acknowledged that The Style Council were exceptionally, good, musically

Have You Ever Had It Blue is definitely one of my favourite Style Council numbers of all time. It is a gloriously jazzy re-working of the 1985 album track (from Our Favourite Shop) originally titled With Everything To Lose. Both of the versions are absolute stone killers, full of airy, carefree, rhythmic summery atmosphere. I love them.

Taken from 1987's underrated, soulful The Cost Of Loving album, both It Didn't Matter and Waiting are wonderful examples of what The Style Council were all about - classy, relaxing, very mid-eighties white soul. Quite why the group seemed to attract such negative press throughout their time is a mystery to me. Yes, they were a bit deliberately showy, I guess, but don't ever lose sight of the fact that the music was bloody good. It suited its time perfectly too. Despite the political climate, ironically, Thatcherism and monetarism had led to many people, instead of protesting, being determined to spend loadsamoney and have themselves a well-dressed good time in city wine bars listening to the likes of The Style Council and Sade. There is huge irony to be found in that, isn't there? It is perfectly exemplified by the fact that I, a lifelong socialist, spent my time in 1983-85 over-dressing, getting my hair streaked blonde and buying over-priced cocktails. A long way from the battlegrounds of South Yorkshire, eh? Never mind the miner's jobs, I'll have another Long Island Iced Tea please.

Wanted is a really catchy stand-alone single that I have always loved. It is very underrated and is a perfect piece of quality eighties pop. 

Now we get the wry, anti-Thatcher (again!) Life At A Top People's Health Farm with its witty lyrics and pounding, brassy stomp and then the incredibly catchy flute-powered summery pop of How She Threw It All Away. These tracks are phenomenally good, for me, anyway. I loved them at the time and I still do. The utterly beautiful, classy, emotional pop of Why I Went Missing - a song that I rate as up there in the group's top five - should really have been included here too. 

In their final months, The Style Council got into dance music and it didn't really work for them and their last album, Modernism: A New Decade, was cancelled by their record company. One last hurrah as had, though, in the excellent cover of a Joe Smooth (who was he?) song in the short sharp pop-funk-dance of Promised Land. 

It had been a bumpier ride than the slick smoothness of the music deserved, hadn't it? At the end of the day, though, you see things can change and walls come tumbling down - because unity is powerful.....