The Style Council - One of the best things about the 1980s.

The Jam were great, but Weller usually gets a bit of a slagging for The Style Council. I really miss them - they were one of the best bands of the 80s.
The first record I bought of theirs was Introducing the Style Council. It has two of my favourites on there - "Speak Like A Child" and "Headstart For Happiness". I know we can't talk about polit*cs on this site but they made me feel like we had someone on our side when we really needed it. You don't get that anymore.
There were some nailed on classics like Walls Come Tumbling Down, Shout To The Top, My Ever Changing Moods and Long Hot Summer.
What about Money Go Round?
Maybe better than The Jam and much better than solo Paul Weller IMO.
What is your favourite Style Council?

You don't have to take this crap!

 

Great band. Love Weller and the Jam but TSC were the best as far as I'm concerned. So many great singles. Excellent albums too in my opinion, even though the critics panned some of the later ones.

Favourite track probably A Solid Bond In Your Heart, closely followed by My Ever Changing Moods.

 

I got into the Jam around 1996 but due to their reputation I avoided the style Council for a few years. Eventually I got the Singular Adventures compilation and...I LOVED it! I quickly bought the box set and found that there was a lot more to love than just the singles. The accepted wisdom about them declining quickly in the later years is basically true but they were never horrible and produced a ton of music that has aged wonderfully.

 

Discovered TSC via Internationalists found in the dollar vinyl bin years ago. I absolutely love that record, and the vinyl sounds great. Eventually picked up all the original UK albums, comps, imports, as many singles as I could find, and finally the complete CD box with all the albums.

I had been a casual fan of The Jam. Love some of the songs but never spent a lot of time with the albums. Solo Weller mostly leaves me cold. I DO like Wildwood quite a bit though.

To this day I think 'My Ever Changing Moods' is one of the greatest songs of the 1980s.

 

Our Favourite Shop (Internationalists) is great as are some of the singles and parts of Cafe Bleu, the rest is pretty average.

 

all three were/are great. the fact that they all came from the same brain is the miracle.

 

There are some great old threads on this board from around 2009, if you are interested. Search for Creation and Continuum Discussion. Some great threads on The Jam, TSC and Solo Weller. They kind of died out after a while but were buzzing at one point.

 

They did a great performance at Live Aid but even the guy who posted this clip on YouTube says
"The songs 'Internationalist' and 'Walls Come Tumbling Down' played at the Live Aid Concert on July 13th 1985. Due to popular demand even though they are not really my cup of tea." !!!

It's a great performance.

 

Enjoyed them quite a bit, saw them live at Brixton Academy in London Summer 1987. Terrific live show, but the live LP they released was a bore... except for that soul ballad "When You Call Me". More a fan of The Jam in the long run.

 

Yep. And where's Butch when you want him to chime in?

 

Tracie Young

Bruce Foxton

 

I've heard that the live album might as well have been a studio album with the amount of overdubs on it.

The Chippenham Golddiggers show and Far East and Far out were great live shows/recordings though.

 

I think it depends on how you feel about jazz. I've leaned more and more into jazz since the 1990's and developed quite a hankering for Style Council. They feature prominently on my jazz/rock themed cdrs.
I had been a Jam purist and just hated the fact that this man could blow off such a great band for THIS CRAP, but I'm eating my words now.

And I have to give them a hats off for introducing Tracy Thorne (and through that EBTG) to the world.

 

Love the Style Council - highly recommend the box for anyone looking to jump right in.

FYI - if you ever want to make a killer playlist of smart, smooth 80s load up:
Style Council
Go-Betweens
Prefab Sprout
Blow Monkeys
Blue Nile

Hit shuffle and you're good to go.

 

I'm not sure that's true - I think they just collaborated. EBTG had similar views.

 

I remember hearing "My Ever Changing Moods" coming out of my car speakers in 1984 and damn-near pulling off the road.

What a groove on that record. Love Paul Weller's pop stuff. But his forays into white-boy funk never did it for me.

 

"Your The Best Thing" (p.i.):
Thought this one was the "best thing" fr SC;
did "Blue Eyed Soul" proud IMO.

Two of the other "Best Things of the 80's"
were sex & drugs!!

 

Not on this side of the pond. Made no splash here whatsoever.

 

don't you have that just a bit backwards? lol.

cheers,
rob

 

Before the Style Council, Paul Weller put an ad in Smash Hits looking for a new singer. Tracie Young was the one who was finally picked.

 

Always thought Confessions of a Pop Group was a massively underrated album, and "It's a Very Deep Sea", and "How She Threw At All Away" from that album were 2 of Paul Weller's best songs.

 

Some of my favorite artists of all time in that list! Need to check out the Go-Betweens.

 

Hearing "My Ever Changing Moods" on American radio in the early 2000's is what hooked me on Paul Weller. I remembered it as a minor hit back in the 80's, when I was a kid, but perhaps my tastes weren't ready for it's more sophisticated jazzy leanings. Hearing it as a adult, it imediately grabbed me and I started digging into his catalog and all his solo and band incarnations, preferring in this order:

Solo Weller, The Jam, The Style Council

 

Paul's great. Loved The Style Council.

Who else has had 3 completely different careers? 3 Excellent careers.
It just doesn't really happen that someone continues to grow that way. Well not anymore.
For me Paul is the single most talented/inspired individual out of England since the days of The Jam.
Kate Bush is pretty much the other individual from that span of time to rate the same.
Of course here output compared to Paul's is kind of small.

I'm on this side of the pond and I've been following Paul since The Jam.