WarningMuch of what I'm going to say today is a re-hash of a piece I put together a couple of years back. But in all honesty, I have to make reference to the fact that the weather in Glasgow this past few weeks has been pleasantly warm and sunny with almost no rain whatsoever - a total contrast to the so-called summers we've experienced in recent years.
Looking back now at the messy break-up of The Jam and the formation of The Style Council in 1983, I don't think anyone can argue that Paul Weller did the right thing.
He was no longer an angry young man who wanted to write guitar-laden anthems for a three-piece. Instead, he wanted to compose dreamy love songs with lush arrangements that relied on jazz-style drumming and keyboards and the occasional burst from a horn section. He proved to be very successful at this, but at no point did he go totally MOR as he was more than capable of incorporating some politically motivated stuff into his work with his new band.
I'm not ashamed to say that I love a great many of the songs released by The Style Council. No, they will never be as a great an outfit as The Jam, but then not many ever have been. Yes, TSC were a product of the times and somehow very 1980s when record companies, like society itself, believed image was everything. Weller played the game magnificently, going all the way to wearing pastel shades of sweaters tied around his neck.
Hell, I was even caught up in the mood for a while and stopped dressing purely in black over that long, gloriously warm summer of 1984 as I enjoyed what I knew would be the last extended holiday period in my life as I faced up to my final honours year at University. I was now living away from home for the first time, I had a couple of great flatmates and was, or so I believed, seriously in love.
I know there have been gloriously warm summers since 1984, but I can never really recall them. It was a time of enjoying life to the full just lazing on sunny afternoons,sitting with friends in some park or open space somewhere in Glasgow listening to music coming from the speakers of a portable cassette player thinking we were the coolest group of folk on the planet.
Most folk near us in the park probably thought we were pretentious arseholes. And looking back almost half-a-lifetime ago, they were more than likely correct in that assessment.....
One of the most popular C90s we listened to had all loads of TSC songs. They seemed to fit the mood just perfectly. Especially the four songs that had been on the A Paris EP some 12 months earlier.
mp3 : The Style Council – Long Hot Summer (extended version)
mp3 : The Style Council – Party Chambers
mp3 : The Style Council – The Paris Match
mp3 : The Style Council – Le Depart
Happy days indeed.
And who can ever forget the video that was either a brilliant piss-take or evidence to the non-believers that Weller had disappeared up his own arse.....
Happy Listening. And viewing.
14 comments:
Piss take, although at the time I had to give earnest thought to the meaning of every word and look of this song and video. At 18 it was important.
I've been listening to LHS recently alongside Morgan Geist's mix of Jonathan Jeremiah Happiness
(the Party Chambers link goes to the Le Depart mp3)
Thanks AJ. Sorted now.
When will the Style Council admit their best song was really by Everything But The Girl?
Am assuming the video was meant to be in reference to Brideshead Revisited?
Although i am living too far away from Scotland, (i live in Greece), i had exactly the same feelings, as you, the summer of 84 The fact is that we were younger and is very easy to let feelings come. Long live Style Council!
Thank you
I didn't know that EBTG wrote 'Shout to the Top'. :-)
Typical! JC posts Long Hot Summer and it pisses down in Glasgow!
I have previously commented here before that I think LHS is Wellers finest moment it is such a mood setting piece of music as I recall saying then totally capturing cool britannia I am glad you had your memory of it in what seems to have been a cracking time in your life too. Sums up what musical memories are all about
Nice post.
Son of the rock.
Le Depart is beautiful, but seemingly at odds with the summery vibe of other TSC songs being mentioned here ... so sad!
What was all that stuff about the Cappuccino Kid though?
Aaah. Gay days indeed. If you weren't there, you cannot imagine how many people this video left fuming. Absolutely brilliant stuff. Unlike recent (ie last 20 years) offerings.
Great post JC! One of Weller's greatest contribution to music will always be the conversation his music, be it with The Jam, TSC or solo, provokes. TSC will always be mostly misunderstood, but there is some wonderful music there, and also some fierce politics. TSC really allowed Paul Weller to be Paul Weller finally and he has never looked back, or backwards.
It's been year's since I've heard Party Chambers, fantastique mon frère!
Ted De Baguette.
I could be a daft twat and chunter on indefinately about juxtapositions of visceral lyrics cheek by jowl against punchy ideals set amidst a backdrop of pastoral internationalist ...
Fuck it - the time was mighty fine, the music wonderful (if a tad experimentally patchy) and the sentiments well meant - if a little ridiculous with the Cappuccino Kid bollocks. But .. We lived it, we loved it.
I have the Japanese EP of this. Paris Match was sung by a French chanteuse, whose name I can't remember... gotta dig up the vinyl. Thanks for posting your thoughts on TSC.
EG
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