Long Hot Summers: The Story of the Style Council  Triple Vinyl LP Set 

When Paul Weller announced The Style Council’s arrival in March 1983, he’d come a very long way. In fact, at the age of just 24, he was already a musical veteran with six albums and nine Top 10 singles under his belt with The Jam. As their leader he had become a deity-like figure and for his fans, The Jam’s split was unimaginable.

But creatively restless and of inquisitive mind, Paul jettisoned them at their height to form a collective with an eventual core line-up of Paul with Mick Talbot, Dee C Lee and Steve White.

In a quest for new sounds, the group travelled to realms previously unchartered for a pop group incorporating musical influences as wide ranging as Blue Note jazz and Chicago soul, Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, Chicago House and Jacques Brel.

At the same time, as battle lines were drawn in a decade under Margaret Thatcher culminating in the miner’s strike of 1984-85, Paul’s lyrics spoke with the language of the activist and his state of the nation addresses were both fierce and eloquent. Over four albums and 17 singles, The Style Council made a stand and became the standard bearers of progressive soulful pop and social comment.

The Style Council was emblematic of its creator. Paul Weller, smart, fearless, audacious, with a social conscience and totally unafraid to push the possibilities of pop.

This is their story…

“We set out to have fun, document the times and at the same time we wanted to elevate pop to an art form – I think we did that.”

Paul Weller

Track listing
Side A 1Headstart for Happiness  2Long Hot Summer  3My Ever-Changing Moods  4Walls Come Tumbling Down!  5Party Chambers 
Side B 1Wanted (or Waiter, There's…)  2Shout to the Top!  3It Just Came to Pieces in My Hands  4Come to Milton Keynes  5Why I Went Missing  6Waiting 
Side C 1Ghosts Of Dachau  2Down in the Seine  3The Paris Match  4Life at a Top People's Health Farm  5Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse (Extended version) 
Side D 1Speak Like a Child  2The Lodgers (Or She Was Only…)  3Money Go Round  4You're the Best Thing  5How She Threw It All Away 
Side E 1A Man of Great Promise  2The Piccadilly Trail  3A Solid Bond in Your Heart  4Sweet Loving Ways  5Promised Land  6It Didn't Matter 
Side F 1Have You Ever Had It Blue  2Spin' Drifting  3Here's One That Got Away  4Changing of the Guard  5My Ever-Changing Moods (Demo)
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