The Style Council

The band was founded in late 1982 by Paul Weller and initially consisted only of himself and Mick Talbot, who Weller said he chose because "he shares my hatred of the rock myth and the rock culture".[10] The band showed a diversity of musical styles. Singles "Speak Like a Child" (with its loud soul-influenced style), the extended funk of "Money-Go-Round", and the synth-ballad "Long Hot Summer" all featured Talbot on keyboards and organ. Near the end of 1983, these songs were compiled on Introducing The Style Council, a mini-album initially released in Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, and the US only. The Dutch version was heavily imported to the United Kingdom.

In 1984, the band undertook a brief tour of the United States, during which they played two gigs at the Savoy in New York at the beginning of May.[11][12] This led to modest chart success with the single "My Ever Changing Moods",[lower-alpha 1] which reached No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following month. The song remains Weller's greatest success in the US, including his period with the Jam and also as a solo artist. In the UK, the group reached the height of its popularity with the release of Our Favourite Shop, which entered the UK album chart at number 1 immediately following its release in June 1985 (only to be supplanted by Brian Ferry's Boys and Girls a week later).[14][15] It notched up a total of 13 weeks in the top 40 (including a re-entry in October), of which 3 weeks were spent in the top 10.[16] In 2015, it was included in a list of 50 albums released in 1985 which, according to the NME, "still sound great today".[17] Together with "You're the Best Thing" (from Café Bleu) and "The Big Boss Groove", two songs from the album – "Internationalists" and "Walls Come Tumbling Down" – were played by the band at the UK Live Aid concert,[18] where they appeared second in the running order at Wembley Stadium between Status Quo and the Boomtown Rats.[19] The international exposure, however, did little to boost the group's career, and future commercial success was largely confined to their home country.[20]

In 1989, members of The Style Council went under the name of 'King Truman' to release a single on Acid Jazz titled "Like a Gun". This was unknown to Polydor, and the single was pulled from the shops three days prior to release. Acid Jazz founder Eddie Piller said "The pair offered to make a single for my new label, which I'd just started with Radio 1 DJ Gilles Peterson as a side project. Talbot and Weller took pseudonyms Truman King and Elliott Arnold."[21]

The Style Council broke up in 1989. About the breakup, Paul Weller said (in 1990):

It's something we should have done two or three years ago. We created some great music in our time, the effects of which won't be appreciated for some time.[22]

The cover version of "Promised Land" (originally by Joe Smooth) was the only release which surfaced from the Modernism sessions at the time; however, the entire album was released in 1998, both independently and in a 5-CD box set, The Complete Adventures of The Style Council. After the split, Weller embarked on a successful solo career (which featured Steve White on drums, who had left the Style Council by the time Confessions of a Pop Group was released, having only played on a few of its tracks). Talbot and White released two albums as Talbot/White—United States of Mind (1995) and Off the Beaten Track (1996). Talbot and White then formed the Players with Damon Minchella and Aziz Ibrahim. White and Minchella went on to form Trio Valore whilst Talbot went touring with Candi Staton in 2009.

All of the Style Council's UK releases (including singles, 12" maxis, albums, compact discs and re-issues thereof) featured the work of graphic designer Simon Halfon, who often collaborated with Weller to hone his ideas into a graphic form. Weller and Halfon began working together at the end of the Jam's career, and continue to work together on Weller's solo material.

In December 1984, Weller put together an ensemble called The Council Collective to make a charity record, "Soul Deep", initially to raise money for striking miners during a long-running industrial dispute, and subsequently also for the family of David Wilkie. The track featured the Style Council and a number of other performers, notably Jimmy Ruffin[23] and Junior Giscombe. In spite of, or perhaps due to, the song's political content, it received airplay on BBC Radio 1 and was performed by the group on Top of the Pops,[24] as well as (live) on Channel 4's The Tube.[25]

In their lyrics, the Style Council took a more overtly political approach than the Jam, with tracks such as "Walls Come Tumbling Down!", "The Lodgers" and "Come to Milton Keynes" being deliberate attacks on 'middle England' and the Thatcherite policies of the UK government during the 1980s. In 1985, Weller was persuaded by Billy Bragg to let the Style Council play a leading role in Red Wedge, a youth-oriented political campaign associated with the British Labour Party. Although his views at the time have since been described as those of a "traditional British socialist", in 2014 Weller admitted the experience had left him feeling "exploited" by politicians, noting further that: "Before the Wedge, the Style Council had done a lot independently, raised a lot of money in benefits. But after the Wedge we were so disillusioned it all stopped. We were totally cynical about all of it."[26] In a previous interview, whilst asserting that there was still "a place for outspokenness" in popular music, Weller had pointed out he was "first and foremost" a musician, and stated: "In the '80s, in the Style Council, we were involved with a lot of political things going on at that time. I think after a while that overshadowed the music a bit."[27]

General

• Munn, Iain (2006). Mr. Cool's Dream. The Complete History of the Style Council. Wholepoint Publications. ISBN 0-9551443-0-2.

• Mr Cool's Dream, The Complete History of The Style Council - "painstakingly accurate" - Paul Weller
• Shout to the Top, BBC Radio 2 documentary, broadcast August 2003
• The Style Council at AllMusic