The Style Council announces anthology of greatest hits
“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
“The Style Council gave so much to my youth. Who am I kidding? Yes, and to my adulthood as well.”
Martin Freeman
The Style Council was emblematic of its creator, Paul Weller. Smart, fearless, audacious, with a social conscience totally unafraid to push the possibilities of pop. With their generous slew of chart hits, The Style Council were one of the defining pop bands of the 80s.
The long-awaited and eagerly anticipated definitive career anthology Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council, packed with the greatest hits and more, is landing on 30th October 2020. Named after the band’s biggest hit, "Long Hot Summer", it's endorsed and co-compiled by Paul Weller himself, and as well as "Long Hot Summer", the album includes the sterling debut top 5 single “Speak Like A Child” plus other masterpieces such as the languid “You’re The Best Thing”, “Ever Changing Moods”, and dance floor filler “Shout To The Top”. The release is paired with a brilliant Sky Arts documentary under the same name out in late October, featuring interviews with all key members, fans and collaborators. The documentary will air on Sky Arts as the channel becomes free for everyone, moving to Freeview channel 11.
Long Hot Summers includes two unreleased tracks – an intriguing demo of the top 5 single "My Ever Changing Moods" with strings, and the extended, 5-minute plus version of "Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse". Of course, it also Includes all the band’s classic singles – twelve Top 20 hits, including the debut single “Speak Like A Child” and the utterly sublime “Long Hot Summer”. The album also features key album tracks and fan favourites such as “Headstart For Happiness” (full track-listing for format details below).
A demo version of the Top 5 single “My Ever Changing Moods” has been released as an ‘instant grat’: https://TheStyleCouncil.lnk.to/MyEverChangingMoodsDemoPR
Long Hot Summers features rare photos, an introduction by Paul Weller, a new essay by Lois Wilson, and sleeve-notes from ‘super-fan’, actor Martin Freeman. The album was remastered at Abbey Road Studios.
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. And it’s all here on this exceptional anthology.
Format details: As well as digitally, the album will be available on double CD and triple album vinyl: limited editions of both vinyl formats: black vinyl and a highly covetable coloured vinyl version.
Pre-order here: https://TheStyleCouncil.lnk.to/LongHotSummersPR
Track-listings:
2CD Set
Disc One
Headstart for Happiness
Long Hot Summer
My Ever-Changing Moods
Walls Come Tumbling Down!
Party Chambers
Wanted (or Waiter, There's…)
Shout to the Top!
It Just Came to Pieces in My Hands
Come to Milton Keynes
Why I Went Missing
Waiting
Ghosts Of Dachau
Down in the Seine
The Paris Match
Boy Who Cried Wolf
Life at a Top People's Health Farm
Homebreakers
Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse (Extended version) #
Disc Two
Speak Like a Child
The Lodgers (Or She Was Only…)
Money Go Round
You're the Best Thing
How She Threw It All Away
A Man of Great Promise
The Piccadilly Trail
A Solid Bond in Your Heart
All Gone Away
Sweet Loving Ways
Promised Land
Have You Ever Had It Blue
It Didn't Matter
Spin' Drifting
Here's One That Got Away
A Woman's Song
Changing of the Guard
My Ever-Changing Moods (Demo) #
Shout To The Top (Instrumental)
3LP - Vinyl available in standard black or coloured (blue, pink & orange discs)
Disc one
Side 1
Headstart for Happiness
Long Hot Summer
My Ever-Changing Moods
Walls Come Tumbling Down!
Party Chambers
Side 2
Wanted (or Waiter, There's…)
Shout to the Top!
It Just Came to Pieces in My Hands
Come to Milton Keynes
Why I Went Missing
Waiting
Disc Two
Side 1
Ghosts Of Dachau
Down in the Seine
The Paris Match
Life at a Top People's Health Farm
Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse (Extended version)
Side 2
Speak Like a Child
The Lodgers (Or She Was Only…)
Money Go Round
You're the Best Thing
How She Threw It All Away
Disc Three
Side 1
A Man of Great Promise
The Piccadilly Trail
A Solid Bond in Your Heart
Sweet Loving Ways
Promised Land
It Didn't Matter
Side 2
Have You Ever Had It Blue
Spin' Drifting
Here's One That Got Away
Changing of the Guard
My Ever-Changing Moods (Demo)
Press assets available here