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

  1. Headstart for Happiness

  2. Long Hot Summer

  3. My Ever-Changing Moods

  4. Walls Come Tumbling Down!

  5. Party Chambers 

  6. Wanted (or Waiter, There's…)

  7. Shout to the Top!

  8. It Just Came to Pieces in My Hands

  9. Come to Milton Keynes

  10. Why I Went Missing

  11. Waiting

  12. Ghosts Of Dachau

  13. Down in the Seine  

  14. The Paris Match

  15. Boy Who Cried Wolf

  16. Life at a Top People's Health Farm

  17. Homebreakers

  18. Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse (Extended version) #

Disc Two

  1. Speak Like a Child

  2. The Lodgers (Or She Was Only…)

  3. Money Go Round

  4. You're the Best Thing

  5. How She Threw It All Away

  6. A Man of Great Promise

  7. The Piccadilly Trail

  8. A Solid Bond in Your Heart

  9. All Gone Away  

  10. Sweet Loving Ways

  11. Promised Land

  12. Have You Ever Had It Blue 

  13. It Didn't Matter

  14. Spin' Drifting  

  15. Here's One That Got Away

  16. A Woman's Song  

  17. Changing of the Guard  

  18. My Ever-Changing Moods (Demo) #

  19. Shout To The Top (Instrumental)

3LP - Vinyl available in standard black or coloured (blue, pink & orange discs)

Disc one

Side 1

  1. Headstart for Happiness

  2. Long Hot Summer

  3. My Ever-Changing Moods

  4. Walls Come Tumbling Down!

  5. Party Chambers 

Side 2

  1. Wanted (or Waiter, There's…)

  2. Shout to the Top!

  3. It Just Came to Pieces in My Hands

  4. Come to Milton Keynes

  5. Why I Went Missing

  6. Waiting

Disc Two

Side 1

  1. Ghosts Of Dachau

  2. Down in the Seine  

  3. The Paris Match

  4. Life at a Top People's Health Farm

  5. Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse (Extended version) 

Side 2

  1. Speak Like a Child

  2. The Lodgers (Or She Was Only…)

  3. Money Go Round

  4. You're the Best Thing

  5. How She Threw It All Away

Disc Three

Side 1

  1. A Man of Great Promise

  2. The Piccadilly Trail

  3. A Solid Bond in Your Heart

  4. Sweet Loving Ways

  5. Promised Land

  6. It Didn't Matter

Side 2

  1. Have You Ever Had It Blue 

  2. Spin' Drifting  

  3. Here's One That Got Away

  4. Changing of the Guard  

  5. My Ever-Changing Moods (Demo) 

Press assets available here

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