New York, NY (Top40 Charts) 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. And they didn't need big hair to get there.
And now, finally, Long Hot Summers - the long-awaited and eagerly anticipated definitive career anthology teaming with all the greatest hits and more is released on October 30th on Polydor/Universal Music. Named with a nod to the band's biggest hit, Long Hot Summers is endorsed and co-compiled by
Paul Weller himself. As well as the huge hit Long Hot Summer, the album also includes the band's sterling debut top 5 single "Speak Like A Child" as well as other masterpieces such as the languid "You're The Best Thing," "Ever Changing Moods" and dance floor filler "Shout To The Top." The release also ties in with a brilliant Sky Arts documentary about the band, also out on October 30th, featuring interviews with all key members, fans and collaborators.
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 -12 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 fans' favourites such as "Headstart For Happiness." See full tracklisting and format details below.
A demo version of the Top 5 single "My Ever Changing Moods" is also out today as an instant grat download with album pre-order.
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. All format details and tracklistings below:
LONG HOT SUMMERS: THE STORY OF THE STYLE COUNCIL - TRACKLIST [2CD]:
CD1
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) #
CD2
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)
LONG HOT SUMMERS: THE STORY OF THE STYLE COUNCIL - TRACKLIST [3LP STANDARD BLACK VINYL]:
LP1
Side A:
Headstart for Happiness
Long Hot Summer
My Ever-Changing Moods
Walls Come Tumbling Down!
Party Chambers
Side B:
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
LP2
Side A:
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 B:
Speak Like a Child
The Lodgers (Or She Was Only…)
Money Go Round
You're the Best Thing
How She Threw It All Away
LP3
Side A:
A Man of Great Promise
The Piccadilly Trail
A Solid Bond in Your Heart
Sweet Loving Ways
Promised Land
It Didn't Matter
Side B:
Have You Ever Had It Blue
Spin' Drifting
Here's One That Got Away
Changing of the Guard
My Ever-Changing Moods (Demo) #
# previously unreleased
LONG HOT SUMMERS: THE STORY OF THE STYLE COUNCIL - TRACKLIST [3LP BLUE/PINK/ORANGE COLOURED VINYL]:
Same tracks as standard black vinyl edition, above.
