‘Long Hot Summers: The Story of THE STYLE COUNCIL’ Greatest hits / anthology released October 30th

‘Long Hot Summers: The Story of THE STYLE COUNCIL’ Greatest hits / anthology released October 30th

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. 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 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 –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”.

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.

Listen to A demo version of the Top 5 single “My Ever Changing Moods” – BELOW:

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:

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 – Standard black vinyl

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 006025 0894149 8
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) #

# previously unreleased

3LP – coloured vinyl (Blue, pink & orange discs)

Same tracks as standard black vinyl edition, above

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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