‘Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council’ Greatest Hits / Anthology Released October 30 on Polydor / UMe

“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

 

SANTA MONICA, CA – September 10, 2020 – 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 U.K. 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 U.K. hit “Long Hot Summer,” the album also includes the band’s sterling debut top 5 U.K. 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.”

Long Hot Summers includes two unreleased tracks – an intriguing demo of the U.K. 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 U.K. 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’ favorites such as “Headstart For Happiness” (full tracklisting for format details below).

A demo version of the U.K. Top 5 single “My Ever Changing Moods” will be released as an ‘instant grat’ on September 10th; 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 U.K. 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 triple album vinyl: limited editions of both vinyl formats: black vinyl and a highly covetable colored vinyl version. All format details and tracklistings below:

Pre-order here: https://TheStyleCouncil.lnk.to/LongHotSummersPR

Track-listings:

Digital

  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)#
  19. Speak Like a Child
  20. The Lodgers (Or She Was Only…)
  21. Money Go Round
  22. You’re the Best Thing
  23. How She Threw It All Away
  24. A Man of Great Promise
  25. The Piccadilly Trail
  26. A Solid Bond in Your Heart
  27. All Gone Away
  28. Sweet Loving Ways
  29. Promised Land
  30. Have You Ever Had It Blue
  31. It Didn’t Matter
  32. Spin’ Drifting
  33. Here’s One That Got Away
  34. A Woman’s Song
  35. Changing of the Guard
  36. My Ever-Changing Moods (Demo) #
  37. 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

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