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Let's throw around some ideas about what we're gonna do today.
-I've got a few ideas in mind-- -No, excuse me darling, no,
I still love you. Really, I do love you
but you do your job, you know?
You do your job and I'll do mine, okay?
I still love you, so let's go for a take then, shall we?
-Okay? Yeah, brilliant. -Sure.
["Shout to the Top!" plays]
It was the freedom I was looking for
coming out of The Jam.
And I found it within that situation,
that set up, you know?
I was half in mind I was half in need
And as the rain came down I dropped to my knees
And I prayed
[Mick] The Style Council were very much
out on our own in the '80s.
We weren't a stereotypical sort of '80s band.
I wish to stay forever...
[Dee C] You gotta keep changing the game,
you gotta keep upping it
and you gotta keep mixing it up, you know.
That's what keeps it exciting.
Once in a while
I just can't help it
It's that same old thing
[Steve] It was such a fantastic thing to be part of.
It was almost, like, unstoppable, you know,
it was a fantastic time.
Have you ever had it blue?
[Martin] For me it was and remains
one of the best combinations of music and look
in a-- in a pop group ever.
Feel it deep inside
[Boy George] It was in the soul pocket,
but, you know, using a bit of humor.
You know, still a little bit of a kind of punky spirit in there.
It was kind of like not what you expected.
There's a girl in my heart
And she keeps on stopping
Right in front of my eyes
[Billy] The Style Council
is when Paul embraces pop music.
'Cause you're the best thing That ever happened
[Billy] He says, "You know what? Yeah, I am gonna be a pop star,
and I am gonna stop being a punk rocker outsider,
and I'm gonna embrace pop music, and I'm gonna make the videos,
and I'm gonna get the haircuts."
And he had the chops to do it and the vision to do it.
No matter what I do
[Tim] I don't think people saw the Style Council coming.
There was kind of a like interesting
sort of European feeling to their music
and I thought it was sort of quite ahead of its time
in many ways.
Are you gonna try To make this work
Or spend your days down In the dirt
You see things can change
Yes and walls Can come tumbling down
Governments crack And systems fall...
The Jam have announced they're breaking up.
The group are led by singer and songwriter Paul Weller.
At 24, he's become something of a spokesman
for the new beat generation.
A police car And a screaming siren
A pneumatic drill And ripped up concrete
[Billy] There was something about The Jam
that was so essentially suburban and working class, you know.
"That's Entertainment" was about me,
I was-- all those images were images in my life
and I really, really related to that.
So when he broke 'em up, I was like,
"Well, what you gonna do now, mate?"
"I mean, how's this-- you know, what's gonna happen now?"
The smash of glass And the rumble...
[Paul] However much I loved my time with The Jam, you know,
it was just work, work, work, you know,
there was a tour and then there was a record,
then there was a tour, then there was a record
and it just seemed like a kind of a bit of a treadmill,
you know, which you have to be on if you wanna make it
and do what you do.
That's entertainment
Ah
[Eddie] If you listen to the last recordings of The Jam,
he's obviously outgrown, uh, the band,
but they are the most popular band in the country,
they've got the most loyal following
and he went, "Do you know what? I've had enough."
[Nicky] You know, it was kind of like, wow,
you know, you're top of your game
and you're just like packing it all in,
but, you know, Paul's always been one of them free spirits
that kind of wants to move forward and stuff.
For the bitterest pill Is hard to swallow
[Jason] When I understood, "Okay, there's a shift,
there's a career move, and it's at risk of losing
a whole audience," all of a sudden
I don't know, I see him as an artist.
[Boy George] The Jam was angry
and got something to say, you know,
and then Style Council was like whimsical, you know.
It was probably quite surprising for any like Mod fans.
[Billy] Pretty soon, it was clear that
the sensibility that he had was just gonna be communicated
through a more jazzier,
more soulful, if you like, vibe.
But the need to break it all down
and put it back together another way,
I can completely understand that now.
It's a big decision In a town called Malice
Ooh yeah
It was just something which I felt inside me,
you know, you just gotta go by instinct
and I felt it was the right thing to do.
I thought about it, it wasn't just as if
I just sort of made my mind up overnight.
I don't know what's gonna happen, you know,
which I'm quite enjoying at the moment,
'cause like I said, it's the first time
for six years it's been like that.
So I'm just gonna enjoy that for a little while,
just see how it goes, you know, take it as it comes.
Whatever I do, I wanna be successful
otherwise to me there's no point in doing it, you know?
[Paul] It was liberating for me
to, um, to start again really.
To feel I've started again, you know, after The Jam.
My brother was in a band with me
called the Merton Parkas.
A payment plan That's so unique
One hundred now And the rest next week
You need wheels
If you wanna make deals
[Mick] Danny had met Paul
and he gave him a copy of our first single.
Paul didn't like it, but he played the B-side
and there's a piano solo in it.
["I Don't Want You To Know" by Merton Parkas playing]
[Paul] It was finding somebody that was the sort of
same age as me
who was into the same sort of music
and someone who could play,
more importantly, could play Hammond organ.
There wasn't too many of those people around really, you know?
So, he contacted me. He said, like, you know,
"I'm gonna try and start something
that's a lot more loose, not so regimented,
but I'd like you to be involved."
And to find out a bit more about what Paul's gonna do tonight,
I'll ask him. Paul, can you hear us?
What you-- What are you-- What are you gonna do,
and what's it called?
Um, I dunno, what is it?
[audience laughs]
We don't know, we don't know, Pete.
[Peter] Just make it up.
It's kind of-- We kind of fit into the electro pop duo thing.
-[Peter] Right. -We kind-- We kind of--
-We align ourselves-- -[audience cheers]
we align ourselves with, like, Blancmange,
Tears for Fears, that sort of thing.
[Peter] Right.
That's why we're wearing makeup.
[Peter] I understand, I can see it.
I kind of had ideas of what I wanted it to be,
The Style Council to be.
But nothing too set at all,
and kind of just sort of open really.
[Mick] He particularly mentioned
that he wanted to use the Hammond quite a lot.
[Paul] And I just wanted to, um,
to see where this thing could go to,
this new-- this new band could go to, you know.
I didn't wanna tour for a while, you know,
kind of had enough of that for a little bit.
The space between us for days Has been so far
Ah
I've spent a lonely week
Now I wanna be where you are
We've got a head start
For happiness For our part
Guess we must be kissed By this force
I feel inside
Now I'm not gonna hide
[Paul] And just to have a completely open mind
on it all, really, you know,
on music, on the band, on life.
Who I was. You know, all those things, really,
all those big questions, really.
Paul lent me a box of records,
it might have been two boxes,
but they were all sevens
and a lot of them were quite rare soul.
Just the feel and the instrumentation
really influenced a lot of what we were doing
and Paul was saying, "This is what I've been listening to."
Some of 'em were sort of more commercial jazz things,
but in the main they were soul records.
That was a font of sort of, uh, inspiration.
[Paul] By the sort of January of '83
we were kind of in the studio really, doing the first single,
you know, and it just went on from that.
Your hair hangs In golden steps
You're a bonafide In every respect you are
[Martin] It felt fresh is what it felt,
it felt exciting to me.
It felt new, like it was-- like it was enjoyable.
You know, coming in with the double-edged sword
rather than all the onus being on him.
I imagine that was quite nice.
Mick, obviously, you know,
brought a very different, kind of, sort of flavor
to what Paul was doing.
You have to make A bargain with me now
[Martin] I mean, The Style Council is half Mick,
you know, it's not Paul Weller
and then a bit of this other bloke.
Like, it's-- I totally see them as a unit, you know.
I think because Mick is such a laid back
kind of person, I mean, he's very dry,
he's very funny, and I think that
came out in Paul, you know?
That was the thing that probably surprised a lot of people
about The Style Council after The Jam,
was that, "Oh, there's Paul and he's got a sense of humor."
I really like it When you speak like a child
The way You're so proud to be
Oh, so free and so wild
[Paul] We got Dee in to do some backing vocals on--
I can't remember what song,
I know it's a very early single anyway.
You know, she was a very busy girl
at that time, you know?
We were aware of her through Wham!
and Animal Light Eye, you know.
[Dee C] When I first got there, to Solid Bonds,
I did notice these gold discs on the wall
and they're all saying, "The Jam," so I said to Paul--
And for some reason, I really did not recognize him
from the pictures in it to the person
who was standing in front of me.
So, um, I did say, um,
"You know, who are these guys?" you know.
He said, "Oh, some shit group who record here," he said to me.
And I totally fell for it, and I went
"Oh," didn't say anything else.
We liked her and she seemed part of us,
so kind of everything just kind of naturally
just happened, you know.
I actually think if I had realized--
if I had actually realized who Paul was,
I might not have taken the job,
'cause I think I might have been a little bit, um, overwhelmed.
The first thing she sung with us was Money Go Round,
and it just worked, you know.
No good praying To the pristine alters
Waiting for the blessing With Holy water
[Paul] We was auditioning for drummers,
'cause I think, probably for our tour maybe,
I don't know, I'm not sure anyway.
But anyway, we met Steve White, he came down,
he was like the last drummer of the day.
I think we thought we had a drummer.
I think Steve turned up
and he wouldn't take no for an answer, you know?
[Steve] Paul said then, "I think we're sorted," you know.
I said, "Can't I at least have a play?"
And he went, "Oh, I ain't really got time."
I said, "Go on, let me have a play."
And he says, "Oh, go on then, go on, have a go."
I said, "So what sort of stuff are you into?"
He went, "Well, I like a lot of blue note."
"Art Blakey?" "Yeah, yeah, Art Blakey."
And I started to playing like-- terrible impression
of Art Blakey. "What else are you into?"
He said, "Elvin Jones."
Terrible impression of Elvin Jones, you know.
It was very fast and very dexterous
and quite explosive.
But it seemed to have a lot of passion.
He was just amazing.
He was only a kid, like 17 or something like that.
I just thought, "Right, if he can do that,
I suppose, you know, he can do anything."
[Steve] And he says, um, "So tomorrow, we're doing this
Kid Jensen show." We weren't gonna use a band,
you know, but if you wanna do it,
turn up, Maida Vale, at five o'clock or whatever,
we're going on at like 6:00."
"The evening show, Kid Jensen, 13 million people listening."
I'm like, "What we gonna play?"
"Oh, we'll sort that out tomorrow." That was it, he went.
I think that was the first time we played, um,
"The Paris Match."
["The Paris Match" by The Style Council plays]
I was just kind of singing it to him,
I was sitting next to him on the drum stool.
And that was it, we did the session.
...where you are
You sort of clouded my mind
[Paul] We got our studio, Solid Bond,
which was the old, um, Phonogram studio,
and before that it was the Phillips studio
where they did Dusty and Scott Walker
and all those people.
So it had a real history to it.
I really liked that studio, I'd used it a few times
when it was still Phonogram,
and that became the playground, really.
[Mick] I could tell that Paul was, you know,
had many studio hours under his belt.
He was very at ease, there's no red-light fever.
[Dee C] We were literally in the studio every day,
nine til 5:00, like a-- like a real sort of, you know,
like a real 9:00 to 5:00 job, but just working on music.
Being around Paul for a little while,
you start losing your kind of inhibitions.
[Steve] It was like a place of work
but a very-- a very kind of, um, humor.
There was lots of humor going on.
[Dee C] It was a very family orientated studio.
Paul's mum, Paul's dad run in and everything,
we had Kenny, we had Paul's sister.
We had a little caretaker guy,
God bless him, Arthur.
[Mick] To me, it kind of felt very un-rock and roll.
It really felt properly down to earth,
and that's from John downwards, you know.
Just very realistic, normal people.
Not a very pressured environment but a lot come out.
[announcer] And here at three, The Style Council.
And of course, at number three The Style Council
with the EP À Paris
from which for the very first time on Top of The Pops,
here he is, with Paris Match.
[cheers and applause]
["The Paris Match" starts to play]
Empty hours spent Combing the streets
Daytime showers They've become my beat
[Mick] There was an idea that we were gonna do
these themed EPs, and I think, uh,
Paul saw them as sort of musical postcards.
So, you know, we got as far as doing one,
and that was the À Paris EP.
I think we were out there for five days or something...
at a studio and got four pretty good tracks out of it.
I liked all the sort of chic sort of, you know, bars abroad
and they were the antithesis of all the stale old pubs
that were around at that time, it wasn't like it is now,
that's what you gotta remember, you know.
They were still sort of smoky, dirty,
fucking places really, a lot of 'em.
I'm only sad In a natural way
And I enjoy sometimes Feeling this way
The gift you gave is desire
The match That started my fire
Ah
[Martin] The whole European thing,
however true it was or however authentic it was,
it was a statement of intent, you know.
It was, "We're not gonna be
a parochial little suburbanite band
just for people who are wearing parkas and bowling shoes,"
you know, and that bitterly disappointed a lot of people.
We just wanted to move it away from just--
from just being English, really.
["The Paris Match" continues in French]
[song fades]
[Mick] I like the fact that we stuck with the EP format
and I think À Paris is a really good
encapsulation of four strands of The Style Council,
and I think that's a really good beginning.
The match that started My fire
[cheers and applause]
[Steve] After we done the recording in Paris,
it was-- very quickly it was turned round,
"Long Hot Summer" came out.
["Long Hot Summer" playing]
[Paul] Two days up in Cambridge
and the weather was brilliant that year,
it was '83, right, great summer.
And just great, just go up and down the Cam,
on the River Cam.
They tell me that it helps
But I know when I'm beaten
[Boy George] "Long Hot Summer" was the one
that really made me prick my ears up, you know,
it was, uh-- 'cause, you know, this is Great Britain,
you know, we always write people off. [chuckles]
If you've had a moment, you can't have another one.
And if you have another one, it can't be good.
So when it's kind of next level good...
I wanted to give it this very summery
sort of sexy feel.
But obviously the sexuality that appeared in the end video
was, well, to be honest, was fairly homoerotic,
which I thought was great, because I thought
that completely played with Paul's image
and the fact that he was not afraid
to go there and to be seen like that
I thought was absolutely brilliant.
Tim was very-- kind of cutting edge,
and he was the go-to guy for videos at that time.
And so, I think they wanted to be seen as something--
they weren't doing, you know,
kind of straight performance video,
it had to be something that had kind of a bit of an edge
and a bit of fun to it.
And Tim brought a lot to that, certainly, and they trusted him.
[Paul] Yeah, we loved Tim, yeah.
He was bonkers and eccentric and we loved him.
We thought he was great.
And I remember meeting him and he was saying to me,
"Well, you know, what you up for then?"
"What can we do and not do?"
And I was going, "Just fucking whatever really,
you know, just let's do something different," um...
which we certainly did.
Don't matter what I do
'Cause I end up hurting you
[Steve] I said, "Can I be in a video?"
And Paul's like, "Well, you can be in the video
as long as you wear a Brunton jumper,
a little goatee beard, a beret and play the bongos."
So I'm like, "Yeah, I'm in." [chuckles] That was it.
The long hot summer Just passed me by
[Simon] I think Paul knew full well,
and Mick knew full well that,
"Oh, this is gonna throw another sort of
fly in the ointment for certain people."
[Boy George] It was interesting, 'cause it was like
Paul being someone completely different.
Do you know what I mean? It was a bit more playful.
["A Solid Bond" playing]
[Martin] I loved the video for "A Solid Bond."
They look amazing.
They both look beautiful, great suits.
I love the references to the, you know,
like the early '70s reference
of them being sort of suedeheads together
to a sort of, you know--
which, for an English pop record at the time,
was pure fucking Northern Soul.
It's a great record, I love that.
A solid bond in your heart Yeah
A solid bond in your heart
[Boy George] It was kind of Motown
and a bit of Stax, but it was, you know,
but it still had that kind of English kind of understanding
of soul that's a little bit sort of irreverent.
Respectful, but you know, I'm not gonna try my hardest
to sound too much like an American, you know,
sort of R 'n' B musician,
I wanna sound a little bit British.
I just want to build up
A solid bond in your heart
[Paul] It was me and Mick reliving our youth, really.
You know, all the sort of post skinheads,
suedehead days really.
[Mick] I don't think those characters that we were,
course they're me and Paul,
I think they're people that we aspired to be
when we were like, 11.
And they were people that we looked at
who were about 16 or 17.
If you look at that video,
it's got all Paul's styles in the audience, you know?
It's like a feeling Deep inside
Please don't ever try To hide
That solid bond In your heart
Yeah, a solid bond In your heart
Aha
Hoo-hoo
["My Ever-Changing Moods" playing]
I think it was 1984,
um, that they did their first, you know, kinda proper tour.
[Billy] They opened the show.
The Style Council opened and got everybody in the room
for The Questions.
And then I came on, and then The Style Council
came on again at the end.
And I've never seen anyone do that before.
Daylight turns to moonlight
And I'm at my best
[Billy] But Paul's commitment to the artist,
commitment to those of us who were on the-- on the bill
was, uh, it was something that was really an eye opener for me.
The calm after the storm Oh, the cool before the warm
[Paul] Yeah, it definitely confused people,
'cause the headlining act come on first
and they also finished the show as well,
but we were just trying to present something different,
you know? We were trying to get away
from just the support act and then the main act
and all that. We wanted it to be
a complete experience and like a total sort of, uh,
evening for people, you know?
It was a strange thing to get used to though,
because you kinda just feel like you're warmed up
and then you're off and then it's just someone else is on.
But it's nice like, you know, you sort of feel like,
"Oh, this is like it was
at Sunday Night at the Palladium,"
or something, you know?
Being on the old school variety bill, you know?
It's not dead. Or we didn't think it was.
We might have helped kill it, but...
The love after the hate The love we leave too late
[Helen] Musically, you know,
there was nothing like being on stage
when that band was-- was in, you know,
in full swing.
Ba ba ba da ba da ba
[cheers and applause]
[Paul] Thank you.
The early '80s, you know,
we saw this kind of surge of what they were calling,
you know, kind of "new pop."
You know, bands like ABC, you know, Haircut 100,
Culture Club and Wham!.
I don't know if we actually fitted into
the box that the '80s might have liked us to.
I thought we were outside of the culture of the '80s.
But it's really hard to do that, I think.
Whether you like it or not,
you are still a product of your time, I think.
I said oh heavenly thing Please cleanse my soul
I've seen all on offer And I'm not impressed at all"
[Simon] They were doing all the same TV shows,
whether it be Top of the Pops
or the Saturday morning kids shows.
So they were sort of playing the game,
but they were sort of-- I think they felt,
and rightly so, that they were playing the game
to their own beat.
I said send me a sign To save my life
'Cause at this moment In time
There is nothing certain In these days of mine
[Jason] And the reference points were soul music.
I heard Marvin Gaye in there,
I heard, um, Curtis Mayfield in there.
I heard jazz in there.
And it just made sense to me.
It was like a series of reference points
that really impressed me, the fact that
there was somebody doing this stuff now.
[Gary] I mean, it was pop music, you know,
they were written about in, you know, Smash Hits,
and Record Mirror, and Number One,
but also interviewed by, you know, your NMEs
and your Sounds and your Melody Makers.
Um, but they were a pop band, but a pop band with substance.
I could be discontent And chase the rainbow's end
I might win much more But lose all that is mine
[Boy George] I think "You're The Best Thing",
it sounds like another song. It sounds like a cover.
When you first heard it, it was like,
"Oh, is this an old song?"
And that's when you know, you know,
when someone's kind of emulating that kinda mood,
but they get it so right that you feel like you knew the song.
It's just a beautiful song.
It's very simple, you know, just kinda touches you,
you know, sits nice on your ears.
Slides all over your bones, you know, it's a good one.
It's like you dream of writing songs like that.
["Blue Cafe" by The Style Council plays]
[Rev. Richard] "Of days such as these,
it's here in the Cafe Bleu where amidst the smoke,
steam and colors present,
I'm to be found passing the hours of mortal time."
"Sometimes exchanging the views."
"Sometimes with my think cap in full view
so that those around me respect my wish for solitude and refrain
from the chit-chat until I signal for some, that is."
[Gary] Some people got really wound up by the sleeve notes
and I can remember, you know,
sort of letters of indignation in the, uh, you know,
the kind of music mags or music papers.
Uh, you know, "What's he going on about?"
at the time, you know. So, job done,
I suppose in a way really. That's what they wanted.
Yeah, it was just to have a bit of fun, really.
"The Cappuccino Kid." It was a way of being able
to vent some views,
um, but not have them attributed necessarily to yourself.
And, uh-- But it was just a bit of fun, you know,
and it was aping, um...
uh, Colin MacInnes' style in Absolute Beginners, really.
And that book was a huge influence as well on me
and The Style Council for forming The Style Council.
[Mick] I always thought that it had elements of those
early Stones albums as well, like, getting some strength
and dialogue from a really good novel,
and using it as a kind of language that was pertinent
just to one band.
And I just had a kind of another rebirth of Mod
when I read that book, really.
And I thought, um, that was the kind of, uh,
sort of blueprint, really,
for Modernism, I thought, really.
You know, kind of embracing of all these different cultures
and not being xenophobic
and, um, suspicious of anything foreign.
[Rev. Richard] "For I say unto thee that verily thou
hast forsaken your brothers and sisters to allow the sordids
their space. And much like the donkey's parable,
have been deceived by their golden carrots."
A reading from Cafe Bleu.
According unto The Style Council.
["Mick's Blessings" playing]
[Mick] I don't know why, this album worked very well
in shoe shops.
[Paul] Well looking at it now, right, I mean,
there's like the first three songs on this record
are instrumentals, right?
And then there's "Paris Match," which I didn't even play on it,
I don't think.
So I don't make an appearance until the fifth track
on "Ever Changing Moods,"
which was different from the single version as well,
it's just on piano, I think.
And then followed by another instrumental.
Followed by "A Gospel," which was a rap track,
'cause Dizzy Heights did a rap.
So it's a strange little record, really.
The cool before the warm, The calm after the storm
Oh the cool before the warm, The calm after the storm
I wish to stay forever
Letting this be my food
Oh but I'm caught up In a whirlwind
And my ever-changing moods, Yeah
[Steve] I know that this record really bravely said,
"Enough, that was then and this is now."
And you kind of think about an artist
that would do that now.
I appreciated the fact that how courageous they were,
you know. And I'm sure they weren't trying
to be courageous, they were just literally
following their nose
and just wanting to do that more.
But a lot of people stopped themselves doing that.
Especially when there's money to be made and lost
and fans to be lost. And there's no way
they didn't know that by releasing a first album
with a lot of instrumental jazz on it,
that that was gonna be a risk, there's no way
they didn't know that.
Recently a lot of people seem to think that
because we do change a lot and there's a lot
of different things going on that we kind of see things
and treat things, you know, in a very fickle way.
As if we, you know, almost as if
we don't really care about what we do,
which is just, you know, it's just totally wrong.
I mean, the only reason, you know, we use
so many different styles and different ways
of presenting things, is just, um--
it's just to keep it interesting, you know.
[interviewer] It's not that you're confused in what you do?
No, it's not. I mean, I just get a feeling
you know, that a lot of people think this but I don't, no.
It's not for that reason, you know?
["Strength Of Your Nature" plays]
[Paul] This song's called "The Strength Of Your Nature."
[Gary] There was a lot of expectation for Cafe Bleu.
You know, they'd released a couple of singles,
a couple of EPs,
but they made us wait for the album.
When you gonna find The strength of your nature
[Steve] I love this record, I love, um,
I love the humor in it,
I love the, uh, expansion of sounds that we got.
It probably gave us a lot of confidence, you know,
to keep at this kind of experimental thing.
When you gonna let Yourself take control
[Steve] I was 18 at that point.
Paul and Mick were only 25, you know, it was fantastic.
I think Paul was just getting into kind a of thing
where he was listening to a lot of Blue Note records
and stuff. And he had a new awareness
of some of that music, but we were very appreciative
of the kind of sleeve design of things like that.
[Simon] You know, at that time we were sort of thick and fast
into our kind of Blue Note influence and Reed Miles
and all those great covers from that era.
It was a fun time. Again, we went to Paris
to do a photo session with Peter Anderson
taking the pictures, and we came back
with such great photos from that trip.
We achieved exactly what we set out to do
because it was supposed to be that kind of
paparazzi-style feel in a Blue Note setting.
[Martin] From the packaging to the way that they dressed,
you know, all the aesthetic side of it,
I think they would survive better than most.
But because I suppose The Style Council
were already partly drawing on an age that had gone by,
whether it was, you know, the French New Wave,
or Ivy League, or general Modernism,
it sort of couldn't date as quickly as, you know,
"Rio" video. Do you know what I mean?
'Cause that dates very, very quickly.
It was something a bit more classic about it, I suppose.
It kind of had all these reference points
that I related to.
And, um, even though they were kind of disparate,
I kind of had a sense that there was--
he was heading in the direction that I kind of wanted to be
in as well. So, it kind of-- it just resonated.
He's taking loads more influences,
all fundamentally Mod, you know, but just from different places,
you know, like existentialism.
Film, books, the whole kind of next wave
of Mod was coming out of Paul's imagination
from the sleeve notes to the clothes,
to the way the sleeves looked, to the sound.
["One Night In Rio" by Louie Austen plays]
[Jason] You know, if you're a Mod
then this is really what Mod is about now.
And so he completely embraces the contemporary.
It's music for now.
[Eddie] The Style Council are much more Mod than The Jam,
and he was just saying, "Here it is, boys,
you don't have to be like that anymore."
So I think it was much more contemporary,
but it still had an eye on his Mod routes,
but trying to change it for the future.
It was a lovely-- a lovely melting pot
but I think-- I think there was a, you know,
an awareness of like, I think, you know, if that kind of part
of his career was turn left, I think he wants to turn right.
You know, which was great.
It just all went in the melting pot, you know,
and it come out in different ways, I suppose really.
Sometimes successful, really successful
and other times it wasn't, you know,
but that's just what happens when you experiment with,
or try and see where your limitations are
and if you can go beyond those limitations.
["Dropping Bombs On The White House" playing]
[Hilary] It felt like we were taking so many influences
from so many different places.
I think Paul described it as musicians who like jazz
rather than jazz musicians.
We shied away from calling ourselves jazz musicians.
I think we felt that we were competent in playing
what we wanted to play and jazz was an influence.
But it's another one of these things that I feel...
genres of music and... cults of fashion,
and once you start putting a label on it, it's like,
you know, you have to fit in with the rules,
so it was an important influence but I don't know
if we were part of the '80s jazz scene.
I was really getting into it at that stage, anyway.
But we weren't jazz band or whatever,
you know what I mean? It wasn't like that.
We were-- We were influenced--
Our influences were varied and they ranged
from Tony Hancock to...
to, uh, Horace Silver,
do you know what I mean? It was like that.
There was a big breadth of things that-- that, um...
that influenced us in lots of ways,
you know, lots of cultural things.
Daylight turns to moonlight
And I'm at my best
[Eddie] The best music transports you
to a different time and place,
and that's what Cafe Bleu did to me.
[Gary] You know, there's four or five classic songs
on that album, um, you know,
"The Paris Match," "Headstart for Happiness,"
you know, different versions of "You're The Best Thing"
and "My Ever-Changing Moods."
Doesn't get much better than that.
Letting this be my food
[Paul] I was proud of it at the time
and that's all that matters to me in my mind.
You know, you can only commit to what you feel at the time.
You can't think how you're gonna feel ten years
down the line or 40 or 30 or whatever.
And I liked it at the time and that's good enough for me.
Its Christmas time
There's no need to be afraid
[Paul] Bob called me up and just said,
"Look, you know, we're doing this--
I wanna do this record, this charity record
and would you come and do it with us,
or sing on it?"
And, um, they played me the track,
which I thought was just fucking dreadful really, you know?
God bless 'em, but it was just, oh, Jesus.
Throw your arms around The world at Christmas time
"It's Christmas time there's no need to be afraid."
[laughs] But, you know...
Strange-- Strange opening line, no?
The greatest gift they'll get
This year is life
I was surprised that Paul had done it,
given the number of people that were involved
in the project that weren't of his stamp.
I've gotta say, I think it was admirable,
um, I don't think...
He looks very uncomfortable in the video, you know?
I don't think Paul liked being in Band Aid.
You couldn't help but smile a little bit because, of course,
you now, Mr. Weller's surrounded by this, uh, you know,
this, um, you know, array of pop stars who, um,
you know, how can I put this? He wouldn't have been
too kind about in, um, in, you know,
the music magazines and papers.
And, um, you know, he looks like a little bit of a fish
out of water to kinda say the least, really.
A thing I really admire about him is he's resolutely
not played a pop star most of the time.
You know, or he's not tried to fall for the trappings of that.
Um, you know, "I'm just gonna come along
and make a record, I'm gonna make a record
for charity," and sometimes that can be almost too,
you know, sometimes you think, "Fuck it,
enjoy yourself a bit mate, you can enjoy some things."
But I like the fact that he was--
he seemed to be there in a very, very understated way,
he wasn't pushing himself front and center.
And, you know, he was a big act that that time.
It's easy to forget that.
[Paul] I was probably just like the grumpy sort of...
little grumpy bloke in the corner, really, you know,
I wasn't really digging it.
And I didn't relate to almost anybody there.
They were very much, um, pop stars,
and I didn't feel any affinity with that at all.
I wasn't really into that.
Feed the world
Let them know It's Christmas time again
[Paul] You know, the outcome
sort of speaks for itself, really.
If you're raising money and possibly,
hopefully saving people's lives,
the cause is far greater
than your own personal opinions of it.
What it did, I suppose,
you couldn't really argue with, you know.
Well tonight thank God It's them instead of you
["A Stone's Throw Away" plays]
[announcer] The Style Council present
Our Favourite Shop.
Fourteen classic tracks including the hit single
"Walls Come Tumbling Down," available on record,
cassette and compact disc.
In your favorite shop now.
["Walls Come Tumbling Down" plays]
[announcer] Our Favourite Shop by The Style Council.
Probably the best pop group in the world.
[Mick] I think we got to a point with Our Favourite Shop
where we had a more kind of set line-up
and we kinda became aware of our strengths more.
From the playground To the wasteground
Hope ends at 17
Sweeping floors And filling shelves
Forced Into government schemes
Eleven years spent To dig out ditches
Forget your school day Dreams
Guarantees and lie-filled Speeches
But nothing's what it seems
Qualified and patronized And with everything to lose
Ooh
[Paul] This was more of a very definite album.
You know, we kind of set up,
"This is gonna be the next record."
I think it's probably our most consistent album, musically.
And it may be the most accessible.
I bought the paper Yesterday
And I saw the obituary
And I read of how you died In pain
Well I just Couldn't understand it
There was a more of a cohesive, you know, band sound.
And awash with, uh, you know, the-- these wonderful,
beautiful melodies. I thought that was them
at the top of their game.
It's a real sort of galvanization of all
of our ideas and our commitment to things that we were into.
But you were always Chained and
Shackled by the dirt
Our Favourite Shop is a fantastic snapshot
of a slice of Britain in 1985.
The miners, Thatcher, Pinochet, all sorts of things
in a-- in a pop record. You know?
And taking on racism, homophobia.
It was all the things that as a young lefty,
you wanted your favorite group to be doing.
Well Thatcher came to power in '79, I think,
and that was the first time I was old enough to vote.
Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.
Where there is error, may we bring truth.
Where there is doubt, may we bring faith
and where there is despair, may we bring hope.
No peace for the wicked
There's only war on the poor
They're batting on pickets Trying to even the score
It's all inclusive And the dirt comes free
And you can be all That you want to be
After that was the Falklands, '82.
And I think it just all,
just bit by bit, all went downhill, really.
Shutting down of the mines
and trying to dismantle trade unions.
I think it was really them getting their revenge back
on what had happened to Ted Heath, isn't it?
That was-- I thought it was the vibe I always got.
I thought there was this sort of determined plan to smash
the working classes and the trade unions
because of the power they'd had and brought down a government,
almost really.
[Rev. Richard] Many themes emerged from this collection
and for instance, check the first tune out,
which tells sad of a family torn and broken in two
by the curse of unemployment.
The two young sons in London, one in search of work,
the other looking to revenge this outrage
whilst the father who has been marked,
made redundant, stays behind, his wiles swept with nostalgia
as he blames all except the real enemy.
Good morning day And how do you do
I wonder what will you do For me
[Mick] "Homebreakers" was a tune that I had, and Paul said,
"I think I've got some lyrics for that."
He wanted me to sing it because my dad and my brother,
they were both in the printing union,
and SOGAT was getting ripped to shreds.
My dad did get made redundant.
It's 30 years with one firm. I think he was like 33 years
with the same firm and that was personal to me,
but it was everyone's story
and it was going on all over the place.
And also, it kinda cocks a snook
at the Norman Tebbit "get on your bike,"
that famous speech.
...and he kept looking till he found it.
If you can't find work
In your own town
[Paul] When you saw the nightly news
during the miners' strike
of the police beating shit out of the miners,
it was just incredibly fucking depressing,
really, it was just like, "Is this our country?
Is this what it's come to?"
These people are heroes a few years before that.
Going down deep into the fucking ground,
digging out coal, right?
Uh, which ain't the most pleasant
of jobs, I can imagine.
And all of a sudden they are, um, being beaten
and, uh... and vilified by the media
for standing up for their livelihoods, man.
The sign says closed It's a sign of the times
Like everything else It's all gone away
[Billy] For me and Paul, I think the miners' strike
was a class war,
and if you had a working class background
like Paul did and like I did, you're--
you know, you realize these are our people,
-we have to take sides here. -There are definitely
a working class
mass of people who didn't have a voice
and were being completely neglected.
But somewhere The party never ends
And greedy hands rub Together again
Shipping out the profits That they've stolen
[Martin] They were one of the most effective acts
at getting a political message across
in an absolutely pop way.
You don't have to take This crap
You don't have to sit back And relax
You can actually try Changing it
[Billy] What a great anthem that was.
The whole dynamic of that song, it's got the energy of punk,
it's got the beauty of soul,
and it's got the anger of the 1980s in it.
Are you gonna try to make This work
Or spend your days Down in the dirt
You see things can change
Yes and walls Can come tumbling down
[Eddie] All that kind of stuff is very clever political music
that makes you wanna dance.
If you're on the dancefloor first, the message
doesn't come back 'til later, you know?
It's a very clever way of doing it.
There were other political groups around at the time,
but they weren't getting in the top ten, really.
And they weren't doing it with beautiful melodies
and they weren't doing it looking like
they could have been on the cover of Smash Hits,
and being on the cover of Smash Hits, you know.
Are you gonna be Threatened by
The public enemies Number ten
Those who play The power game
They take the profits, You take the blame
When they tell you There's no rise in pay
[Steve] The attention to detail in the Our Favourite Shop sleeve
is absolutely brilliant, you know,
from the homoerotic post card to Georgie Best, you know.
And I think for the fans of the band at the time,
it was absolutely fantastic to have all that detail.
It was supposed to be just everything we loved
and believed in.
I've heard a lot of people say that they've checked out things
that they've randomly seen on it and it's led them somewhere.
And that's the way me and Paul got to where we were going,
really, just pursuing things like that.
You got Otis, you got Georgie Best,
you got Tony Hancock Another Country,
yeah, all sort of things here, man.
All the books up there,
Joe Horton, see these are influences on us.
And there's the Lennon and McCartney
shot by David Bailey that's on the wall,
which we then mirrored as the band's portrait inside
and we all brought along lots of different things.
There's a picture of Terry Thomas, Michael Caine.
Lots of-- yeah. I think even Paul's Rickenbacker,
again, so that was a look to the past.
But that was just an opportunity for us
to have a bit of fun.
[Mick] There's lots of things I know are there
that you can't really see are there.
But it-- it kind of means a lot
that we bothered putting them there.
And there were things on this cover,
things that I learned about from this cover and things
that were confirmed to me about things I already liked.
I liked Carry Ons and I love Tony Hancock
and you know, I already like that stuff.
Um, obviously like The Beatles, and I love George Best.
And it's funny how just a half-blurred image of some,
you know, torn up novel or something
can lead someone younger somewhere else, you know?
It's great.
[host] You've just released a new single,
while we're on the subject,
it's called "Come to Milton Keynes,"
and itself caused a stir in this week's press
so we ought to have a look at that
before we talk about anything else.
["Come To Milton Keynes" plays]
May I walk you home tonight
On this fine And lovely night tonight
We'll walk past The luscious houses
Through rolling lawns And lovely flowers
Our nice new town
Where the curtains are drawn
Where hope is started And dreams can be borne
You upset a few people with that
and you haven't even been there.
-Yeah. -[host] Why did you write
about Milton Keynes? What's the meaning of it?
It was more about, um, the kind of new towns,
you know, I mean, the fact we used Milton Keynes
is neither here or there, I mean they're up in arms about it,
apparently, but big deal, you know?
And, um-- But it's more about, um...
the way that Britain's values are changing,
and us as a race are changing as well, I think.
And the kind of, um, materialistic values
which we seemed to have adopted,
-quite American, I think. -Was it the advert
about Milton Keynes that made you think of doing it?
Well, there's a horrible kind of Ronald McDonald figure
in the adverts isn't there?
-That's very American. -[host] Mm.
[Paul] It's all showbiz, you know?
This fine conservative night I was looking for a job
So I came to town
I easily adopt when the chips Are down
Can I do an impersonation while I'm on here.
[host] Why now, do you wanna do it now?
Which camera shall I face? This one there?
Are there any agents watching this?
Viewers at home, see if you can--
see if you can guess who this is.
-That's quite good that. -[host] That was good.
Yeah, Christopher Lee that was.
God bless you all. God bless.
[Richard Skinner] It's 12:00 noon in London,
7:00 AM in Philadelphia
and around the world, it's time for Live Aid.
Sixteen hours of live music
in aid of famine relief in Africa.
[Eddie] Everyone knows where they were
when that event happened.
It must have had such an international impact.
It's almost like Woodstock.
We went down there fairly early on. We were the second on.
Status Quo were the first act, we were second.
And as we were that early,
there had been no sound checking,
but they just said to the first few acts,
"If you wanna get a feel for the stage and go up there
or try the gear out, you can."
So we were told we could do that.
But at the same time, they said, uh, "Prince Charles and Diana
are turning up and you can meet them."
And we just went,
"We'll do the sound check shall we?"
["God Save The Queen" plays]
[Steve] We knew that it was gonna be
like obviously big but not as big
as when you kind of looked out onto the,
you know, the audience.
That was pretty breath-taking.
I don't think anyone had ever seen
a crowd like that before.
It was just-- It was incredible.
I've always had a coping mechanism
of just getting on with the job and not listening too much
to what's going on and how many people are outside and all that.
But there was no way no to see what was happening
on the day of Live Aid.
[Helen] Before we went on stage, someone asked us
to hold our arms up and we were...
all like that.
You know, not only playing to 19,000 people up front,
which is pretty, um, scary as it is,
but also, the millions of people
watching it as well, you know?
And it's all live, so.
The closer you got, the more it felt like,
"It's quite a big gig, this, it's quite bit news, this."
"This is sort of going around the world,"
and it was a very important day.
I might shoot to win
And commit the sin
I wanted more than I've already got
I could runaway But I'd rather stay
In the warmth of your smile Lighting up my day
The one that makes me say
You're the best thing That ever happened
[Paul] What a monumental thing to organize, really.
Hats off to Bob, really, for doing it all.
I know we've always been Taught to rely
Upon those in authority
But you never know Until you try
How things just might be
If we came together So strongly
[Martin] There were some awful things that happened
at Live Aid, you know, like artistically,
but there were also some really good ones.
There was, you know, and I--
'cause this was even before I was a fanatic.
Objectively, I thought they were one of the best things
about that day.
Thank you!
[indistinct]
[Janice] Well, I mean, stupid question, but how did it feel?
Uh, I thought it was very good, you know, I was a bit--
I was a bit nervous but I enjoyed it.
What about you, Mick?
Well, it was very nerve-wracking before we went on,
but we went out there and once you saw that crowd,
you know, you just had to enjoy it, really.
The crowd were like amazing and it was a beautiful sunny,
beautiful day. But then we had to get on the bus
and go down to Kent, we were doing
"Come to Milton Keynes" on a TV show.
["Come To Milton Keynes" playing]
And then we got on the coach
and went all the way back to Wembley.
And the Christmas bells That ring there
Are the clanging chimes Of doom
Well tonight thank God It's them
Instead of you
Everyone!
When you knew that you were witnessing,
you know, something, you know, very, very special...
It's one of the biggest events musically of all time.
[Steve] Looking back on it,
it's hard to kind of quantify because everybody that was there
was just like the top of their game.
[Mick] I guess the finale involves
a show of strength and standing at the back,
watching ambitious backing vocalists
fight to get near the front.
Feed the world
Let them know
It's Christmas time again
[crowd cheering]
[Mick] Billy Bragg noticed
the same people turning up at benefits.
Um, The Style Council,
Communards, him and a few other people.
[Paul] Billy came to us with this idea
trying to get young people, uh,
engaged with politics and also for them to use their votes.
[Billy] Red Wedge came together after the end
of the miner's strike where a lot of the bands
that had been doing gigs for the miners were like,
"Well what happens now? We just go back
to being on Top of the Pops, is that it?"
It just was "I'll see you on Saturday morning TV?"
No. What's, you know, "What can we do to get rid
of the Tories?" And the next obvious opportunity
was the 1987 general election.
Um, and the only viable vehicle for getting rid of the Tories
was the Labour Party.
You know, it kinda-- it sounded like a good idea.
We had some, you know, reluctance to get involved
with a party as such, you know what I mean?
I didn't really...
I didn't feel any affinity with them, really.
We didn't work for the Labour Party.
We were an independent initiative that went to them
and we worked with them, rather than for them.
My involvement with that whole thing
was to make a statement
that we cared about what was going on
in our own country
and that we wanted change.
Right, we wanted the children,
the young people at the time
to view with an open mind opposed to this closed narrative
that was being given to us
by The Conservative Party of that time.
Strange when you think Of the chances
That we'd both be In a state of mind
Too cool to be careless
Just looking For the right thing
Oh baby
Don't look any further, Further
[Billy] Those events were really, really powerful
because you-- it took us outside of just singing about it,
it got us to actually to come face to face
with the reality of those people.
And do you think that people who came to listen
to the Red Wedge tour, do you think
you gained many converts or...
It's not like we're on a missionary crusade
or something, you know, we're just, um,
we're just delivering the facts to people,
we'll let 'em make their own minds up.
We're not out as a-- out to act as a propaganda machine
for any political party at all.
But some might say that.
Some might say-- Some might say a lot of things,
you yourself, Baz, seeing as you work
for the Daily Mail or The Sun or people.
[laughs]
So you'd go to Liverpool, and all of a sudden,
like, Derek Hatton's hanging about backstage,
and it wasn't a great energy with people like that, you know?
It felt like this is probably a good time to just step back
a little bit. 'Cause it became a bit all consuming.
From a very genuine attempt to engage young people
in politics,
it didn't work, and the reason it didn't work
is because the politicians weren't genuine.
And I think that is what resonates to this day.
[Paul] With like any politicians,
there's always some ulterior motive, isn't there, you know?
So it just fucking put me off really, I just thought,
you know, it is-- they are as I imagined
they would be, you know what I mean?
Day o umba day o
Mambu ji ay o
[Billy] Whatever you think about the politics of Red Wedge,
whatever you think about what became
of that campaign and what it did and didn't achieve,
the gigs were really, really special gigs.
I still meet people who were at a particular Red Wedge gig
and it just sort of blew their minds
to see us all up there playing.
I'm a grown man now,
I don't really want politics.
If I perceive something as having politics
rammed down my throat, I totally turn off.
So I get-- if people felt that,
I understand why they wouldn't have liked it
as much as "You're The Best Thing."
I do get it. I happened to be a little
rabid lefty then. So I was like,
"Great, I'm getting the best of all worlds."
But even I, by the-- by the time I was kind of 16, I was like,
"No, what I really like about this group is the music."
["Have You Ever Had It Blue" playing]
[male producer] Cue lights.
Cue grams.
["It Didn't Matter" playing]
[Simon] Cafe Bleu and Our Favourite Shop
and all the singles in between,
it still had a freshness to it,
and everything was about doing something new and different,
but I think you could only do something new and different
so many times.
I remember All the early days
Trying to think Of the right things to say
I can remember, we spoke about it, Paul and I
and he said, like, you know,
"We could sort of make Our Favourite Shop Part 2,
but I don't want to."
And I-- And I sort of agreed with that.
It-- It would have done better,
certainly better than The Orange Album.
I mean, I think The Orange Album is, not because it's orange.
[laughs]
I'm not gonna be colorist.
It-- But it is a big turning point.
And I think The Orange Album turned a lot of people off.
Heavens above What have we done?
We've killed off The thing we had so little of
[Martin] This is not in any way a fun or funny album.
In that-- It's very "dur" and very, um, straight.
I guess the music they were trying to channel,
like a contemporary American R 'n' B,
isn't very camp, do you know what I mean?
It's not known for its musical references.
And I think they were just channeling that.
I think we were keen on having something that sort of
was reflecting a modern soul sound,
and I think we got a bit lost in the superficial sound
of the production rather than the material.
When you have a new album out,
if you've got three or four singles off it,
you've got to do three or four sing-- uh, promos,
videos.
So we thought, "Maybe we can do, like, a short film."
[Paul] Me and Mick did an advert, right,
for some Japanese,
I think it was like a cassette or a tape company
or something like that.
[announcer speaks Japanese]
Now we are together
[announcer] UD, special version. [speaks Japanese]
[announcer 2] Maxell.
So the money we got paid from that,
we put into this film.
Go back, go back for my parts to freeze.
Thus I say, "Go back."
I think we got a bit indulged by people
that we made videos with.
[narrator] Behind him, his partner, Michael Talbot,
dressed in a gold lamé cloak and sporting the Edwardian,
was busy with his mighty plonkalodium.
[Dee] Don't ask me what that was about,
'cause I have no idea, but we did get a chance
to dress up and act really stupidly,
so that was all right. [laughs]
It's a totally bizarre film that generally
does not hang together as a piece,
but I've watched it many times and loved it every time.
Observe, if you will, England's beauty.
A land within a land
that doth flower both in joy and delight.
That does take no heed of poison,
and yet offers infinite healing to the soul wearied.
[narrator] Indeed, my lord, and wisely said.
[Martin] For a pop group who had a lot to lose,
it was going out on a limb, you know.
Two middle class guys, bored with life,
bored with grammar school,
wanna rock out a little, you know?
I phoned him, yeah, and he says, "Yeah," and here we are.
There were points trying to be made,
there was humor trying to be made.
We tried.
[laughs] And people found it trying.
I have been thinking that if America
were a pair of jeans, England would be its back pocket,
for as every five minutes, its owner dips his hand in,
removes money and deposits terror.
I think we maybe took the piss taking a little far.
The in jokes became a little too in.
We'd show it, it'd be the support
on one of the tours at the time.
This big screen would come down on the stage
and we'd show this film.
And then the screen would go up and then we'd start,
which just fucking baffled everyone, really. [laughs]
Maybe the-- that rolling energy that we had
in those first couple of years, it just got dissipated
and then maybe just a little bit,
the foot had come off the gas a little bit.
That's what I-- That's what I felt.
[Paul] At some point you have to grow up,
and that was Mick and his missus having the kids,
and then me and Dee getting together.
Um...
And, you know, so all those things take their place,
you know, as they have to.
Mother's playing bingo
She's hoping for a big win
She buys the daily papers To see how 10% live...
The last sort of little shout from us was, uh,
Confessions Of A Pop Group,
and that was kind of like our farewell, in a way, really.
I don't know if we said that was the end of the band
but it certainly felt like it could be, you know.
[Gary] I thought Confessions was a very, very good album.
You know, returning to that manifesto really,
that they had, that they said that they were gonna do
right at the beginning which was to, you know,
kind of experiment really and shake things up.
Changes of clothes And summer showers
Like changing the guard
It only lasts for hours
Wondering what And where did it go
Crying over nothing Worth crying for
Once in a while
I still think about
The smile on your face girl
The first time around
[Paul] The influences on that record
were quite deep, you know.
We were sort of thinking about Debussy and Sarti,
and so there was elements of classical music in it,
and it seemed to be like
a little bit kind of pretentious,
but really-- it wasn't I don't think.
It was just what I was listening to at the time, you know.
Things like "The Story of Someone's Shoe," right,
with the Swingle Singers was a direct influence, right,
from the MJQ, the Modern Jazz Quartet, right,
who made an album called Place Vendôme
with the Swingle Singers.
Such a great concept.
This jazz band with these-- with these singers.
It's either, Something in their eyes
Or something in the drink
But whatever it is They both stop and think
Yeah, the songs were still there, but I think
what that album showed was Paul's willingness
to explore different things. But I just think
the record company, you know, the record company want hits,
you know, they were happy with the first couple of albums
'cause it was top ten hit after top ten hit,
number one albums. And when that's not there anymore
as good as the music might be,
that's not always what's relevant in their eyes.
She threw it all away
Oh I wonder if she's there To stay
[Paul] It wasn't liked at the time.
It was pretty much sort of slated, really.
And I don't think it did that well commercially,
so the record company weren't happy, obviously.
I always considered that to be the last record, really.
That's our last album, you know?
Even though there was one more after it,
which never came out at the time, though.
Oh, yeah
[Paul] Around that time, I was really getting
into a lot of the house sounds that were around,
what people were calling "garage" and all that stuff
as well, but I just thought it sounded really soulful,
you know, and I could hear the kind of gospel
in a lot of those tunes, you know.
[Mick] I think initially, we may have thought,
"acid house" was a bit gimmicky but then once we heard
what they called "garage" and "deep house,"
you could see a strong connection to...
Philadelphia Records that were like
a lot of four on the floor stuff.
And I loved the kind of rawness of 'em.
I loved the fact it sounded like they were done
in someone's bedroom. I'm not saying they were,
but that's, you know, had a bit of that vibe to it.
All you needed was a 909 drum machine
and a keyboard, and off you go.
Even though the instrumentation was very modern
and technical sounding,
it had kind of returned to some soulful gospel roots
in dance music, which was really interesting
and quite inspiring for us at the time.
As I always am, whenever I get sort of turned on to something,
I just wanna-- "Yeah, I'm gonna do this now,
this is, you know, this is where we're gonna go,"
and I was in that spirit.
Taking different trajectories, taking different paths
was what The Style Council was about.
It was about style.
And to me, he would take a certain style of music
and invigorate it, or invest his own personality
and taste level in that music.
So, house music, um, quiet storm, soul music, funk,
whatever the genre was,
the Style Council had every right to invest in it.
Dry your eyes They will call
Sure is sure We'll be one
[Steve] The record company, you know,
were being a little-- I think, a little vicious
in denying this a release. They didn't have to do that.
But there was a point to be proven in my opinion.
I think it stands up in the arc of what the band was about,
to go from Kenny Burrell jazz to Chicago influence house music
in seven years, I think is a pretty amazing thing.
La la
La la la la la
[Mick] Paul and I had already chatted about winding it up,
it was like, you know, the game's up.
But we had an album that we thought we believed in,
and we thought there'd be a few singles coming off it
and we thought we'd tour it round the world.
So we were projecting, "Maybe a year hence,
let's knock it on the head
unless this really just blows up like in an unusual way."
So we'd already made that decision,
but it just kinda got rushed.
It happened a year earlier than we would have done.
[Paul] Well it did feel to me
like it was all coming to an end.
So there was a definite sense of it sort of slowing down a bit,
I think we weren't doing so much live stuff for a start.
And then we came back and we did maybe two shows
at the Albert Hall, yeah.
We might have done two or three old songs.
It was stuff we were working on,
it was house, the house record we made.
And then there was some other people we had with us,
some other singers and they did a song as well,
so it was kind of a bit of a mix thing as well.
[Mick] It's almost like the first album, Cafe Bleu,
it had seven instrumentals or something, out of 13 tracks.
And even the vocal tracks, it's not always Paul singing.
So it was in the tradition that we had
but just six or seven years later, you know,
in a live format.
And we'll walk hand in hand
Sisters, brothers
We'll make it To the Promised Land
[Mick] But we weren't particularly playing big hits
and I think Our Greatest Hits had just been released
by Polydor, which we didn't have any power over,
but that's almost a bit like the death now,
I think, when they start knocking them out.
[Paul] People fucking hated it man, anyway.
You know, it was just totally, totally out of step, you know.
We were getting more and more out of step with people,
or they were out of step, whatever way it works.
But I think that was the last straw, really.
People ripping up their programs and, you know,
sort of a modern sort of you know,
Dylan going electric or something. [laughs]
There was a weird tension in the audience
that I'd never seen before.
I almost felt like there was gonna be some kind of riot.
I think it would be a myth to say, "Well, it was only me
and my brother who enjoyed it or got it."
Lots of people got it.
But a lot of people didn't, and vocally didn't.
But-- And I don't think people enjoyed it
and some people left before we ended.
Like, I don't really remember it in great detail,
but from what I remember, I liked it.
Um...
And that's all you can do, man. You can only do
what you feel's right at the time, you know.
["Speak Like A Child" playing]
I got so much out of it.
I got to travel the world, I got to see--
I got to do one of the most iconic concerts of all time.
I played with some great musicians
that have been-- remained friends
pretty much for 35 years.
The very best band I ever worked with.
I'm just...
struck by what a lot of music we turned around, really,
and generally, I'm pretty proud of all of it.
My Favourite Shop's a good record,
I think Confessions is a good record.
Um... and there was great singles, you know.
Great little run of singles.
But more than anything else,
it was a happy time for me in my life, you know.
And yeah, it was just, when I think of The Style Council,
I just think of fun.
All the fun we had.
["A Very Deep Sea" starts]
I keep on diving Till I reach the ends
Dredging up the past To drive me round the bends
What is it in me That I can't forget
I keep finding so much That I now regret
But no on I go Down into the depths
Turning things over
That are better left
Dredging up the past That is gone for good
Trying to polish up What is rotting wood
Whoa, diving
I'm diving
Diving
Something inside Takes me down again
Diving not for goblets But tin cans
Dredging up the past For reasons so rife
Passing bits of wrecks That once passed for life
But I'll keep on diving Till I drown the sea
Of things not worth Even mentioning
Perhaps I'll come To the surface
And come to my senses But it's a very deep sea
Around my own devices
Whoa, diving
Diving
Perhaps I'll come To the surface
And come to my senses
Perhaps I'll come To the surface
And come to my senses
Perhaps I'll come To the surface
And come to my senses
Perhaps I'll come To the surface
And come to my senses
Diving
I'm diving
Diving
["Le Depart" playing]
After a hard day on the set, there's nothing I like better
than a cool, refreshing pint of milk.
Cheers.
Chairs with our names on actually.