If it was true that Weller truly hated the rock star mythology, as he told the press, this would be expressed frankly in the Style Council’s early singles. In early 1983 he set about creating a new band alongside keyboard player Mick Talbot who’d been a member of the mesmeric Dexys Midnight Runners, and also of The Merton Parkas, a group that owed much of their sound and image to the mod-punk stylings of the Jam. He would later claim that the Jam had gone as far as they could. His abilities as a musician were growing and so was his willingness to experiment. With news of the breakup public, the punk trio spent the remainder of 1982 promoting their final hit single, Beat Surrender, and playing a string of sold-out dates at the Wembley Arena. All of these hits had been written by Paul Weller, a young, but a frustrated hero to an entire generation.ĭesiring a new challenge and a step out of the brightest of limelights, he announced his intentions to disband the Jam to a stunned world. They had not only earned the respect of critics but a hefty amount of chart success, registering 18 consecutive Top 40 hits in the United Kindom. Breaking up the Jam and start of the Style Councilīy 1982, power-trio the Jam was the most succesful, bar the Clash perhaps, band from the original British punk boom. For Paul Weller and Mick Talbot this was their day job for nearly 8 years.
Usually, it’s something they do on the weekends, or in those mysterious periods, bands like to call a hiatus. We’re now accustomed to well-versed musicians trying their hands at a completely different style of music. It’s not unlike the works of ABC or Tears for Fears, the cutting-edge pop acts of the time that had redefined what it was to even be a pop group. The guitars and punk-energy of the Jam are muted, instead replaced with a sophisticated soul sound. However, if you’re hearing the Style Council for the first time, which is not an impossibility, you will be surprised. If that’s the case, you’ve likely made your mind up about what blend of guitar-rock the Modfather tends to make. If you’re from England, where Weller is something of a national hero, it’s is rather inevitable that you have. Modern rock listeners, even casual ones, are likely to have heard the Jam and Paul Weller’s music. Just why is this soulful group so often forgotten, or simply ignored by music critics? Perhaps, it’s time to remind ourselves of their inventiveness and reasses the past. Yet, his eventful career also included another succesful, fruitful endeavor, the creation of the Style Council. The Jam and Paul Weller’s solo work are spoken about with the kind of reverence that Catholics use to describe the Pope. The mere utterance of Paul Weller’s name can make most fans of British music swoon.
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