The Style Council announce ‘Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council’ greatest hits boxset

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. 

The long-awaited definitive career anthology ‘Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council,’ packed with the greatest hits and more, will be out on October 30th 2020. Named after the band’s biggest hit, Long Hot Summer, it’s endorsed and co-compiled by Paul Weller himself, and as well as Long Hot Summer, the album includes the debut top five single Speak Like A Child plus other masterpieces such as the languid You’re The Best Thing, Ever Changing Moods, and dance floor filler Shout To The Top. The release is paired with a brilliant Sky Arts documentary under the same name 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 five single My Ever Changing Moods with strings, and the extended, 5-minute plus version of Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse. The album also features key album tracks and fan favourites such as Headstart For Happiness (full track-listing for format details below).

A demo version of the Top 5 single My Ever Changing Moods has been released as an ‘instant grat’: 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 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 split from 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.

As well as digitally, the album will be available on double CD and triple album vinyl. There will be limited editions on vinyl: black vinyl and a coloured vinyl version.

‘Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council’ 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 – Vinyl available in standard black or coloured (blue, pink & orange discs)

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) 

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