October 16th 1984 – De Montfort Hall
I’m not sure why, maybe because The Jam passed me by and I regretted not getting into to them while they were around, but I got a touched obsessed with finding more out about Paul Weller, The Style Council and what ultimately turned into Respond Records artists.
I guess Town Called Malice was the first Jam track I remember hearing first time around and enjoying, the Bitterest Pill and Beat Surrender.
What no one was expecting then (in 1982), was that at the height of their fame, Paul would disband The Jam!!! This was a massive shock.
Weller had decided he wanted to move on to a different style of music and very bravely took the decision to stop The Jam before they faded away. You always expect bands to reform when they split up suddenly, but I don’t think anyone has ever felt The Jam would come back (although Bruce Foxton tours the songs as From The Jam)
The Style Council was formed in early 1983 and their first single was Speak Like a Child peaked at Number 4 in March 1983. I kept a diary of the events of The Style Council developing from January 1984 to this gig in October 1984………I suspect I then got bored and stopped! 🙂
Weller helped launch a few artists over the next few years through the Respond record label and his backing singer from Beat Surrender was one of them, Tracie Young (who released The House That Jack Built)
The Style Council was a dramtic change from The Jam and polarised opinion for many years. Many felt Weller had been too quick to kill off The Jam and yet he kept his stalwart fans and gained a brand new, if anything, bigger audience for his new music.
Mick Talbot was the second major player in the band and a brilliant pianist and keyboard player. This made for a really lively dancing gig tonight. This mix of bluesy jazz pop went down a storm and brought the style of music to us, a younger audience.
Already classics were played, Long Hot Summer, Speak Like a Child, Shout To The Top, My Ever Changing Mood……pretty much all of the first album, Cafe Bleu.
My Ever Changing Moods was a fave at the time and the video brought music together with my other passion of cycling, in a tongue in cheek video.
Set List
- Speak Like a Child
- Long Hot Summer
- Me Ship Came In!
- The Razors Edge
- The Big Boss Groove
- A Man of Great Promise
- Mick’s Up
- Le Depart
- The Paris Match
- Here’s the One That Got Away
- Headstart for Happiness
- Shout to the Top!
- My Ever Changing Moods
- The Whole Point of No Return
- Money-Go-Round
- Strength of Your Nature
- Encore: You’re the Best Thing, Never Stop
- Encore 2: One Nation Under a Groove
Leave a Reply