The Jam fans were in disbelief when, in October 1982, Paul Weller announced the end of the band. They were at the peak of their success, producing hit after hit, far from any sign of a creative crisis, in better shape than any other punk band they came from. Weller, Bruce Foxton, and Rick Butler would put the final touch on their story a couple of months later, at a farewell concert at the Brighton Center in London. Dressed in his suit, with his inseparable Rickenbacker guitar, the singer then swore they would never get back together. What would come next?
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Weller had a plan: he would leave behind that energetic, raw, black-and-white sound to refocus on a sophisticated, multicolored soul, jazz, and pop style, all without losing—rather accentuating—his most stylish and mod side. In fact, the name of what was coming now was The Style Council. He would only need one partner, a keyboardist who seemed freshly out of the conservatory (although he had played with Dexys Midnight Runners and The Merton Parkas), a calm guy named Mick Talbot. When they needed some support, they would call on collaborators—or honorary councillors—like Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, a couple with their own project called Everything But The Girl.
The audience’s surprise was immense. No energetic anthems: now came jazz instrumentals. Goodbye to guitar riffs: they had been replaced by delicate soul melodies. Before, the cold poses of the working-class trio in their industrial town, Woking. Now, Weller and Talbot pedaling with springtime joy, slicked back and clad in tight cycling jerseys. And, the hardest pill to swallow—‘The Bitterest Pill,’ as one of The Jam’s songs was titled—the Union Jack had been replaced by the hues of European colors. This Weller preferred Paris to London.
That was what The Style Council was about: a powerfully assertive mix of soul, funk, and jazz on one hand, and illustration, political progressivism, and Europeanism on the other. All this while Margaret Thatcher’s conservative policies advanced like a dark cloud over—this is no minor example—the coal mining sector, which would be deeply damaged by her privatization and liberalization initiatives and, ultimately, by the massive closure of mines. Weller would become the standard-bearer of this struggle by creating the political-cultural movement Red Wedge, which, in the mid-1980s, would bring together various British musicians (Billy Bragg, Communards, Blow Monkeys) to form a united front.
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But we have jumped ahead a bit. In 1983 The Style Council released a series of singles like ‘Speak Like a Child,’ ‘Money-Go-Round,’ and ‘Long Hot Summer,’ songs compiled in Introducing The Style Council, a mini-album that—incredibly—was released in the United States, Canada, Japan, and the Netherlands… but not in the United Kingdom. Except for imports, the British public could not enjoy a full album from the new band until the release of Café Bleu in February 1984. Although the commercial response to this debut was notable, the sales charts gave them a pinch: it did not reach number 1; it stayed at number 2.
Café Bleu is the true start of The Style Council’s career. In these 12 songs—including gems like ‘My Ever Changing Moods,’ ‘You’re The Best Thing,’ and ‘Headstart For Happiness’—the mod punk turned delicate jazz musician ideologizes pop and opens a modernist current, crossed by a new Paris-London axis. All this is underscored by the inclusion of a political manifesto by the 18th-century French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat. It highlights the group’s socialist, antiestablishment, and anti-capitalist stance.
The reissue of Café Bleu signals the album’s relevance, musically full, but also raises questions about its extramusical meaning. Far from the usual milestone anniversary date—it is now 42 years old—the return to this repertoire by Weller (who released the album Find El Dorado last year) also rescues his internationalist commitment. Four decades after Thatcher, 20 years after Iraq, a decade after Brexit, the Weller heard again is the one who has just opposed his government and the genocidal massacre in Gaza by organizing, together with Brian Eno, a series of large-scale concerts in support of Palestine. The mod godfather is today—but he already was then—one of the most conscious figures in the music of his time.
Café Bleu (Special Edition)
Universal
