Our Favourite Shop

Product Information

Okamoto, Satoshi (2006). Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005. Oricon. ISBN 978-4-87131-077-2.

That’s because it is based on the scarf featured in the gatefold of the Style Council’s Our Favourite Shop album. You can’t make out the colours when you see that version, but if you look at the original photo (available to buy via Snap Galleries) you see it in all its detail. In short, it’s this scarf. (image credit: Mod Shoes) a b Wilson, Lois (2006). "The Style Council". Mojo. Archived from the original on 4 July 2012 . Retrieved 19 July 2012. a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Our Favourite Shop – The Style Council". AllMusic . Retrieved 23 July 2017. Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox

Notes

Paul Weller’s decision to break apart one of the most popular bands since The Beatles, at their commercial peak, remains an act of career hari-kari unparalleled in British pop. And while there’s probably a fair few of those weepy, parka-clad kids who still haven’t forgiven him, what Weller did next made for an even more unexpected chapter. It's also the subject of a new documentary on Sky Arts, Long Hot Summers, which offer a colourful rummage through the story of The Style Council: playful, political, sometimes baffling and frequently hilarious. Long Hot Summers is on Sky Arts on 31 October at 9pm. The greatest hits album, Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council, is out now on Polydor

In comparison to the UK LP, the Australia/New Zealand LP omits "The Stand Up Comic's Instructions", and adds "Shout to the Top!". They were banging on the window shouting at me: ‘You tore them apart!’," recalls Talbot, who still empathises with the kids he says he saw crying on the other side of the glass. “God knows, it’s over 40 years since Ronnie Wood split up The Faces, but I’m still getting over it.” I had a total belief in the Style Council. I was obsessed in the early years. I lived and breathed it all. I meant every word, and felt every action. Our Favourite Shop was its culmination." [1] Very different things, of course. But in a way, that’s the point. The Boy About Town scarf by the 66 Clothing offshoot of Mod Shoes was probably more Jam era. This, as the title suggests, is the Style Council take on a scarf. (image credit: Mod Shoes) There was definitely some winding up going on. Doing certain things to upset people or annoy people or challenge people,” says Weller. "It was that thing of being constrained by people telling me what I’m into and who I am.”Dutchcharts.nl – The Style Council – Our Favourite Shop" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 31 October 2020. British album certifications – Style Council – Our Favourite Shop". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 2 April 2022. At 32, Paul Weller found himself sat at home without a record deal wondering what he was going to do with the rest of his life. What followed was a hugely successful solo career, yet he still has fond memories of the seven years he spent following his creative nose with The Style Council. Paul and I were enchanted with them,” says Talbot. “We’d get into the studio the next morning and go: ‘Did you see that thing last night? Did you see that bloke’s mac? What were they playing in the scene in the café?’ It all fed into the melting pot of what we were doing and the way we visualised the photography, the sleeves and certain things we might wear."

As a note for the other Yankees like myself; this album was released in the states under the title Internationalist and has led to some confusion over the years as those of us who adored this album could not seem to find it anywhere when looking to upgrade our original copies. I myself struggled to replace a totally worn out cassette tape for years. I finally found it under the UK released title. I can not convey how much I adore this album. I initially stumbled upon it after reading a brief Rolling Stone review that recommended it highly. The album had me from the first reading of the liner notes which contained the rantings of the Cappuccino Kid. Weller in that guise railed against the breakup of pit communities and the evils of the state’s coercive force. He abhorred the newly established Potemkin Villages that in many ways personified Margaret Thatcher’s England. This album was like nothing out there, a combination of catchy jazz, R&B soul, and pop melodies chained to barbed lyrics that seemed somehow apt even if you were located an ocean away. Weller and Talbot also took no small pleasure from taking the piss and confounding audiences’ expectations. If fans had a set idea of Paul Weller as an earnest voice of a generation scowling at the world around him, he was going to prance around with his top off in the tongue-in-cheek, fingers-on-earlobes homoeroticism of the 'Long Hot Summer' music video. Later, to promote their third album, The Cost Of Loving, they made Jerusalem: a 37-minute film of surreal, impenetrable tosh that involved among other things Weller dressed up as King Canute talking into a giant shell-shaped mobile phone.

But even here, at his most posed and pretentious, seemingly trying to instigate a revolt into style through French menswear, Italian coffee and the Isley Brothers’ Greatest Hits, he was calling, on the most politically forceful record of his career, for class solidarity in the face of Thatcherism. It was an issue that was close to home. After all, the audience with which Weller had such a love-hate affair – southern, suburban blokes with aspirations – was also the constituency courted most assiduously by the Tories. Come to Milton Keyes completes the trilogy of dissociative displacement and further displayed what ended up happening when entire communities were up rooted due to the economic scenarios in the late 70’s and 80’s. The problems didn’t go away just because people were relocated through government schemes, but in many cases concentrated and created more problems. “ Let us share our insanity, go mad together in Community, boys on the corner looking for their supper, boys round the green looking for some slaughter.” Weller pointed out Milton Keyes as a prime example of a manufactured Potemkin village where as long as you turned over no stones it looked lovely, but lurking underneath were even more disturbing problems. The reality was never going to meet the expectations. The jaunty Hammond organ and light fairy tale treatment of the accompaniment belie the lyrics which ripped away the façade of happily ever after,” I was looking for a job so I came to town, I easily adapt when the chips are down, I read the ad about the private schemes I liked the idea but now I am not so Keyne.” You can feel Weller’s vitriol aimed at the pie in the sky fake happiness being fed to the sheep. It was just a fun time,” he says. “It got a bit crap towards the end, but like any relationship that drags on too long that’s what happens.”

For those that did come along for the ride, The Style Council frequently delivered some of the most joyous, artful pop music of the decade. It’s a trip well worth revisiting. The Style Council's most commercially successful album, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, and remained at the top of the charts for one week, displacing Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. The album was the Style Council's only number one album in the UK. According to the BPI, the record sold over 100,000 copies and was certified gold. As the 80’s went on The Style Council’s popularity would recede and the death knell was sounded in 1989 when the record label refused to release the 5th Style Council album, Modernism:/A New Decade. That release was a wide departure from the original sound of the band and went into a house influence. In 1989 Weller announced the end of The Style Council and “Modernism” except for a limited vinyl run would not be available until 1998. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.In 1983 he would team up with keyboardist Mike Talbot, formerly of Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Bureau and The Morton Parkas, to form the Style Council. The Style Council Rota would expand to include drummer Steve White and Singer Dee C. Lee. Over time the band would wander through a wide range of musical genres pop, jazz, soul, R&B, house and folk before Weller would move on to his solo career. The band was at the vanguard of the jazz/pop revival of the early 80’s. With the Style Council Weller would embark on another initially successful career move while remaining as ever firmly rooted in British culture. The Style Council would give Weller his first chart success in the US with the singles My Everchanging Mood and You’re the Best Thing off of Café Blue as the group entered the US Billboard 100. Offiziellecharts.de – The Style Council – Our Favourite Shop" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 31 October 2020. That’s a college scarf made in England of 100 per cent wool and hand-sewn together. Yes, it’s a college scarf, which is probably less practical/wearable for some people compared to the previous Weller-inspired scarf. But it will keep you warm, it looks good, and if you love the Style Council, it’s something you probably want to own.