The Style Council was a British musical group formed in 1983 by ex- Jam singer and guitarist Paul Weller with keyboardist Mick Talbot. Both Weller and Talbot had played a significant part in the Mod Revival. The Style Council also featured a singer called Tracie Young who had solo hits with "The House That Jack Built" and "Give It Some Emotion". The permanent lineup grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's wife/vocalist Dee C. Lee (now divorced). Other musicians, including a horn section, were brought in as required.
The band's first album Introducing The Style Council showed another level of Weller's songwriting ability and diversity of musical styles, spawning the hit singles Speak Like A Child (with its loud soul-influenced style), and the haunting synth-ballad Long Hot Summer, both tracks showcasing Talbot's abilities on keyboards and organ.
In 1984, the single "My Ever-Changing Moods" reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, to this day Weller's greatest success on the US charts, while the group reached the peak of their success in the U.K. with the 1985 album Our Favourite Shop.
However, to Weller's fans, the decision to split up The Jam at the height of their commercial success was met with considerable controversy. Weller deliberately distanced himself from the Jam sound and style, with his use of new musical arrangements and instruments in a much slicker, more heavily produced style. In the place of the beloved Bruce Foxton- Rick Buckler rhythm section were drum and bass parts done entirely on synthesizers. Along with this, the band's early persona - the donning of make-up and New Romantic-style clothing, coupled with mysterious album sleeve notes by "The Cappuccino Kid" (a pseudonym for Paolo Hewitt, biographer of The Jam and friend of Weller), the use of French lyrics and themes (reflected in the titles of their debut release, the 1983 À Paris EP, which saw the duo posing in front of the Eiffel Tower, and their debut full-length LP, 1983's Café Bleu), dabblings in rap and, later, dance music, and the homoerotic imagery in the video for the single "Long Hot Summer" only served to further confuse and alienate loyal Jam fans. Structurally, many of the band's early singles were not far removed from The Jam's latter-day soul-pop efforts such as "Town Called Malice" and "Beat Surrender", but they were often critized as overproduced, despite Weller's impressive songwriting. Moreover, many observers saw even the early albums as indulgent and overly experimental; Trouser Press called Café Bleu "too schizophrenic to be a good album" . The criticism only grew as the band's career wore on, and Weller's star status in the UK plunged.
