Paul Weller\The Jam\The Style Council
Where do you start when you are writing about Paul Weller, my first memory of The Jam was hearing them perform The Eton Rifles on the radio. I first saw them when the video for Going Underground was played on Top Of The Pops, I remember Bruce Foxton wearing those Jam stage shoes. I didn't actually buy a Jam record until about 1982 I recall it was Town Called Malice. My school friends at the time were all mods (strange as I was a skinhead at the time) so of course they seemed to be listening to The Jam everyday. The Jam had split up before I had left school and Paul Weller had gone on to form The Style Council. Although the Jam still influenced my friends and I, so I went through a transitional phase between a skinhead and wanting to be like my friends. Now don't get me wrong I was never a mod. I just used to go with them to Carnaby Street on Saturdays and it was there where we used to buy our clothes, especially for school. I bought a pair of Jam bowling shoes (chisel toe of course) from Shelly's and the worst trousers money could buy, just because we thought Paul Weller wore them. The trousers were from Carnaby Cavern and they would do alterations, so we would have them taken in as much as possible. Looking back we must have looked ridiculous, the trousers were so tight the seams would be almost splitting and you could only just get your feet through the legs (flares were for squares). That was the only bad thing about The Jam it enabled shops to sell crap goods at high prices, but with the Jam's name on them we thought they were great, how wrong we were. Anyway I digress.
It was not until I was sixteen that I began to appreciate the music of both The Jam and The Style Council and I have some good memories of those times. I bought the album The Gift complete with the candy stripe bag, I lent it to my friend, Danny Rafferty to borrow and his mum was tidying his room and thought the bag was rubbish so she threw it out. I was not pleased when he returned the album minus the candy striped bag. I also recall an old girlfriend of mine had the Cafe Bleu LP by The Style Council and it would be playing in the background as things got steamy up in her room (I hope the wife doesn't read this!). Another recollection is that we used to go to the Orchard Cafe during our lunch hour at school and my friends and I would play the B side of Solid Bond In Your Heart by The Style Council on the juke box, this was because you got two songs (the instrumental of the A side and It Just Came To Pieces In My Hands) for the price of one.
I have all The Jam singles from In The City through to Beat Surrender all in picture covers, I don't pretend that I have got every rarity that was ever released by The Jam but I do have a few, I know I haven't got as many as Shaun for a start. I have got three Japanese import singles that I bought at a car boot sale whilst visiting relatives in Spalding, I paid £10 each for them. They are The Eton Rifles, Strange Town and one that wasn't released here in England as a single, Heatwave with Saturday's Kids on the B side, both of these tracks taken from The Setting Sons LP. I've also got the Going Underground single with the live EP, the free live EP given away with the Snap! LP also That's Entertainment on the german label as well as the re-issue on Polydor. As well as these I also own a white label Sound Affects LP and an American Sound Affects LP. I haven't purchased some of the compilation CD's and box sets that have been released during the years since The Jam split up because like I have previously mentioned why buy one if you already have the songs on another format (for example The Greatest Hits if you've got Snap! or all the singles). Although saying this if anybody wants to buy me the two box sets of Jam singles on CD, feel free to do so.
Let me move on to The Style Council admittedly not everybody's cup of tea. The first single of theirs that I bought was the Solid Bond In Your Heart single (with gatefold sleeve). I bought their first two singles, Speak Like A Child and Merry-Go-Round years later. The problem with The Style Council was that all Jam fans were hoping that Paul Weller was going to carry on were he left off with The Jam, how disappointed some of them became. I like some of The Style Council songs, I mean I've got most of their singles, not all though. I also only have the first two albums plus that mini LP, Introducing. Because like I said the Style Council were not everybody's cup of tea and when they started drifting into house music that's when I started drifting out of the Style Council's music.
It was not for a few years after the Style Council split that Paul Weller started releasing his solo work and as I am not too clued up on it I won't write much about it. All I can say is that I bought his first solo album on vinyl when it was released. The only other items I have are the Stanley Road CD, the Greatest Hits CD (with a live CD) and a bootleg CD of his material which I bought from a football colleague of mine that runs a record shop. I also bought a bootleg Jam CD off him at the time as well. The main reason for not being too familiar with his solo stuff is that my money nowadays (and at the time of his album releases) goes on the family and not so much myself, ah well that's married life I suppose.
To sum up, if I see any Jam records on sale anywhere I'll generally buy them without hesitating (even if I've already got them), but if the records are by The Style Council the chances are that I won't get them. As for Paul Weller's solo stuff I would be tempted to buy his albums not necessarily his singles. Let's be honest The Jam were brilliant! Weren't they?