The Paul Weller Fan Podcast is on the hunt for the directors of music promo videos for The Jam and Paul Weller Solo so it would be remiss of me not to cover The Style Council – especially when the art of the music promo was such a special part of the band’s time together.
It’s fair to say that they messed with the genre with each single release in a time when serious rock and pop promos were all the thing.
The bands videos were silly, playful and above all fun. The band took their music seriously, the live performance was clearly very special, but they also understood that the promo video was a bit of a silly nonsense and they pushed the boundaries with their art on film.
We had the rocking chair, piano on the bus, coloured scribbling on video frame, freezing fun of the Malvern Hills for Speak Like a Child, the Woking Football Club disco, lambretta crashing, subtitling, Mick has pulled? craziness of Solid Bond in My Heart, the ear tickling, Weller top-off picnic, huge stereo listening, Cambridge punting erotic masterpiece that is Long Hot Summer through to the Dennis Munday Break-Dancing joy that is Big Boss Groove and the Paul and Mick Tour De Fabulousness that is My Ever Changing Moods… I could go on…
To quote Mick Talbot talking to me on The Paul Weller Fan Podcast “We found that the video was a powerful promotional tool for music we believed in, but we thought there’s a lot of hanging about, surely we can invent some stupid storyline where we dress up in something even stupider than the last one, and do something a bit far fetched, or pretend that we’re sort of international milk-race champions, or we’re a couple of Cambridge dons punting up the Cam and just things that were quite extremely away from what we really were, but just something to kill the time while you’re filming, because it’s astonishing how much you have to do just to get 3 minutes in the can.”
When it comes to the collective works, we’ve had a few DVD releases over the years with 2007’s Universal release of Essential Videos being the most recent and The Style Council on Film often being quoted as fan’s favourite collection and some even going so far as to brag to me about their 1989 LaserDisc from The Video Adventures of The Style Council!
2006 saw a collection of over 7 hours of videos across The Jam, The Style Council and Paul Weller Solo with The Hit Parade which featured 18 from TSC from Speak Like a Child to Promised Land.
But once again, the hunt for the music promo director’s behind the work isn’t always easy – outside of the obvious flags for Tim Pope and Richard Belfield (JerUSAlem).
So how about we also try to clear up the journey for The Style Council and the music promo videos?.
What do you remember? What have you seen? What memories are brought flooding back when you watch again or think about seeing those special films for the first time?
Drop a reply into the end of the feature with your memories and what you know about the gaps and together we can complete the story on this page!The Style Council – The Confirmed Music Promo Directors
Tim Pope – Speak Like a Child, Money Go Round, Long Hot Summer, Solid Bond in Your Heart, My Ever Changing Moods, You’re The Best Thing, Big Boss Groove, Shout To The Top, Walls Come Tumbling Down.
Richard Belfield – JerUSAlem – Described as The Style Council’s ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ – Mick Talbot talked about the infamous short film on both my podcast and the live TSC Soul Deep event in October 2021, and how they pooled money that came from a Japanese TV advert for tape cassettes with the usual promo budget from Polydor to make the film and it was a quicker way of doing a bunch of promo films.
Songs featured from The Cost of Loving LP were Angel, It Didn’t Matter, Heavens Above and Fairytales.
The film’s screenplay was credited to Paolo Hewitt, with Lucy Hooberman as Producer.
Simon Halfon – Wanted, Life at a Top People’s Health Farm (co-direct with Pedro Romhanyi)
Pedro Romhanyi – Life at a Top People’s Health Farm (co-direct with Simon Halton)
The Style Council – The Music Promos
Speak Like a Child – 1983 – Tim Pope – https://youtu.be/ZlCCva6rr-s
Money Go Round (Part 1) – 1983 – Tim Pope – No Online Video ?
Long Hot Summer – 1983 – Tim Pope – https://youtu.be/1CAzwewVjZ0
Paris Match – 1983 – No Promo Video
Le Départ – 1983 – Part of ‘What We Did On Our Holidays’
A Solid Bond in Your Heart – 1983 – Tim Pope – https://youtu.be/SIZxNy2i5EQ
My Ever Changing Moods – 1984 – Tim Pope – https://youtu.be/rmVkOlZFF3Y
You’re The Best Thing – 1984 – Tim Pope – https://youtu.be/0HMAVU1k7kg
The Big Boss Groove – 1984 – Tim Pope – https://youtu.be/mq1neZxwZSY
Shout To The Top – 1984 – Tim Pope – https://youtu.be/7m94ip38UKs
Walls Come Tumbling Down – Tim Pope – 1985 – https://youtu.be/k5HfOipwvts
Come to Milton Keynes – 1985 – https://youtu.be/eweq1pnVOF0
Boy Who Cried Wolf – 1985 – https://youtu.be/OHg7HHLO3Pc
The Lodgers – 1985 – https://youtu.be/SN6G-vss8AQ
(When You) Call Me – 1985 – No Promo Video
Have You Ever Had It Blue – 1986 – Not Online
It Didn’t Matter – 1987 – https://youtu.be/Xmh7DIh39x4 – See Jerusalem
The Cost of Loving – 1987 – No Promo Video
Waiting – 1987 – On The Style Council on Film DVD
Jerusalem – 1987 – Richard Belfield – Angel, It Didn’t Matter, Heavens Above, Fairytales
Wanted – 1987 – Simon Halfon – Video Not Online
Life at a Top People’s Health Farm – 1988 – Pedro Romhanyi
How She Threw It All Away – 1988 – From Confessions of a Pop Group Studio Film?
Promised Land – 1989 – https://youtu.be/EGyzICTQEss
Solid Bond changed my life.
I’d seen the video on release on TOTP but it was,shown only once as far as l could remember and my first impression was Weller can’t even ride a scooter properly .
In 1987 l was watching the Chart Show on a Wednesday or Thursday night after I’d come in from work ,l was half asleep and tired when they played a 3 of the best of The Style Council videos.
When Solid Bond came on l woke up in more ways than one , the opening piano bars , Mick pulling up in the Cortina and Weller riding in on one ugly looking scooter.
They both looked cool and the video was exciting and funny .
I thought l need to get back to that, l got my my hair cut ,had a suit made and bought another Lambretta.
About 5 years ago l was thinking about the Weller themed Lambrettas over a years and thought no one has been daft enough to do the Solid Bond one so l bought a stripped down box of bits ,had it painted and built it.
I have all the adverts from the music press framed on the walls and part of my postal address is Solid Bond House.
One part I always like to clear up regarding Solid Bond video is the dropping of the scooter.
Many have winced seeing the Lambretta dropped, and although this video came top on a recent poll on Iain Munn’s “Mr Cools Dream” page and probably highly rated in regards to any of PW’s videos, this one part is remembered
Hopefully with your reach I can set the record straight.
A few mates and I were asked to get to Woking early as we were shooting a scene that was going to be shot in daylight (the exit scene).
We arrived from Wimbledon via train then a taxi to the football club. When we arrived Paul was gutted that we hadn’t come by scooters as during some promotional shots and sodding about the rear brake cable had snapped on the scooter, I’m sure any scooter rider reading this is aware this was quite a common problem and there would always be a spare in someone’s toolbox.
The company had supplied the scooter as a working prop rather than a roadworthy bike, with the opening shot needing to be done in the light there was no other way of stopping apart from the now infamous collision.
Rather than ridiculed for his driving that day perhaps Paul can claim that he did all his own stunts..
As you can imagine everyone I was with was gutted we had not gone on our scooters, as one of them would have featured.
I think they forgave me and definitely lived their five minutes of fame walking in to The Castle Tooting, they day after the video was on TOTP’s
Was also at Come to Milton Keynes shoot at Wimbledon Theatre but that a whole different story……
Keep up the great work
Be Seeing You
Steve