Dee C. Lee – Singer, Songwriter – The Style Council, Solo, Wham! and more…

For this special episode, I bring you a conversation with Dee C. Lee – singer, songwriter and essential member of The Style Council.

This chat was recorded in a riverside pub back in January 2025 for my book Paul Weller: Dancing Through The Fire and Dee has been kind enough to let me share this as a podcast episode. What better timing than the release week for the new Café Bleu Deluxe Edition boxset!

From her early breakthrough as a backing singer with Wham! to Paul Weller inviting her to Solid Bond Studios, Dee recalls how she became part of a new band without fully realising the shadow The Jam cast – and how quickly she found her place at the heart of it.

She reflects on life inside The Style Council: the collaborative atmosphere at Solid Bond, the camaraderie and chaos of touring, muddy misadventures at Glastonbury, extreme nerves at Live Aid, and the confidence she developed performing her own material alongside the band.

As her own songwriting developed, Dee describes the struggle for creative control with CBS, especially with her signature song ‘See the Day.’ The Style Council’s support was essential: when her label hesitated, John and Paul Weller stepped in, helped her record it, and made sure audiences discovered her as a solo artist too – often in Style Council sets.

Our conversation explores her personal and professional partnership with Paul, the challenges of navigating family and fame, and the realities of life as both a performer and a mother. Dee is frank about the intense demands, her decision to keep her private life out of the spotlight, and the later strains on the band and relationships as priorities shifted. She also covers the evolution of the group’s sound, especially in the later albums, including the experiments with house music on Modernism: A New Decade and her time fronting the club-oriented Slam Slam project.

After taking a long step back from the music industry to focus on her children, Dee’s passion for music was reignited through her kids’ own journeys and a reunion sparked by the Long Hot Summers documentary. This led to her return with the album Just Something on Acid Jazz in 2024, marking a creative rebirth. That new album – featuring Dee’s own songs, a standout track penned by her daughter, and fresh collaborations with Mick Talbot, Ernie McKone, and others – topped the UK Jazz Chart and confirms her voice as distinctive, expressive, and relevant as ever.

Click your preferred podcast platform to listen…

Dancing Through the Fire

Dee C. Lee is one of over 250 contributors to my Sunday Times Bestselling book, Paul Weller: Dancing Through the Fire, which is available now.
Click on the image below to grab your copy…