Lucy Hooberman – JerUSALem & Days Like These – Filmmaker

This episode of the Paul Weller Fan Podcast is a special one. It’s a deep dive into one of the most ambitious and misunderstood moments in The Style Council’s history – their short film JerUSAlem – and the broader political and cultural movement it sprang from. My guest is Lucy Hooberman: documentary filmmaker, journalist, researcher, and, crucially, the producer of JerUSAlem and the Red Wedge documentary Days Like These.

Our conversation was rich, funny, and revealing. Lucy’s perspective offers rare insight into the creative and political climate of the 1980s, and the way Paul Weller and his collaborators tried – often against the odds – to push pop music into new territory.

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A Cultural Worker Drawn to Change

Lucy’s route into Weller’s world came through politics. In the mid-1980s, she had been working at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and had just turned down an approach to stand as a councillor in Westminster. Around that time, she read about a new initiative called Red Wedge – a loose collective of musicians and creatives aligned with the Labour Party, aiming to engage young people and encourage them to vote.

She rang the Labour Party, tracked down the organisers, and walked into a Red Wedge meeting without knowing a soul. She soon found herself pitching the idea of a film. What followed was a grassroots filmmaking project unlike anything else at the time: Days Like These, a documentary made with help from regional film collectives in Birmingham, Cardiff, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

The film was lo-fi, rough around the edges, and driven by principle. Rather than parachuting a slick London crew into each tour date, Lucy pushed for a model that involved and empowered local talent. It was a production approach informed by the radical DIY media culture of the 1984-85 miners’ strike – and a rare example of music, media, and activism aligning with purpose.

The Gigs Were Electric. The Legacy, Complex.

Lucy remembers the Red Wedge gigs as exhilarating. Not just because of the incredible line-ups – Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, The Communards… even connections with The Smiths and Elvis Costello – but because of the sense of purpose behind them.

She recalls a particularly powerful moment in Newcastle when Elvis sang ‘Shipbuilding’ in a youth centre to a restless crowd disappointed that Paul Weller wasn’t present (he was filming for The Tube). That performance, she said, cut through in a different, deeply moving way.

But Red Wedge’s impact, Lucy admits, was difficult to quantify. There were no detailed metrics on whether voter registration increased. And despite the excitement and effort, she remains realistic about how little real policy change emerged – particularly in areas like youth funding and access to the arts.

Still, the project felt vital.

JerUSAlem: Satire, Surrealism, and Style Council Daring

If Days Like These was political realism, JerUSAlem was something else entirely: a surreal, stylised, satirical short film that baffled critics and delighted (or dismayed) fans. It featured four embedded music videos and a loose, allegorical narrative written by Paul Weller and Paolo Hewitt. Lucy was brought in to produce the project, and while she had no say over the script, she oversaw everything else: casting, crew, logistics, and locations.

The budget – around £240,000 – raised eyebrows. But Lucy is quick to point out it included four separate video productions, any of which could have been released as standalone promos (two were). In the late ’80s, music video budgets were sky-high. By those standards, JerUSAlem was cost-effective.

Still, the film landed in the midst of a fraught period for The Style Council. They were being hammered by the press, accused of pretension, political naivety, and poor taste. JerUSAlem became an easy target.

Lucy, however, rightly defends it as a smart, self-aware piece of pop theatre. It was ‘silly and saying something,’ she told me – a film that didn’t take itself too seriously but still managed to skewer the music industry and reflect a moment of transition for Weller and the band. She recalled how much fun the shoot was: low-key hotels, fields, cliffs, scooters, kittens adopted by Paul and Dee, and a homemade birthday cake for Mick Talbot served in a windmill.

There were no tantrums, no walkouts, and no dramas. Just a crew and a band trying something new, away from the spotlight.

Then and Now

Lucy remains fond of Paul Weller and the rest of the group. ‘As an artist, what he’s achieved – creatively, over decades – is incredible.’ Looking back on the film now, Lucy sees it as part of the broader evolution of his work: experimental, restless, and never playing it safe.

It was also, crucially, a film made in good faith. ‘We delivered it on time and on budget,’ noting that Polydor were so impressed they offered her more work – something she turned down in favour of more independent projects.

Advice on Oral History

Our chat also veered into the subject of oral history – particularly because at the time of recording, I had started work on my own oral history book project: Paul Weller: Dancing Through the Fire. Lucy generously shared her wisdom from years of conducting oral history interviews, including a major project for the BBC.

Her advice was clear: understand how memory shifts over time. Expect contradictions. Be cautious about slander. And be prepared to choose a structure: chronological, thematic, or narrative-led.

Red Wedge – Days Like These – Documentary

The Style Council – JerUSAlem