![]() A lot of white bands these days try to sound black, and people accept it because they don't hear much music these days that isn't mediocre. ''So the last thing we want to do is a rehash of it. ''Mick and I are both fans of Stax and Motown music and have a sort of reverence for it,'' Mr. Weller's vocals were as finely nuanced as his performances on the album like the arrangements, they paid homage to classic soul without copying specific styles or phrasing. ''We use as many young musicians as possible,'' he said, ''so we'll have that enthusiasm.''Īt the Savoy, Mr. Weller laughed when the story was mentioned. He had never played on a stage before.'' Mr. Paul knew that one of the roadies plays percussion, so they simply drafted him into the band. ''They were going to add a percussionist for this tour,'' a friend of the band recalled, ''but when this hotshot percussionist arrived talking about charging $400 a day, they told him to forget it. On record and in person, the group puts a premium on spontaneity as expression. It would be more accurate to say that the group is attempting to revive the spirit of 60's soul music. Perhaps the most serious charge that has been directed at the Style Council by disillusioned Jam fans is that the group is simply turning out carbon copies of 1960's soul sounds. Weller notes, ''Here we are in the 20th century with all that the past has taught us, and yet we still can't guarantee a future!'' The Jam's rock sound may be a thing of the past, but Mr. And in a brief essay on the album's inner sleeve, Mr. ![]() ''The Whole Point of No Return,'' the most innocuous-sounding tune on the Style Council's first American album, ''My Ever Changing Moods'' (Geffen), protests in its lyric that ''the law's made by and for the rich,'' and other lyrics are equally biting. Weller is writing these days are sometimes reminiscent of early Motown, but they are not as superficially buoyant as they seem. But he is still an energetic performer, and his fervor seemed to convert even those audience members who began the evening shouting for old Jam tunes. Weller is singing more fluidly and expressively. Now that he is not shouting out his vocals over the roar of a heavily amplified guitar, Mr. The two principal Style Councillors and the vocalist Jaye Williamson blended their voices in rich harmonies that recalled gospel music without sounding overtly derivative, and two horn players gave the group the brassy punch of a Southern soul band. Talbot and seven associates gave an engaging and inspired performance. I regained my early enthusiasm for that kind of music, and when we dissolved the Jam I got together with Mick Talbot, who has a background similar to mine, and similar tastes.''Īt the Savoy last Thursday, Mr. But on our last album, we tried to get back to that rhythm-and-blues thing. When I started to write more, the Jam established its own sound. ''When the Jam started,'' he said, ''when we used to play in clubs before we made records, most of our set was our versions of Stax and Motown soul records. Weller, the Style Council represents a return to his musical roots. I just got sick of it.''Īccording to the 26-year-old Mr. ![]() When you turn on the radio, the records all sound the same. ''I just don't think it means anything anymore. ''The rock sound just bores me,'' he continued. He was in New York with the Style Council's traveling road show, which gave two performances at the Savoy last weekend. ''During the last year of the Jam, I kept getting more and more disillusioned with rock music,'' Mr. Where were the screaming guitars and hard cutting edge that had made the Jam so exciting? But rock fans who had idolized the Jam interpreted the Style Council's fusion of soul, pop, jazz and mood music as a betrayal of principles. Weller, the keyboard player Mick Talbot, and a shifting cast of friends, enjoyed six top-10 singles in Britain in its first year of operation. Weller disbanded the Jam early in 1983, and a few months later he introduced a new project, the Style Council. Paul Weller, the Jam's singer, songwriter and guitarist, was widely admired, by critics as well as fans, for his outspoken support of nuclear disarmament and his idealist populism. THE Jam never found a substantial audience in the United States, but in England it was the most popular rock group of the late 1970's and early 80's.
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