The Style Council – Home & Abroad Audio Cassette

What a fantastic album this was. The Style Council was the natural progression for Paul Weller after the split of The Jam at the end of 1982, shedding the punk rock feel, but retaining much else of what The Jam had encompassed in their final phase. The Jam’s Beat Surrender, for example, is easy to imagine as a Style Council track, just as The Style Council’s Walls Come Tumbling Down (featured on this album), is easy to imagine as a Jam track.

The Jam – Dig The New Breed Audio Cassette

Whether it was a happy accident or a brilliantly executed plan, The Jam (fronted by Paul Weller) managed to span a number of the many pockets of youth subculture as the ‘70s morphed into the ‘80s. The number of different music-driven fashion sectors to which kids and youths in the UK could belong around that time was almost mind-boggling. Punk, Skinhead, Mod, Rude Boy/Girl, Ted/Rockabilly, etc… Each fashion had its associated music, and a raft of commercial bands vying for premiership in the genre.