Where is Matt Deighton? He should be one of the UKs most celebrated singer/song-writers, but instead he’s Missing In Action. His recording career has seen him cover a huge territory, from soulful pop to full-on psychedelic rock through to acid-tinged funk. The common thread is about as English as a pint of bitter – folk, [...]

Warning: I’m about to go out on a limb here… Weller’s best band was The Jam. I know have argued the corner for The Style Council as being a time which captured Weller at the peak of his ‘creative’ mode – pushing the boundaries of his music. But, let’s be honest – for balls-out, angry [...]

I’ve argued that Weller’s creative peak was with The Style Council. It was a period characterised by an explosion in the influences in his music. Mick Talbot was clearly a huge factor in this evolution. He’s rarely celebrated. He should be. This is a mix which I did for the King Truman project – ‘a [...]

So that’s settled then. Weller’s creative peak was with The Style Council. My last post seemed to strike a chord. I figured that there was only one direction that my next post could take. The Style Council was not all about Weller. It was also Mick Talbot’s show. Master of the Hammond organ, a proponent [...]

“Paul Weller was at his most interesting and rewarding with the Style Council, wasn’t he?” So wrote a friend of mine on his facebook wall a few weeks back. It’s a statement which would probably have many a Weller fan up in arms; demanding that the entire period that Weller spent flanked by Mick Talbot, [...]

‘Everything they ever recorded was either on, or about, drugs’ I’d love to know where that quote came from. Sadly, I don’t. It’s the kind of quote which is often attributed to a band – and you pretty much know that the stories are overbaked. With The Small Faces, you can’t help but think that [...]

I live in the US. I’m from the UK. I think that this gives me a bit of perspective when commenting on the attitude towards music in the two countries. A bit of perspective; that’s all. So here goes: I’m going out on a limb. Paul Weller should be bigger out here in the US. [...]