This is my Sound of Music in these dark days, beaming light and joy and hope into life. The Beatles, Let It Be, Let It Be … Naked, This Is Soul, Club Soul Classics, Olivier Popincourt, A Deep Sense Of Happiness, Etienne Daho, Surf, Paul Weller, On Sunset, Fat Pop, Dexys Midnight Runners, Too-Rye-Ay, Don’t Stand Me Down. Not pictured: The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds, Feel Flows.Some kind of life-booster, yeah!
Kevin Rowland und Dexys gehen einmal mehr zurück in die Zukunft.
Wie schon bei seinem 1999er Soloalbum My Beauty und dem letzten Dexys-AlbumLetThe Record Show: Dexys Do Irish And Country Soul von 2016 macht Kevin Rowland einen Abstecher in Vergangenheit, um in die Zukunft zu düsen. Derzeit remixt er mit Toningenieur Peter Schwier und der zurückgekehrten Dexys-Geigerin Helen O´Hara das zweite Dexys Midnight Runners-Album, das 1982 erschienen ist und ein Nummer-1-Erfolg Too-Rye-Ay war und den unsterblichen Nummer-1-Hit Come On Eileen auf seiner Liste hat – in Großbritannien auf ewig ein gigantischer Hochzeits- und Party-Kracher.
Aber, sagt Rowland, ein leidenschaftlicher Exzentriker vor dem Herrn, er hätte das Album selbst nie hören wollen, weil seine Plattenfirma es damals unterbunden hätte, als er Too-Rye-Ay nach seinem Gusto abmischen wollte. So ist es ihm übrigens auch beim dritten Longplayer der damals noch Dexys Midnight Runners heißenden Band ergangen, von Don’t Stand Me Down ist 18 Jahre nach seiner Veröffentlichung anno 1985 ein Director’s Cut gefolgt.
Jetzt also mit Too-Rye-Ay dasselbe Spiel, in dem Kevin Rowland die Karten, also den Sound, jetzt selbst neu mischen will, weil die Produzenten des Albums Clive Langer und Alan Winstanley zwar die von ihnen gewohnte Qualitätsarbeit (zum Beispiel für Madness, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Lloyd Cole and The Commotions oder Morrissey) gemacht, aber unfähige Toningenieure beim Abmischen alles versaut hätten. Es wären gute Songs und gute Performances gewesen, so Rowland heute, aber sie hätten viel mehr Dynamik, mehr Licht und Schatten gebraucht. Dafür wird gerade unter seiner Ägide gesorgt.
Too-Rye-Ay As It Could Have Sounded soll im September 2022 erscheinen, quasi zum 40-Jahre-Jubiläum der originalen Too-Rye-Ay-Platte erscheinen, wenn die mal wieder neuformierten Dexys im United Kingdom auf Tournee gehen, die gerade angekündigt wurde. Mit dabei neben Helen O’Hara und Dexys-Posaunist Big Jimmy Paterson vielleicht auch Ex-Dexys-Gitarrist und Banjo-Spieler Billy Adams, der Kevin Archer ersetzt hatte, von dem Kevin Rowland damals, wie er inzwischen selbst zugibt, das ganze Celtic-Folk-Soul-Gefiedel-Konzept geklaut hat. Auch diesen Fehler will der schuldbewusste Rowland mit Too-Rye-Ay As It Could Have Sounded korrigieren, sagt er, als Liebesdienst quasi. Und er verspricht eine weitere große Überraschung auf der kommenden Tour, vielleicht taucht ja auch Kevin Archer wieder auf, der schon 1981 die Band verlassen hatte.
Tour-Plakat (c) Dexys
Amidst all the buzz about the new sensational Beatles documentary The Beatles: Get Back it shouldn’t be forgotten that Paul McCartney, Sir Paul, the eternal Beatle, is nominated for two Grammys at the Grammy Awards 2022, for his late 2020 fab solo album McCartney III as best Rock Album and Find My Way, a superb track from the same album, for Best Rock Song. In both categories McCartney has to compete with Dave Grohl and The Foo Fighters.
Beck who re-imagined Find My Way for the fine experimental McCartney III Imagined, congratulated Paul, as the man personally allowed me to call him, when I interviewed him once, on Instagram: Big gratulations!! Same from me!
9:00 o’clock, CET: Peter Jackson’s 3-Part-Documentary “The Beatles: Get Back” is now available for streaming on Disney+ . The final stages of the Fab Four, four musical geniuses who brought joy and light in the world. It will be a big blast, a revelation, a revolution.
The Beatles new 3-Part-Documentary “Get Back” will be streaming on Disney+ on November 25, 26 and 27. Its director Peter Jackson promises that over six hours we’ll get to know The Beatles with an intimacy that one never thought possible.
I have a DVD copy of the Beatles’ swansong movie Let It Be in my Beatles collection, that documents their 1969 recording sessions for the Let It Be album, released on May 8, 1970. The DVD is of dubious origin and comprises beyond the 80 minutes of the original movie some more extra material from the 200 hours that reportedly have been shot then and that extra stuff is great and makes one crying out for more, of course in best image and sound quality, something for that my Let It Be DVD cannot be blamed of. So, I was more than interested, but exited to be honest, when in 2020 a new Beatles movie called Get Back, based on the Let It Be sessions, was announced.
Peter Jackson’s two hour Beatles movie Get Back should have been in the cinemas in the fall of 2020 but it was postponed due to the Corona pandemic. The movie itself was a vast, revamped, extended version of The Beatles’ final 1970 movie Let It Be using the hours and hours of rarely seen material that has been shot by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg in the Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969 for a TV show accompanying The Beatles back to the roots album Get Back. Both never appeared, but in May 1970 an album and a film, both called Let It Be, finally did.
Instead of the delayed 2020 movie, Peter Jackson created a new over six hours long documentary because of the wealth of tremendous footage,reportedly more 200 hours, that he has reviewed and spent the past three years restoring and editing. The Beatles: Get Back is presented now as three separate episodes, running time each over two hours, exclusively on Disney+, rolling out over three days to the worldwide Beatles community, November 25, 26 and 27.
“As a huge Beatles fan myself, I am absolutely thrilled that Disney+ will be the home for this extraordinary documentary series by the legendary filmmaker Peter Jackson,” says Bob Iger, Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board, The Walt Disney Company. “This phenomenal collection of never-before-seen footage offers an unprecedented look at the close camaraderie, genius song writing, and indelible impact of one of the most iconic and culturally influential bands of all time.”
Peter Jackson comments: “In many respects, Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s remarkable footage captured multiple storylines. The story of friends and of individuals. It is the story of human frailties and of a divine partnership. It is a detailed account of the creative process, with the crafting of iconic songs under pressure, set amid the social climate of early 1969. But it’s not nostalgia – it’s raw, honest, and human. Over six hours, you’ll get to know The Beatles with an intimacy that you never thought possible.”
And Jackson adds: “I’m very grateful to The Beatles, Apple Corps and Disney for allowing me to present this story in exactly the way it should be told. I’ve been immersed in this project for nearly three years, and I’m very excited that audiences around the world will finally be able to see it.”
Notes for a reprise: The Style Council. What I thought would be a special single TSC-day is a TSC-Week by now. I’ve been listening also to some Beach Boys, from Pet Sounds to Sunflower, some Paul Weller, On Sunset, Fat Pop, and lots of Olivier Popincourt, complete works up to now.
The Style Council. á Paris. August 1983. Long Hot Summer (Extended Version). This is the one that started it all for me, my life-long solid bond with The Style Council. The debut single Speak Like A Child I missed somehow, the groovy Money-Go-Round twelve inch I bought subito afterwards, the rousing single A Solid Bond In Your Heart too.
Notes for a reprise: Still in that special mood for The Style Council. I bought Our Favourite Shop in the best place to buy it – that means in London, when I was there throughout August for holidays with the love of my life, she still is. Since then this record means to me the sound of London in the summer of 1985.
What a marvelous introduction to the wonderful world of The Style Council this is.
As many Best-Of-Compilations of The Style Council’s oeuvre have been released over the years, the primary question with Long Hot Summers / The Story Of The Style Council is: Is it really the definitive anthology of The Style Council’s career? Is it the best compilation of their magnificent music? The answer is simple and clear: Yes, it is. It even surpasses the previous superb collections: The fully on point Greatest Hits from 2000, a CD compiling 18 tracks, not missing any of their hits. The excellent The Sound Of The Style Council from 2003, a double LP/CD, comprising 21 tracks. Long Hot Summers surpasses those two and others not only because it collects more songs, 32 on vinyl, 37 on 2 CDs, and the digital album, it’s an affectionately created, high quality artefact, that really tells the story of The Style Council in full. And maybe it’s a better time now to release a new TSC-Compilation than it was around the millennium. In 2020 The Style Council are as hip and relevant like they were in their prime, maybe they are loved now even more.
The first and foremost quality guarantee is, that Paul Weller, the Modfather and Style Council master mind himself, together with Andy Street, is responsible for the concept and compilation of Long Hot Summers. So, the design of the 3-LP-package, the tracklisting, the remastered sound, the liner notes – everything is top here.
The design and the whole artwork of Long Hot Summers is exquisitely stylish and cool in the tradition of the old Style Council records (the inspirational award goes to their previous brilliant graphic designer Simon Halfon). It comes in a luxurious gatefold cover and beautifully designed inner sleeves, using a lot of Peter Anderson’s classic photos of The Style Council.
The sound remastered at Abbey Road is top, too. Previous collections tended to sound not so powerful, but way better on vinyl than on CD. Long Hot Summers does sound dynamic, bright, crispy, and fresh just like the old master tapes have been freed from all dust. How the vinyl LPs sound is a revelation, even the digital album sounds okay.
The tracklisting is also excellent, the non-chronological running order sketches the big picture from the opener Headstart For Happiness to the last track, a previously unreleased demo of My Ever-Changing Moods. You couldn’t do better, could you? It’s fine to hear Long Hot Summers in full that way round. Nothing’s missing.
En route you get the hits and the classics like A Solid Bond In Your Heart, Speak Like A Child, My Ever-Changing Moods, Long Hot Summer, You’re The Best Thing, Shout To The Top! or Have You Ever Had It Blue. You get deep key album tracks like Down In The Seine, The Paris Match, Homebreakers, Spin Drifting, Waiting or Changing Of The Guard and rarities like Wanted (Or Waiter, There’s Some Soup In My Flies) or Sweet Loving Ways, plus two previously unreleased bonus tracks.
The attendant liner notes of Long Hot Summers are formidable too, the renowned music journalist Lois Wilson tells the Style Council story with lots of knowledge and affection for the band’s music. The famous actor Martin Freeman, a dedicated fan of The Style Council, recalls fondly how much they meant to him in his youth and adult life. The same goes for me: Honestly, The Style Council had a big impact on my life. With all about them – the free-minded, manifold musical mix, what they sang about, what they thought, their left-wing politics, their open-minded internationalist stance, their modernism, how they dressed, their love for Paris, cappuccinos, and espressos – they were an import game and life changer for me. Not the only one, but yeah. Would I love to have the five more songs, that come with the CDs and the digital album – All Gone Away, Boy Who Cried Wolf, Homebreakers, A Woman’s Song, Shout To The Top (Instrumental) – on the vinyls too? Of course. But 32 tracks are fair enough. Long Hot Summers brings it all back.
The Style Council Long Hot Summers / The Story Of The Style Council, Polydor Records, 2020
© Long Hot Summer Pics shot by Klaus Winninger
Notes for a reprise: In a Style Council mood – continued. I dedicated this whole day to the pleasures of the 2020 compilation Long Hot Summers / The Story Of The Style Council. Yes, I know there have been other fine TSC-comps before, there’s the vast 1998 5 disc, 90 songs box set bonanza The Complete Adventures Of The Style Council, that justifies its name. But what a marvellous introduction to the wonderful world of The Style Council this is. I do really love this one, the superb choice of songs, the fab sound of its three heavy vinyl LPs, the beautiful artwork, the whole package is so cool. Yes, I’m loving it.
Notes for a reprise: Still in a Style Council Mood today, so I’m bringing back this one from my music blog, it’s strongly connected with The Style Council’s fab 1984 debut album Cafè Bleu and Messieurs Weller and Talbot love of Paris. Besides their marvellous songs and their wonderful eclectic mix of musical styles this is what I always liked most about TSC and I still do: Their open-minded internationality, they play a musical game without frontiers. Like Humphrey Bogart said so cool at the end of Casablanca to Ingrid Bergman: “We will always have Paris.”
Klaus Winningers Beat 