The style council paul weller mod#
The style council paul weller plus#
The style council paul weller tv#

His band learned the songs at soundchecks while on tour. They couldn’t fit a drum kit in there, so the drummer used programming. For “Best Of Days”, he popped just down the road to a mate’s garage. Steve’s last two solo albums “Best Of Days” & “Ten Commitments”, were more on the down lo, and less production perhaps.

You are here and might as well give it your best shot, you know”. He was scribbling notes night after night while making the record, not sure if the words he had penned would make a song or not. The most personal song? The last track, “Oh Death”. How about what it says about you as a person then? Again, a cut-the-crap answer: “Read into it what you like”. No pondering a high-brow answer with this geezer. Next, I want to know what the record says about Steve Ellis, the artist. The label gave him a yes please after six months, and then another five months to deal with the legal stuff and contracts. So, he recorded all the tracks, and pitched it. Steve says he always felt it was the best home for the album, as they own most of his back catalogue already. Well, he was actually on CBS, but Sony bought them. They couldn’t put boom, bang, twang – and keyboards”, he laughs.īack on Sony after all these years. “Without getting all arty farty while throwing ideas around and I said what about ‘Boom, Bang, Twang’? “They said, what’s that? I said, well it’s bass, drums and guitar innit.

How would Steve describe it to someone who had not heard it? “A mixed bag, but kind of glued together in the feel of it. “Cry Me A River” (again with Paul Weller) is a nitty gritty rhythm & blues stomper, Jimmy Cliff’s “Sitting In Limbo “gets the Steve Ellis makeover as does Tim Hardin’s “Black Sheep Boy”.īog standard question to kick things off. A snug fit for Steve’s voice and a curved ball perhaps. Yes, a 2018 love affair (see what I did there?)Īside from the crafted originals, he carefully selects some tasty morsels, such as “Forgot To Be Your Lover”, the William Bell classic, Gerry Marsden’s emotion soaked perfect ballad, “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying”, which for me, is the surprise of the set. This is modern-day stuff, which would be a glove-tight fit in any decade, but the strength of the material and the strength of Steve’s voice makes it a definite 2018 affair. Just like his live repertoire, he dips in and out of a mixed bag of genres on the record, from Northern Soul, rock, rhythm & blues, reggae and pop.

The style council paul weller plus#

Plus the band COW, Manfred Mann’s Mike D’Abo, Kev Wallbank (The Dream Foundry), Andy Crofts and Ben Gordelier (The Moons). On the new record he is joined by Paul Weller, who co-produced it with Steve and Charles Rees. A lot in common personally, to do with family backgrounds and some other stuff, coincidentally.So, the reason we are hooked up. He’s funny, interesting, very down to earth, doesn’t swerve any question at all, no ego, no bullshit, no showbiz nonsense, no churning out ‘PR’ fodder.Ībove all, he is great company and made the 100 minutes feel like two old pals putting the world to rights, for me. Speaking to me from his Brighton home, Steve is well up for a good old natter and we cover a large array of topics, both on and off the record. The world lost a rock great voice that day. The coroner recorded an accidental death verdict. Steve’s hero since he was a kid, died at the age of just 44-years-old in a fire at his home, probably caused by a cigarette in his bed. “You could have been manager at the Co-op!”, she told him in all seriousness! Never forgetting that as a teenager he worked down the co-op on Fridays and Saturdays.Maybe the Co-op stocks Steve’s cracking new solo album, released on the 27 th anniversary of Small Faces legend Steve Marriott’s death. Topping the charts and girls flocking round him, his mother had other ideas for her son’s career choice.

The style council paul weller tv#

One of the best male singers the UK has produced in 50 years, Steve Ellis shot to fame with the band Love Affair and a string of hit singles in the late 1960s, including the timeless “Everlasting Love”.īut even when he was appearing on the front cover of pop magazines, newspapers and on the TV screens with shows like Top of the Pops. Brighton-based (he’s a Mod, where else?), Steve speaks to editor Simon Redley about Love Affair and pop stardom, the new solo record, his pals Paul Weller, Roger Daltrey, the late Keith Moon – and how he missed out on a much better career – at the Co-op!

The style council paul weller mod#

There’s a lot more to Mod soul boy Steve Ellis than “Everlasting Love” you know! As his brand new solo album will testify.