The video was shot in Communist Poland before the Berlin Wall came down. The people hadn't a clue what was going on hence the lack of reaction. On a side note, the backing vocalist Dee C Lee was Paul's girlfriend at the time and ended up being his wife. She also sang with Wham (George Michael) and released her own stuff as well - she has an amazing voice. I always loved the Style Council but most people didn't get it as it was a complete 180 from the Jam though in retrospect they have become far more popular.
I have to admit that my little sister loved Style Council at the time, but I didn't really did get them. However, I loved this song and Shout to the Top - still do.
You are absolutely right the crowd didn't really know what it was all about. Sadly where that was filmed in downtown Warsaw is now a modern shopping centre & a Hard rock cafe! Amazing to think this was four years before the Berlin wall came down.
Yes you have listen to the lyrics! The message is in the words, the hook is the music. Put the two together and its powerful. Unity is powerful and the walls can come tumbling down.
The lyrics were hard-hitting and subversive in the fact that they were wrapped up in a catchy soulful tune. The message to break free of oppression and the power of unity, is perfectly matched by the images of grey conformity in the video.
This is the message about 80’s in the UK. A slap in the face to Mother Thatcher (Publish Enemy Number Ten refers to the address of the Prime Minister No. 10 Downing Street and the Eton Rifles (that’s a Jam reference to Public School establishment, the ruling class). At the time (70’s into the 80’s), we have strikes, coal miner strikes, rubbish collection strikes, fire brigade strikes, rioting, protesting, IRA kicking off, electricity cut offs. It’s a gray time in the UK. This video was shot in Poland, under the Soviet control, hence the rigidity of the crowd. When you don’t know who’s watching, you keep conservative. They said there was one guy very well dressed…he was supposed KGB. Weller was and is very political. The lady who’s on backing vocals is Paul’s (now former) wife, DeeCee Lee. Awesome singer.
The lyrics are directed at the British government of the time , if you listen to wellers lyrics it stands up nearly 40 years later " they take the profits you take the blame" same goes for going underground "you choose your leaders and place your trust ,there lies wash you down and there promises rust "the man's a genius,
Ir was filmed in Waesaw, the inside sections wre ar a very old club called Akwatium, which was sadly later converted to a fuurniture shop called Emilia, which also sadly no longer exists, but I did buy a sofa there...the rest are shots of Watsaw and the trams and the Palace of Culture which still stands in the city centre :)
My favorite Style Council song. And my second favorite Paul W after Westerberg. The crowd is way too chill because it was filmed in Warsaw before the walls came tumbling down.
Hello wolf geezers I enjoy your reactions you make me smile, the style council was my first band I saw live at the odeon in brum (Birmingham, we called it brum because it was a major car building city... Brum.. Brum.. The sound of a car... And we're know as brummies, just a bit of English history for you, I left brum in the 70s to a new town called Telford in Shropshire which was originally made up from small village's and now it's almost a city, the dialect is bonkers, ow bist thee jockey lad (how are you doing) jockey for the blokes and wench for the ladies. Sorry if I've gone on to much, Tara abit x
Part of the point of all of this is that it is filmed in a country (Poland) at a time (the mid '80s) which had recently witnessed a revolution by workers, albeit against a "Communist" regime. That's why the audience were "restrained" - because they would have faced the possibility of arrest if they were too enthusiastic to the lyrics. I had a housemate around this time, a Croatian-Australian Trotsykist, who smuggled in books about Solidarnosc into Poland. He was searched on the way out of the country but not in; luckily he had nothing to hide going out. I have no idea about the specifics of Paul Weller's attitude towards Stalinism, but it's significant that the lead singer of the Redskins, a band associated with the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party in Britain at the time, recalled that Weller had asked him about the theory of "Permanent Revolution". BTW check out the Redskins.
It was a social commentary of the political situation in the UK at the time. ‘The public enemy in No.10 as referenced in the song was the then P.M, Margaret Thatcher. All said, banging tune. The female singer you liked was D.C. Lee, who, at the time, was married to Paul Weller
Personal opinion there 'Menogamer'. It was (still is) a powerful, hard hitting message of a song. And obviously at the time(any time really) stern, bleak systems were in place in (in particular) Eastern Europe....with the message being...'things can change...and yes, walls can come tumbling down....'
It was shot in Poland before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Beyond the political content of the lyrics (mostly about Thatcher's Britain - see the lyric "public enemy number 10" referencing 10 Downing Street) just being present in the audience very likely got you put on a watch list, killed your career prospects, etc. Audiences in Warsaw were not going to dance and groove to a Western band in 1985. It was shot in a jazz club and wasn't an actual show just a video shoot so it was repeated takes of miming and lip synching. I've been on set for video shoots - it gets boring fast. And no real reason it was shot in Poland, either. Apparently, the band manager had snagged some free travel vouchers from the government. If you like this "style" (sorry!) you might want to check out My Ever Changing Moods.
Wasn’t it about breaking down the “walls” of establishment? Takes me back to my teens! Paris Match , Shout to the top are great. The audience was intentionally staged!!!!
