It saddens me to find myself stuck in the middle with Townsmen Hrrundivbakshi and E. Pluribus Gergely over issues of The Style Council and animality. I'm reminded of the words of founding Traffic member Dave Mason.

Before we turn the page on these issues, before we possibly reach the level of understanding and unity offered by the first-ever European International Pop Festival (go to about the 00:50 mark of the above video for a full explanation of our potential as a community of music lovers), let's consider the following clip:

Follow up:

Now, how does that song compare with the next one, in which Mick Talbot works up quite a lather. (Do Style Council fans ever discuss the leadership role that Talbot played in this band? It's clear from the videos that Weller wanted to give the man his due.)

Here's another well-intentioned, relatively half-decent offering by The Style Council. No matter how well intentioned and how gussied up the video is with soft-core '60s fanboy imagery, where's the song? And what does this singer add to it? Shouldn't this guy be singing "Eton Rifles"?

I challenge anyone to submit one Style Council song that's a better single than Culture Club's - what - third biggest hit single? I'm leaving "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" out of it. I ask you to honestly assess the roles of lead vocalist; clear, seamless arrangements; and even Look. Animality is not open to debate: Culture Club clearly has the upper hand in that department.

P.S. - What Weller vocal is as soulful as the following Boy George vocal?