Primarily known for his '80s soul and jazz-pop work with Paul Weller as part of the Style Council, Mick Talbot is a dexterous keyboard player whose extensive career has also seen him perform with Dexys Midnight Runners, Galliano, the Who, Graham Parker, Chris Bangs, and Candi Staton, among others.

He was born in Wimbledon, Merton, London in 1958 and, after leaving school, he worked several menial jobs including a stint as a maintenance man at a holiday camp. It was at the age of 20 -- upon forming the mod revival band the Merton Parkas with his brother, guitarist Danny, that Talbot began to seriously consider a career in music. Their 1979 single, "You Need Wheels," became a minor U.K. hit, but it was his deft R&B piano solo on its B-side which turned Weller's head. The latter invited Talbot to play on a cover of Martha the Vandellas' "Heat Wave," which ultimately closed the Jam's fourth album, Setting Sons, that November. The Merton Parkas folded in 1980, but that April Talbot played live with the Jam on a short run of London dates. He was also featured on So Far Away, the debut LP by another mod revival act, the Chords, issued the following month. Talbot began a four-month stint in Dexys Midnight Runners, joining the band while their Top Ten U.K. hit "There, There, My Dear" was still in the charts. Before the year was out, he'd left -- alongside four other members -- to form the Bureau, essentially a Dexys splinter group who enjoyed a number five single in Australia and a far-reaching tour of the U.S. with the Pretenders. The Bureau was eventually dropped by their label and split shortly after a December 1981 tour.

After nine months of unemployment in 1982, Talbot received two important phone calls in the space of a week. One was from Dexys' management with an offer for him to return to the fold, and one was from Weller, who viewed Talbot as a kindred spirit and a fellow soul enthusiast, and who wanted to form a duo with him. Talbot chose the latter, and the resultant Style Council achieved three high-charting U.K. studio albums between 1984 and 1987. Released a year after their high-profile Live Aid appearance, 1985's Our Favourite Shop (titled Internationalists in the U.S.) was their only U.K. number one and opened with "Homebreakers," featuring Talbot's lead vocals. The band split in 1989, with Talbot immediately contributing to ex-Style Council drummer Steve White's multi-artist project titled A Certain Kind of Freedom. The pair would go on to record two albums as a duo: 1993's United States of Mind and 1996's Off the Beaten Track. Prior to these records, Talbot established himself on the acid jazz scene with contributions to the 1991 Young Disciples album, Road to Freedom. This led to a four-year period as a full member of Galliano, a key act on Gilles Peterson's Talkin' Loud label. Along the way, Talbot guested on both Parker and Weller solo efforts, the highest profile of these being his Rhodes piano riff on Weller's 1995 Otis Redding-inspired U.K. Top 20 hit "Broken Stones." Weller's resurgence and the Brit-pop movement had sparked another reappraisal of mod. As a result, Talbot was asked to record new versions of "Afterglow" and "Almost Grown" with Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones for a well-publicized tribute album titled Long Agos and Worlds Apart in 1996.

Although by this point Talbot had begun to think of himself as a freelance musician, the years between 1996 and 2000 proved an intense period of collaboration with Chris Bangs, the DJ and producer who first coined the term "acid jazz." No fewer than seven albums were released by the pair during these years: four as Soundscape UK and three as Yada Yada. While the former project focused on smooth, light, beats-driven jazz, their albums using the Yada Yada moniker were marginally more left-field, introducing a streetwise R&B and funk influence. From 1999 to 2001, Talbot was the touring keyboardist for the Martin Rossiter-fronted Brit-pop survivors Gene. By 2003, he was back with White in an act called Players, which also featured ex-Ocean Colour Scene bassist Damon Minchella. In the same year, he reunited with Dexys and continued to perform live with them for the next decade, playing a key role in the recording of their acclaimed comeback album -- 2012's One Day I'm Going to Soar -- before leaving once more. During that time, the Bureau also re-formed and were active again from 2005 up until the release of their second and final album, 2008's And Another Thing. In 2009, Talbot toured the U.K. backing Candi Staton -- as part of a refreshed iteration of the acid jazz act Push -- and eventually went on to tour the world with the Southern soul icon.

In 2014, his keys could be heard throughout the high-profile Wilko Johnson and Roger Daltrey collaborative album Going Back Home. This led to him playing on that September's "Be Lucky," the first fresh material released by the Who in eight years. After guesting on 2015's Roughnecks Roustabouts, a solo effort by Pete Williams -- of Dexys and the Bureau -- Talbot took a well-earned break for a few years. However, 2019 brought the airing on Sky Arts of Long Hot Summers: The Story of the Style Council, a retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Talbot and Weller, as well as a surprise debut performance of "It's a Very Deep Sea." Subsequently, Talbot played Hammond organ on Weller's 2020 U.K. number one album On Sunset. Next, he briefly joined a re-formed iteration of the acid jazz act Mother Earth before turning his hand to Americana on Wills the Willing's album London Country. Sessions with Bangs in Southend and Muswell Hill led to a '60s-inspired 2022 album from the pair titled Back to Business. ~ James Wilkinson, Rovi