IT is the stuff dreams are made of.

You are the lead singer of a band already on the rise when your musical hero gives you a bell and asks if you want to record some tunes with him.

That’s exactly what happened to Neil Jones, lead singer of the highly-acclaimed soul sensations Stone Foundation.

Minding his own business one day, Neil gets a call from former Jam and Style Council frontman Paul Weller asking him if he fancies writing some songs.

A few months later Neil, Paul and Neil Sheasby came up with Street Rituals – the group’s celebrated fourth studio album.

Midlands based Neil said: “Myself and Neil Sheasby started writing songs together 18 years ago. We’ve been chipping away, we never gave up and kept sticking to what we believed what right and carried on writing music.

“We just wanted to carry on writing new material. We started with soul and then went into experimental stuff. The last three albums are influenced by jazz, funk and soul.

“I got a call from Paul and he said how much he liked the last three albums. He asked if we would be interested in co-writing something. He asked us to go to his studio and after three days we had seven songs. He said come back and we might have an album. It has been an amazing ride. It was so natural and we bonded over music and became great friends. “

Street Rituals has been described as “The soul album of the year – yes it is that good” by Record Collector. The NME said it was “A fittingly blissful and classic touch of majestic soul.”

It was produced by Paul Weller who features on all ten tracks and is lead vocal on the beautiful “Your Balloon is Rising.”

To me, the album is British soul at its best with obvious influences from the Weller and, in particular, The Style Council. The ten-track record kicks of the beautiful and harmonic “Back in the Game” featuring Weller. Love Rediscovered is inspired and The Limit of a Man is superb – an upbeat slice of soul that could become a classic on the UK soul scene. “With Limit of a Man I started thinking about my grandad’s generation – that stiff upper limit. The record stemmed from my grandad,” said Neil.

As if having Weller wasn’t enough, the album also features the sounds of two of the world’s greatest soul singers – legends Bettye LaVette and the outstanding William Bell. LaVette’s Season of Change is a politically-inspired soul masterpiece and Bell’s Strange People adds a fabulous deep-soul sound to the record.

So what was it like working with such greats as LaVette and Bell? Neil says: “We were fortunate enough to support William Bell – we got on really well with him. Three months after that I was on my way to Atlanta to record with him. He was incredible. Bettye LaVette’s voice is amazing. Politically, we are in the middle of the most divided times in my life. It feels like we are going back to the days of Thatcher.”

With the tour on the horizon, there are some exciting times ahead for Stone Foundation. This isn’t a band that stands still – they are constantly pushing the boundaries and trying different sounds. If you don’t believe me, have a listen to their latest recording “Mother Ethiopia – pt 1-3” a listen. The band feature with Weller on part one – producing a thought-provoking ska sounding classic.

And, according to Neil, that forward thinking willingness to produce a different sound is the “true meaning of modernism.”

The band are preparing to kick off on a 13 date UK tour beginning bat the Liverpool 02 Academy 2 on October 15. They finish at Chinnerys in Southend on November 3. Don’t miss out – it’s going to be a cracker. For tickets go to stonefoundation.co.uk