Lisa Stansfield appreciation

disco_chedisco_che 1,115 Posts
edited May 2012 in Strut Central
"All Around The World" was one of that songs I recorded to cassette from the radio as a twelve year old when my interest in popmusic started again. Out of nostalgia I picked the album "Affection" up on a flea years later but didn't really listen to it. Today I put in on in the kitchen while preparing lunch and was surprised how well it has aged. Fits much better in the 80s-Britsoul-Jazzfunk aesthetics than I expected.

Question for the british dudes: Was she regarded as a maintream pop phenomenon back in the days or did she gain respect from the dance crowd and souldudes as well. Prodution credits by Coldcut did point me in the direction that she may have had some club/underground relevancy as well but I might be wrong.
Any later stuff of Lisa Stansfield worth listening?

I really happen to like that album and will re-play for breakfast tomorrow.
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  Comments


  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    Unashamedly dig the Stansfield.

    Ske was some way after golden-era Britfunk days, and definitely not part of that scene, which was much more an underground movement grounded in enthusiastic fans who could write and play.

    No, Lisa was a pop act trading on a club-lite sound, but her stuff still sounds great today.

    She had an implied validity based on clear vocal talent that didn't need a stunning look to help sell it. Personally, I thought she was hot.

    She also benefitted from coming from a grim northern industrial town which played into a general move against London-centric media and culture, championed by the likes of the Housemartins.

    At least that's how I remember it.

    Other briddish dudes will no doubt chime in and have a different take on it.

  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,947 Posts
    disco_che said:
    Was she regarded as a maintream pop phenomenon back in the days or did she gain respect from the dance crowd and souldudes as well?

    Both, in Manchester, at least. She's a local, so there was that factor in her favour. Back when she was blowing up I was surprised at how well-liked she was amongst The Local Black Experience, but I guess a good tune is a good tune. And she can certainly sing.

    To be honest, for me there's only a handful of memorable tunes in her repetiore ("All Woman", "This Is The Right Time", "Can't Deny It") but she made her coin in her 15 minutes. Last I heard she was living in Dalkey (posh end of Dublin) and could be spotted on the reg riding the LUAS into town. She has maintained her down-to-earth reputation apparently.

    Good on her. Mildly hot too, St*eve, yes.

    Cathy Dennis / Betty Boo were bringing it for me, doe.

    :caveman noise:

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Does a good version of Marvin Gaye's Just To Keep You Satisfied.

  • disco_chedisco_che 1,115 Posts
    I forgot that I got hooked on "The Real Thing" many years later. Probably that was the last CD-Single I ever bought in my life.

  • DownstrokeDownstroke 81 Posts
    She was also a presenter of kids music show Razzmatazz in the early 80's (see begining of video):



    As far as I recall, she was pretty firmly footed in the pop mainstream, despite having a great set of lungs. I remember hearing about how well she went over across the pond to much bemusement (kinda like Simply Red). The Coldcut connection gave her some credibilty, but they had already outstayed their welcome after inflicting Yazz's 'Only Way Is Up' on us (this was pre-Ninja Tune). I'm sure she was embraced in the North but the London based underground music press had definately written her off.

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Yeah sadly cannot ride in any kind of sense for the Stansfield. Mark it down to her hitting the big time just as I hit adolescence/rejection of all popular music.

  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,947 Posts
    Junior said:
    Yeah sadly cannot ride in any kind of sense for the Stansfield. Mark it down to her hitting the big time just as I hit adolescence/rejection of all popular music.

    The Smiths phase, yeah?

  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    Wiki says born in Heywood, grew up in Rochdale. You claiming that for Manchester, J*m?

    Also that she moved out of Ireland in 2008. I can't call it, where's our resident paddies Mick A, Boy Chizzle and them?

    Revealed as one of the biggest private donors to the Labour Party in 1998.

    Right on, Lise.

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    J i m s t e r said:
    Junior said:
    Yeah sadly cannot ride in any kind of sense for the Stansfield. Mark it down to her hitting the big time just as I hit adolescence/rejection of all popular music.

    The Smiths phase, yeah?

    Good lord no, at the tender age of 11/12 and already street savy I was far too busy pulling a Buffalo Stance to Every Little Step I Took to deal with fop haired whiners.
    It was also the year I had my eyes opened through the mono signal I could pick up of Kiss FM (a simple process of connecting two coat hangers to the aerial cable of my Matsui Hi-Fi with inbuilt graphic equaliser and blue-tacking it round the walls) allowing me my first experience of musical snobbery when my brother returned home with the Jive Bunny 7".

    The self pitying introspection didn't come till later.

  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,390 Posts
    skel said:
    Wiki says born in Heywood, grew up in Rochdale. You claiming that for Manchester, J*m?

    Also that she moved out of Ireland in 2008. I can't call it, where's our resident paddies Mick A, Boy Chizzle and them?

    Revealed as one of the biggest private donors to the Labour Party in 1998.

    Right on, Lise.

    She has been minted from the early days but even her last big tour grossed around ??30m. Always too poppy for my tastes but getting picked up by manager Jazz Summers at Big Life was the real secret of her success.

  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,947 Posts
    skel said:
    Rochdale/Manchster

    I think Manchester was the media's choice at the time. As it was circa the blow up of Madchester.

    I just read that wiki harticle. ???6M yard. Nice. Me and wifey used to ride down to Bray, drank in her local along the way the odd time. Must be cracking on 10 years since I left Bank of Ireland. Good times (poor-but-happy-R).

  • DJBombjackDJBombjack Miami 1,665 Posts
    She had nice elbows

  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    disco_che said:
    Question for the british dudes: Was she regarded as a maintream pop phenomenon back in the days or did she gain respect from the dance crowd and souldudes as well.

    For a while she actually managed to do both. She came up via talent contests and kids TV, but she was firmly in the same blue-eyed soul tradition as Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Elkie Brooks and Kiki Dee, and it soon became not so much a case of whether she could hang with them as they with her (yep, he went there).

    Her first serious band, Blue Zone, chased that 80s pop-soul/Swing Out Sister paper, but they did have a couple of great tunes which can conventiently be found on the one single. Thinking About His Baby is probably the great lost ersatz-Motown British pop stomper of the decade, but the b-side, Big Thing (can't embed the vid, sorry), a kind of Loose Ends street-soul joint that became a huge underground hit as the rave era loomed, was the song that brought her into Coldcut's orbit.

    She seemed to move from the Coldcut period into a kind of English Anita Baker niche, while trying to hold onto the pop appeal that brought her the hits. She still gets a lot of airplay on what I suppose is the UK equivalent of AC radio in the States, but her first few albums have all got joints, and there are some solid house remixes on the 12" singles.

  • sticky_dojahsticky_dojah New York City. 2,136 Posts
    "so don't boost the flex I know the deal
    cause I've been around the world like that girl Lisa Stansfield
    next time you diss I just might say
    play like Johnny Gill cause you don't rub me the right way."

  • DubiousDubious 1,865 Posts
    i just have to reiterate - CATHY DENNIS

    fak that chic k was HOT - esp when yer 15!!!


  • Always like Lisa Stansfield.

    Searched for years for a remix of Live Together that Westwood would rinse in his Capital Days..never found it.

    Cathy Dennis was a little too Make-Up crazy for me. Preferred Lisa.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Ive always like her but Been Around The World was like I Will Survive. Fuckin' chicks anthem that was played way too much.

    I borrowed a copy of her '97 S/T album and it was all kinda mediocre.

    Did she ever cross the pond and overpay some R&B Producer of the month?
    She already had her Black Pass but i just wondered if she ever thought of pairing up after her peak.

    One day I would really like to sit w/ her discography. I thought she had the potential to be going strong past the 00's.

    It would have been cool to see her try a "Retro-Soul" project ala Nicole Willis or even a more early 70's Side Effects type joint.

  • disco_chedisco_che 1,115 Posts
    batmon said:


    It would have been cool to see her try a early 70's Side Effects type joint.

    That would be great or a retro nineties brit-soul act as this is what will be big soon.

    I listenend to soundclips from her last album (2004 according to discogs) and they all sucked.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    disco_che said:
    batmon said:


    It would have been cool to see her try a early 70's Side Effects type joint.

    That would be great or a retro nineties brit-soul act as this is what will be big soon..

    Wouldnt "Retro" 90's Brit-Soul be redundant for her?

  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    Good news if 90s britsoul comes back, my Driza Bone game is strong

  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,902 Posts
    From that time period, any love for Lindy Layton?




    I ride for some Lisa Stansfield and Cathy Dennis.


    For a voice, did Lizz E. every do anything else besides


  • bennyboybennyboy 538 Posts
    That Razzamatazz clip related - anybody see that Spandau's True was apparently written about Clare Grogan?

    Gary Kemp: "I met her on Top of the Pops and, at one point, travelled up to Scotland to have tea with her and her mum and dad." Images of an awkward sitting room encounter with a kilted & coiffed Kemp.

    I also ride for Cathy Dennis - & Betty Boo, so fine.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    What is 90's Brit-Soul? Mica Paris?

  • soulcitizensoulcitizen 304 Posts
    Mica was part of 'brit-soul' but I never heard it referred to that by anyone into it at the time, it was just soul or dance music, Caron Wheeler was big, there was also the acid-jazz movement that crossed over with Young Disciples, Incognito, etc, plus a ton of UK independent artists. Many of the lovers rock artists recorded UK street soul stuff in the mid 80's through to the mid 90's.

    Cool Down Zone was a typical sound on the more commercial side, Diane Charlemagne on vocals who went onto work with 4-hero and others



    Lisa had a credibility on the scene, All Around The World was a massive number 1 but still got played in clubs. She had a track 8-3-1 in the Y2K era that was so popular on the Uk soul scene it was booted on a 7", but it's not all that IMO, there is another track from that album that's a pretty cool mid-tempo track that did get spun as well but can't recall the title, track 3 or 4 on the same album as 8-3-1.

    Lisa was/is a soul girl though and through.

    and fit.


    Kathy Dennis and Betty Boo were just pop artists, nobody listened to them on the soul scene.

  • CrumpCrump 18 Posts
    Fire!


  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,947 Posts
    bennyboy said:
    That Razzamatazz clip related - anybody see that Spandau's True was apparently written about Clare Grogan?

    Gary Kemp: "I met her on Top of the Pops and, at one point, travelled up to Scotland to have tea with her and her mum and dad." Images of an awkward sitting room encounter with a kilted & coiffed Kemp.

    I also ride for Cathy Dennis - & Betty Boo, so fine.

    Boo these days... NAGL. She's younger than me but looks older than me now. I have to beat A*i to the "Her moisturising game must be mad weak, yo." punch

  • mickalphabetmickalphabet deep inna majestic segue 374 Posts
    skel said:
    Wiki says born in Heywood, grew up in Rochdale. You claiming that for Manchester, J*m?

    Also that she moved out of Ireland in 2008. I can't call it, where's our resident paddies Mick A, Boy Chizzle and them?

    Revealed as one of the biggest private donors to the Labour Party in 1998.

    Right on, Lise.

    I didn't know that she had lived here till now, but a single inquiry reveals she lived next door to a mates ma's, will extract some cool stories if there is any for the strut massive when i catch up with him next

  • mickalphabetmickalphabet deep inna majestic segue 374 Posts
    mickalphabet said:
    skel said:
    Wiki says born in Heywood, grew up in Rochdale. You claiming that for Manchester, J*m?

    Also that she moved out of Ireland in 2008. I can't call it, where's our resident paddies Mick A, Boy Chizzle and them?

    Revealed as one of the biggest private donors to the Labour Party in 1998.

    Right on, Lise.

    I didn't know that she had lived here till now, but a single inquiry reveals she lived next door to a mates ma's, will extract some cool stories if there is any for the strut massive when i catch up with him next

    Ha, just got this back... (skoolbags is his name btw)

    'skoolbags's ex girlfriend squirrel was with him on xmas day for drinks in lisas gaf
    got sick in her kitchen sink'

    :beerbang:

  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    Cheers Mick

    B/w

    mickalphabet said:

    ex girlfriend was with him on xmas day for drinks :

    Never ever that, son.
    Once it's over, they gotta be dead to you. Dead I tells ya...

    ::whycry::

  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,390 Posts
    Crump said:
    Fire!


    Love this.
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