M People
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| M People | |
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 M People
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Manchester, England |
| Genre(s) | House music Pop |
| Years active | 1990 - present |
| Label(s) | deConstruction 1990-1997 M People Records 1997-1998 |
| Members | |
| Heather Small Mike Pickering Paul Heard Shovell |
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M People are a British house music act from Manchester formed in 1990 which achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is from the initials of Mike Pickering,[1] who formed the group.
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[edit] Formation
Pickering had been a member of Factory Records dance act Quando Quango, but became more noted as one of the original DJs at The Hacienda. Paul Heard was a member of acid jazz band, Ace of Clubs and Shovell had previously been in the collective Natural Life. The original plan had been to have a roster of different singers for different songs but having been spotted by Pickering and Heard, Heather Small became the distinctive vocalist of the group. She had been in the British soul band Hot House, who had released a number of critically acclaimed records without scoring any major success.
Their first release came in the form of "Colour My Life", a limited white label pressing which got them some recognition, but it was the first official single "How Can I Love You More?" that became an instant soul/dance anthem, giving them their first Top Thirty hit and a following in and around the Manchester club scene, where Mike was still DJ-ing. Their first album, Northern Soul, provided other singles, including a full release of "Colour My Life", "Someday" and "Excited", followed by a re-release and repackaging of the album.
[edit] Major Success
1993 started with the re-released and re-mixed single from 1991's How can I love you more? which was released at the end of January and provided the band with their first Top 10 single, peaking at number 8. While this single was in the chart the band were working on new material for the second album to be released that autumn; a preliminary single, One Night in Heaven was released in the summer and peaked at number 6. It provided them with a massive dance/pop stomper that set up an even bigger worldwide hit with the second single, Moving on Up. The album Elegant Slumming went into the top 5 on release and peaked at #2, remaining on the chart until the following summer and later winning the band a Mercury Music Prize. A further two top 10 singles followed: Don't look any further (a cover of the Dennis Edwards classic) in December, and Renaissance which was used as the theme tune to the BBC2 show The Living Soap, propelling the single to number 5 in the singles chart.
In 1994 and 1995 M People won the BRIT Award for Best British Dance Act, the latter as a result of the release of Bizzare Fruit. The first single from that album was Sight for Sore Eyes which climbed to number 6, helping the album to enter the Album Chart top ten and peak at #4 and stay in the top 10 for four continuous months well into the following year. The second single from the album was Open your Heart, which became their seventh consecutive Top Ten hit in two years and at the Brit Awards '95 they collaborated with Sting on his track If You Love Somebody Set Them Free. Their third single Search for the Hero was later used in the TV advertising campaign for the Peugeot 406.[2] The song itself only got to #9 in the charts.
In early summer 1995, the band embarked on a world tour and two more singles were lifted from a re-issued album: Bizarre Fruit II; these were Love Rendezvous and Itchycoo Park. The former was the least successful single from the album and charted at #32 breaking the chain of top 10 hits, and the latter was a reworked cover of The Small Faces 1967 single.
In the United States, their biggest success was on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where they achieved five Top 5 singles, four of which hit number one.
After relentless touring and promoting of Bizarre fruit for about 18 months the band took a break in 1996, while the album, having been released in November 1994, didn't leave the chart until April 1997, becoming one of the biggest selling albums of the decade. They still made some special outdoor live UK performances called the Summer M parties in June 1996, at Crystal Palace, Alton Towers plus a special televised performance on BBC1 from Old Trafford for The Crowd is on the Pitch, where they performed to a crowd of 60,000 to celebrate Euro 1996 in Manchester.
In March 1997, Heather gave birth to her son. The band meantime were writing, recording and preparing their fourth studio album, aiming for a more polished sound.[citation needed] With the closure by BMG of the deConstruction dance record label in 1996 during their time off, M People founded their own record label, M People Records, to release the forthcoming album.
In September they released the lead single Just for you which became an instant Airplay #1 in the UK, and the song peaked at number 8 on the charts and two weeks later, their album Fresco was released and went straight in the charts at number two, going on to sell 1.1 million copies and certified 2x Platinum. The band achieved their third multi-platinum selling album and this time appeared on Jools Holland's BBC2 show, performing album tracks Nevermind love, Angel St. and Heather performed solo the million-selling charity single that she appeared on, Perfect day. Fresco also bore two more singles, Fantasy Island which landed at a number 33, despite getting to number 8 on UK airplay. But they went on a near sell-out 22-date Autumn British tour to rave reviews, and Fantasy Island became their new live favourite.
The final single lifted off the album was Angel St. which got to number 8 and earned them their tenth Top 10 chart hit in March 1998, making the band one of the most consistent hit-makers of the 1990s in both sales and airplay.
During the summer of 1998, the band prepared for their fifth album, a compilation of singles entitled The Best of M People which also contained three new tracks: Dreaming, Testify and a cover of the Doobie Brothers' classic track What a Fool Believes. The album went on to sell 1.75 million, peaked at number 2 and was certified 3x Platinum. Of the three new tracks, Testify and Dreaming were released at singles. Testify got to number 12 in October 1998 and Dreaming got to number 13 in February 1999, their eighteenth and final single.
[edit] Recent History
After the release of The Best of M People, the band took a long break. Heather Small recorded a solo album, and it seemed that the band had split. However, a re-packaged 'Greatest Hits' album was released in 2005, and the band also embarked on a short tour of the UK. Small continued to pursue a solo career, as her song "Proud", was the soundtrack to the successful London 2012 Olympic bid.
M People toured once again in 2007 as part of the Forestry Commission’s 2007 Forest Tours at Delamere Forest, Cheshire; Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire Moors; Thetford Forest, Suffolk and Westonbirt Arboretum, Wiltshire to support The Forestry Commission’s social and environmental programmes. Small said: "We have played in many different locations but never in forests so we’re really looking forward to doing these gigs".[3][4] In addition to these gigs M People also performed at the Hampton Court Festival in Surrey, London on the 12 June 2007, and the Chichester Real Ale and Jazz festival on 4 July 2007.[5]
They played a concert in Warsaw, Poland on 7th September 2007.[6]
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Year | Album | UK Albums Chart | U.S. HS[7] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Northern Soul | 53 | - |
| 1994 | Elegant Slumming | 2 | 12 |
| 1995 | Bizarre Fruit | 4 | 17 |
| 1995 | Northern Soul (re-issue) | 26 | - |
| 1995 | Bizarre Fruit II | 3 | - |
| 1997 | Fresco | 2 | - |
| 1998 | The Best of M People | 2 | - |
| 1999 | Testify | - | - |
| 2005 | Ultimate Collection (remixes) | 17 | - |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Song | UK singles | U.S. Hot 100 | U.S. Dance | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | "Colour My Life" | - | - | - | Northern Soul |
| "How Can I Love You More?" | 29 | - | - | ||
| 1992 | "Colour My Life" | 35 | - | - | |
| "Someday" | 38 | - | - | ||
| "Excited" | 29 | - | 1 | ||
| 1993 | "How Can I Love You More?" (remix) | 8 | - | - | |
| "One Night in Heaven" | 6 | - | 1 | Elegant Slumming | |
| "Moving on Up" | 2 | 34 | 1 | ||
| "Don't Look Any Further" | 9 | - | - | ||
| 1994 | "Renaissance" | 5 | - | - | |
| "Elegantly American" (limited edition EP of US remixes) |
31 | - | - | — | |
| "Sight for Sore Eyes" | 6 | - | - | Bizarre Fruit | |
| 1995 | "Open Your Heart" | 9 | - | 1 | |
| "Search for the Hero" | 9 | - | - | ||
| "Love Rendezvous" | 32 | - | - | ||
| "Itchycoo Park" | 11 | - | - | ||
| 1997 | "Just for You" | 8 | - | - | Fresco |
| "Fantasy Island" | 33 | - | - | ||
| 1998 | "Angel Street" | 8 | - | - | |
| "Testify" | 12 | - | 5 | The Best of M People, Testify |
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| 1999 | "Dreaming" | 13 | - | - | The Best of M People |
[edit] See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
[edit] References and Sources
- ^ Schofield, Jonathan. Music Capital - History of Manchester Pop (HTML). Retrieved on 2008-02-14.
- ^ Advertising
- ^ Forestry Commission Forest Tours
- ^ M People in the forests 2007
- ^ Chichester RAJF
- ^ M People & Heather Small Fansite
- ^ Heatseekers chart
