Library - Biographies

The key component of M People is Mike Pickering (b. March 1958, Manchester, England; keyboards/programming), a former disc jockey at the Factory Records' owned Hacienda club in Manchester. His activities there once encouraged The Face magazine to proclaim him as 'England's most revered DJ'. After school, Pickering worked in a fish factory and engineering warehouse, becoming a big fan of northern soul. He played saxophone and sang for mid-80s indie dance forerunners Quando Quango, and had various connections with New Order, including sharing a flat with their manager, Rob Gretton. He also had the distinction of having booked the Smiths for their first Manchester gig, and having signed both James and Happy Mondays in his role as Factory's A&R representative. After leaving Factory he became a junior director at DeConstruction Records, to whom he brought Black Box and Guru Josh, the label's two most important early successes. He also provided DeConstruction with North - The Sound Of The Dance Underground, cited by many as the first UK house music compilation, though in truth it was Pickering and his band T-Coy behind seven of the eight songs. He is also the founder member and songwriter for M People - the M standing for his Christian name - who also record for DeConstruction. The band includes ex-Hot House vocalist Heather Small (b. 20 January 1965, London, England) and Paul Heard (b. 5 October 1960, Hammersmith, London, England; keyboards, programming), formerly of Orange Juice and Working Week. They made their debut in May 1991 with 'Colour My Life', achieving major success with the club hit 'How Can I Love You More' at the end of the year. These singles promoted a first album which took its name from Pickering's early musical leanings, Northern Soul. 1993 was M People's breakthrough year. On the back of colossal UK hits such as 'Movin' On Up' (later used as a campaign tune by the UK's Labour Party), they were awarded a BRIT Award for Best UK Dance Act. The album which contained the hits, Elegant Slumming (the title was taken from a Tom Woolfe book), included a cover of Dennis Edwards' 'Don't Look Any Further', and vocal support from Nu Colours. In 1994 it won them the Mercury Prize for best UK act in any category, much to the chagrin of hotly tipped pretenders Blur. Meanwhile, their highly polished, commercial sound (omnipresent on car stereos and commercial radio) was being cited as the perfect example of 'handbag house', a term the group themselves despise. Bizarre Fruit and attendant single, 'Search For The Hero', were greeted with mild disappointment, but with the addition of new bongo/percussion player 'Shovel' the group nevertheless embarked on a tour of the world's stadia to ecstatic receptions. Their love affair with the critics had cooled, the media taking special pleasure in poking fun at Small's choice of boyfriend - rugby league player Shawn Edwards. Bizarre Fruit II merely compiled several remixes and edits as a prelude to a new album, though an ill-advised cover version of the Small Faces''Itchycoo Park' managed to irritate the critics further. Fresco proved to be another smooth slab of easy-listening dance music, with the single 'Just For You' the standout track.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 1998

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