Library - Biographies

M PEOPLE

Formed Manchester, England, 1990.

Perhaps even more than Soul II Soul, M People epitomize club culture's obsession with an upwardly mobile fantasy world, where fashionable people do nothing but dance and have short-lived, stylish romances. In order to live this out, M People have veered close to the abyss of slick professionalism, but like Soul II Soul they have had one shining moment in which the clichès of the good life rose above the mire of complacency.

M People are the brainchild of Manchester scenester Mike Pickering (keyboards / sequencing / programming). As the leader of T-Coy and one-time resident DJ at the Hacienda, Pickering was at the forefront of Britain's house explosion in the late 80s. He was also an A&R rep at both Factory and Deconstruction records (responsible for signing the Happy Mondays and Black Box), and these labels' styles had a crucial influence on him and on the glossiness of M People's sound and look. Ex-Orange Juice member Paul Heard assists Pickering on keyboards and production, but the key to the band's success is the strangely husky voice of singer Heather Small, which projects a kind of gender ambiguity rather than diva toughness.

M People's first release was the banal "Colour My Life" (1991) which was swiftly followed by the slightly better "How Can I Love You More?" Both were collected along with more overwrought platitudes about love, sex and racism on Northern Soul (1992). The best moments were "Excited", where Small managed to get a good club track out of a trite lyric and generic arrangement, and "Man Smart", a modernized take on the standard calypso theme of 'man smart, woman smarter'.

The release of "One Night in Heaven" (1993), however, signalled M People's development beyond formulaic dancefloor fodder. With Small's unique vocal timbre and some novel sound effects, "One Night in Heaven" was their breakthrough, a well-crafted pop single that wasn't pretending to be anything else. The following album, Elegant Slumming (1993), was a minor miracle - a great album that managed to encapsulate both the soul and the sheen of disco. Pickering and Heard surrounded Small's voice with clever horn parts and subdued but invigorating basslines. More importantly, she had much better material to work with, especially the marvellous "Renaissance" and "Movin' on Up".

In 1994 M People pissed off a nation of laddish, mod revivalists by deservedly beating Blur for the Mercury Prize. Predictably, this set off a fresh round of the tired old debate about rock's inherent artistic supremacy over disco, which would have been much more appropriate if applied to the corporate soul of Bizarre Fruit (1994). The album was a shameless attempt to muscle in on Simply Red's territory. With wretched, motivational training-type sentiments like 'search for the hero inside yourself', M People made functional music for middle management types who had outgrown Phil Collins and wanted more street-cred. The marketing research behind the concept was made obvious when Deconstruction released Bizarre Fruit II (1995), complete with remixes, live recordings and a woeful remake of the Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park". The album went on to sell more than 2 million copies. Fresco, (DeConstruction), their 1997 outing, pushed them further along the path to international mega-stardom, with all the blanding out of their sound which that might imply.

Check out M People's Elegant Sofa

Elegant Slumming (1993; Deconstruction). The music is rich and warm rather than smug and ostentatious, making the album's aspirations seem inviting. This may be the soundtrack to a consumerist lifestyle choice, but the music is no less enticing or efffective for that.

Peter Shapiro