 Lisa Stansfield: Deeper
When I hear the name Lisa Stansfield, I can immediately hear the sound of her signature voice in my head and think about the impact she has dealt upon the music industry throughout her successful career. The soulful diva has plenty left to showcase, as after four years, she is back with her latest album Deeper. The album opens full of rhythm with the upbeat “Everything” and its smooth moves blend in with electronic-pop tones. The number literally has everything you want from a track and it makes you want to dance the night away. “Twisted” is next and it romances with sexy, sensual and northern soul inspired sounds. “Desire” is majestic, full of desire and undeniable. It’s a song of fairytales as you ride this lyrical affair. “Billionaire” is a big and dramatic track with a powerful voice to boot. It shines brightly for the world to see. “Coming Up for Air” is hedonistic and outstanding. It shows off a slower tempo and plenty of groove. “Love of My Life” follows with funk and plenty of personality. It is sweet like honey, as it moves seductively into your vision. “Never Ever” is upbeat, preppy and full of pop. It is a absolute show piece through and through. “Hercules” follows with utter strength, positive lines and motivation. This song doesn’t mess about and stands its ground. “Hole In My Heart” is up next and is stunning. It’s an emotive ballad which sings from the heart, and the feelings resonate without effort. “Just Can’t Help Myself” follows with soulful, funky beats. The added element of strings make for an unforgettable presence. Title track “Deeper” is next and is home to many layers, as it runs deep within. Jazz and soul combine together to create a beautiful sound. It is a track where you can dim the lights, sit back and forget all your worries. “Butterflies” follows with bright colors. It is uplifting and makes you smile. The butterflies gather around and spread their wings wide open to reveal such natural beauty. The album draws to its close with “Ghetto Heaven.” A cool track with a superior quality inside and out, it leaves you on such a high, you feel like you’re on cloud nine. Deeper brings a different side to Lisa Stansfield without compromising her signature sound. It is full of funk, soul and groove which blend to create a magnificent spectrum. Review by BY HAYLEE ROEBUCK for Shockwave magazine
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Lisa's Interview with Chris Park at Northern Soul - talking about her forthcoming gig at Haydock Racecourse in August.
“I’ve been dossing around. Well, I’ve been dossing for a bit but not most of the day.” So laughs Northern powerhouse Lisa Stansfield as the sun beats down on Manchester city centre. Anyone who was around in the late 80s and 90s will remember Stansfield’s powerful voice and personality, so it’s refreshing to see that none of that has diluted over time, not least her Rochdale accent. Of course, she never stopped making music except for a recent self-imposed break. Next up is a huge show at Merseyside’s Haydock Racecourse in August. “It should be good, I think it’s gonna be great,” she tells me. “I’ve never done anything like that before so it should be quite an adventure. We’re gonna do stuff from the last album, Seven [the name is a nod to the fact it’s her seventh studio album]. It’ll be nice to do a bit of the new and a bit of the old really.” Think of Stansfield and you’ll recall her many hits, including Change, All Woman, The Real Thing and, of course, All Around The World. But will Stansfield play it safe at her next concert with crowd-pleasers? I don’t ever do that. You need to look at yourself before you look at everybody else and look at it the way you would respond and feel the way the crowd would. Of course you have an obligation to the crowd and to your fans because they’re holding you up there and if it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t be where you are. It’s very confusing in how much you’re treating your audience and how much you’re indulging yourself. You have to really, really balance it out because you can be a bit selfish sometimes but you have to do something for yourself otherwise you wouldn’t want to do it anymore.” I wonder, after almost 30 years in the spotlight, is stage fright still a problem? “I do get stage fright just before I go on the stage,” she admits. “It’s really funny because I’m always very, very organised before I go on the stage and it’s like, if you look at me on the stage you’d think I was a complete idiot and people think ‘Oh my God what’s going with her, they’re gonna take her away in a van’ but before I go on stage I’m completely there. I focus and get my microphone and I pull my dress up or whatever I’ve got on and I go up the steps and I go straight on the stage and I do it. I might look like a complete idiot but I know what I’m doing, I do it on purpose baby.” Stansfield released her comeback album, Seven, in 2014 to great reviews and a top 20 position, and she is currently in the process of finalising the follow-up. She may have had a ten-year hiatus but she was busy in those years. “I’ve probably got enough material for about ten albums. It’s ridiculous, you write all the time, you just keep writing and writing so you sift through what you’ve got and you see what’s appropriate for what you’re feeling is an album. The album that you want to make – but we’re not gonna reveal any of that yet.” Stansfield’s no-nonsense attitude is unusual in a world where divas make requests for puppies, candles and green fruit pastilles. I get the impression that she’s the same Rochdale lass no matter where she is. But what does being a Northerner mean to her? She says: “I think it’s important for anybody to recognise where they come from and to come from the North is such a privilege. I feel privileged with this beautiful sense of humour and a real understanding of soul, not just music but of people and I think just a common interest in humanity. It’s a bloody beautiful place to live in and I think our humour comes from that fact that we have had a lot of shit to deal with and that’s why we all just take the piss out of ourselves really. You can do loads in your life but whatever you do you should always take the piss out of it, no matter how serious it is.” It’s amazing to think that Lisa Stansfield recently celebrated her 50th birthday. Has reaching this milestone changed her approach to life? “I don’t let things like that affect me,” she laughs. “I don’t care. It is weird thinking I’m 50-years-old but I really don’t feel 50-years-old at all, I completely don’t. Once I start feeling 50-years-old then I’m gonna stop.” The interview is drawing to close. I finishing by asking her this: if she could have ten minutes with the 18-year-old Lisa Stansfield, what would she say to her? “I wouldn’t say anything at all. I’d tell the 18-year-old me to do just exactly what the fucking hell she wanted.” And with the infectious laugh that has peppered the whole conversation, she’s gone. By Chris Park @ NorthernSoul Lisa is appearing at ‘An Evening at the Races with Lisa Stansfield’ on August 5, 2016. For more information, click here. By Beth Allcock at The Wharf
The 49-year-old soul singer takes the Indigo stage on the festival’s opening night alongside Mica Paris and Imelda May for the ABC of Blues and Soul Lisa Stansfield says she’s always been a soul girl.So taking her place as one third of the opening act for Prudential BluesFest , at The O2 , is something she’s likely to relish.The bubbly singer will take the Indigo At The O2 stage alongside Mica Paris and Imelda May for The ABC of Blues and Soul on Friday, November 6. The smooth sounds of Diana Ross inspired the singer in her childhood and Lisa’s secret set list of four songs will celebrate top female vocalists on the jazz and blues scene. But this has meant an intense few weeks of lyric-learning. “I haven’t sung any of the songs before, so it’s like learning lines,” said Lisa. “You constantly think: ‘I’m never going to remember any of it,’ it’s really weird. “Even the best actors are constantly peeing their pants thinking they are going to forget their lines. “You’re learning new material but material that people know. “It’s like doing a favour for a friend – you want to do your best. “If you’re doing it for yourself you’re more relaxed but when it’s for someone else, everything hinges on the one thing.” Lisa, famous for the vocal track on 1980s dance hit Around The World, released album Seven last year. With it came an accompanying tour and while homesickness blighted her memory of travelling across the country for various gigs as a budding performer she said she’d now overcome that. She said a younger audience was also being drawn to her soul vibe and she was excited by the prospect of an eclectic crowd at The O2 ’s smaller venue. “The hardcore jazz and blues people are taken as read but there’s a new generation of people that are intrigued about it,” she said. “It’s really refreshing to bring different types of people together. “So hopefully there will be a young crowd getting into that stuff and it’s lovely to be able to interest people in stuff you don’t want to get lost. “It’s nice to do stuff like this now and again and it’s nice we are all characters, so we will have a really good time.” The three-day BluesFest is the largest event of its kind in the UK. Headliners on Saturday, November 7 include the Dave Matthews Band while Sir Tom Jones and Van Morrison will perform a joint gig on Sunday, November 8. There are also a number of free concerts throughout the festival. Tickets various prices. LISA, 49, recalls a career high note when soul superstar Dionne Warwick came to visit her home town of Rochdale.  "I remember this photo so well as it was such a beautiful experience. It was taken in the early 90s and it was the week that Dionne Warwick came to Rochdale.
We were on Arista, which was part of BMG at the time, and Clive Davis, the president of the company who knows everybody, anywhere, wanted to get us together. He called me up and said, ‘Do you want to work with Dionne Warwick?’ and you’re not going to say no, are you? She stayed at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, but came over to my studio for about three days to record one of our songs and a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. They hadn’t worked with each other for a long time and it was the first song they’d ever written together for Dionne, so it was quite a privilege to be able to do that. And when she arrived, it was incredible to see the glamorous Dionne Warwick in the town of Rochdale. She was lovely and we just had a really nice time. She’s a proper lady with a beautiful nature and she makes you feel really, really comfortable I almost had to pinch myself to see one of my idols in my home town and I just kept looking at her thinking, ‘Oh My God. That is Dionne Warwick’s voice. And it’s coming out of her in our studio in Rochdale. It’s incredible.’ She made her own tea and very much did her own thing, but we were too busy to give her a tour. I’m sure she’d love to come back, though, to see the sights and go for a kebab or a curry! She also told me off as I smoked at the time, even though she smoked like a trooper. She smoked more than I did and kept reprimanding me for it, but it was good advice. I don’t know whether she still smokes, but I don’t and it’s helped me tremendously. One of the highlights was getting to do backing vocals with her on the track Friends Can Be Lovers and it was quite an intimate experience. When you do backing vocals, the trick is – if you’re a good singer and touch wood I am – to look at each other’s mouths. It’s a very, very close thing to do. In the course of half an hour or an hour doing backing vocals, you completely study the mouth of that person. You’re looking at that person’s mouth because you want every single intonation to be right. It’s a beautiful thing and it was lovely because she said I had a lovely voice and vice versa. It’s always beautiful to be told that you’ve got a lovely voice by an amazing singer. It’s been nearly 25 years since that photo was taken, but I still feel that I’ve got a lot to learn. I’m busy recording my next album, I’m doing a load of festivals this summer and I’m just looking forward to carrying on doing what I’m doing and working with some more beautiful people like Dionne Warwick. I haven’t seen her for a few years, though, as I think she moved to Brazil for a while. But I think she’s back in LA now and we recently bought a place in LA, so it would be really nice to see her. Perhaps we’ll get her round for another cup of tea.” Courtesy of Express.co.uk By NICK MCGRATH Catch up with Lisa's exclusive interview for the June edition of Sussex Style Magazine that she did last month. Many thanks to Sean and Richard at Sussex Style for their kind permission to republish this interview by magazine Editor Alex Hopkins. Check out the complete June edition online now: http://issuu.com/sussexstyle/docs/ss_june_2015 
Back in the early to mid 90's before the internet had truly taken hold, fans found other means to communicate with each-other. Most read the latest snippets and updates via the official Lisa newsletter as well as a fanzine called Soul Deep. In one particular edition, I remember a small article about a fan who owned a most unusual scooter which he had personally customized and bedecked with images of Lisa across it. Those photos were initially published in black and white, but the images really did not do the bike the justice it deserved to show it off in it's full glory.  'Affection' the scooter owned and cherished by Ray Ward Bev: Hi Ray, thanks for taking the time to chat to the fansite. Tell me, how long have you been a fan of Lisa Stansfield and when did you first discover her music?
Bev: I remember in the early 90’s seeing an article about your scooter appear in an edition of the Lisa fanzine 'Soul Deep'. How did that come about?
Bev: Bearing in mind that your scooter is getting on a bit, would you be tempted to part with it, assuming that the price was right? The soul star reveals her love of all things kitsch. 
Click on the below images to take you to the recent interview with Lisa by Angela Kelly for the Lancashire and North West Magazine.
Finally an announcement that film distributors have confirmed that Northern Soul the film will be released in cinemas in the UK in October 2014. There will be more information regarding dates and cinemas soon.
Interview with nativemonster.com By Elizabeth Joyce |
