621 Hello Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance

Chart  entered : 10  December 1988

Chart  peak : 3

Number  of  hits : 14

Neneh  served  a  long  and  interesting  apprenticeship  before  making  her  chart  debut.

She  was  born  Neneh  Karlsson  in  Stockholm  in  1964  to  Monica  Karlsson  a  Swedish  painter  and  a  visiting  engineering  student  from  Sierra  Leone. Not  long  after  her  birth  her  mother  married  the  American  jazz  trumpeter  Don  Cherry  who  raised  her  as  his  own. By  the  late  seventies  Cherry  was  playing  alongside  English  post-punk  groups  and  Neneh  met  members  of  The  Slits  when  he  toured  with  them. She  dropped  out  of  school  in  the  U.S.  and  moved  into  a  squat  with  Ari  Up  from  The  Slits  when  she  was  just  15. She  was  briefly  counted  a  member  of  The  Slits  and  also  a  punk  band  called  The  Cherries. The  girls  from  The  Slits  also  got  involved  with  a  dub  group  called  The  New  Age  Steppers  and  Neneh  made  her  recording  debut  on  their  second  album,  "Action  Battlefield",  in  1981. She  sang  the  lead  vocal  on  the  track  "My  Love"  a  spacey  reggae  number  on  which  the  band  don't  seem  like  they're  playing  in  time  with  each  other.

By the  time   it  was  released   Neneh  had  joined  Rip  Rig + Panic   having  started  a  relationship  with  their  drummer  Bruce  Smith  during  his  short  tenure  in  The  Slits. Smith  and  guitarist  Gareth  Sagar  had  formed  the  group  after  the  dissolution  of  the  fiercely  uncommercial  post-punk  outfit,  The  Pop  Group  in  1980 .  The  new  group  wanted  to  take  a  jazzier  direction  than  their  forebears. Virgin  took  a  punt  and  signed  them  the  following  year.

Rip  Rig  + Panic  released  their  first  single  "Go  Go  Go  ( This  Is  It ) "  in  August  1981  with  an  interesting  picture  on  the  sleeve  of   a  couple  of  headless  bodies  copulating  drawn  in  the  style  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci. The  music  was  equally  unlikely  to  appeal  to  the  daytime  jocks   with  the  youthful  Neneh  spitting  out  the  lyrics  in  the  brattish  style  of  Annabella  Lwin. The   single  does  sound  like  Bow  Wow  Wow  at  their  most  bracing  interrupted  by  challenging  bursts  of  free  jazz  hornblowing.

Their  debut  album  "God"  followed  a  month  later. Though  only   having  the  duration  of  a  single  LP  it  was  released  as  a  double. Neneh  sings  lead  on  three  tracks. Opener  "Constant  Drudgery  Is  Harmful  to  Soul  Spirit  and  Health ", "Need"  and  "Those  Eskimo  Women  Spoke  Frankly"  are  all  equally  challenging  ; if  you  want  coherent  songs  this  isn't  the  place  to  come  although  the  bass  usually  provides  some  sort  of  anchor  amid  the  self-indulgence.

A  standalone  single  "Bob  Hope  Takes  Risks"  followed  in  November, a  much  more  disciplined  record  with  a  call  and  response  structure  and  Neneh's  vocals  pushed  higher  in  the  mix. There's  not  much  in  the  way  of  a  tune  and  the  horn  sound  remains  unpleasant  but  they're  clearly  groping  towards  a  more  commercial  product.

In  June  1982   they  released  the  single  "You're  My  Kind  of  Climate "  a  more  conventional  jazz  funk  track  with  the  semblance  of  a  hook. They  performed  a  truncated  version  of  it  on  The  Young  Ones  with   a  chunky-looking  Neneh  giving  an  energetic  performance. It  was  closely  followed  by  their  second  album  I  Am  Cold   which  was  released  in  the  same  format  as  the  first  although  this  time  round  the  length  did  justify  it. Neneh's  stepfather  played  on  six  tracks. Neneh  sang  on  four  tracks, three  of  them  unlistenable . The  fourth  was  "Storm  The  Reality  Asylum"  an  abridged  version  of  which  was  released  as  a  single  that  August. The  track  is  a  set  of   anti-oppression  slogans  strung  together  rather  than  a  song  but  it's  got  a  real  swing  and  is  darkly  melodic. The  sombre  jazz  feel  predicates  the  new  sound  of   The  Special  AKA    unveiled  a  few  months  later. Despite  a  generous  feature  in  Smash  Hits  it  didn't  chart  and  you  get  the  sense  that  that  was  their  moment.

In  1983  Neneh  got  married  to  Smith  and  recorded  the  next  LP  "Attitude"  while  pregnant  with  their  daughter  Naima.  The  band  continued  in  their  quest  to  repay  Virgin  with  a  hit  by  making  their  music  more  accessible  and  reining  in  avant-garde  excess. Neneh  sang  on  the  lead  single  "Beat  The  Beast"  which  is  brassy  and  uptempo  but  very  short  and  devoid  of  hooks. Co-vocalist  Andrea  Oliver  did  the  lead  on  the  second  single  "Do  The  Tightrope"  which  co-opts  a  Northern  Soul  beat  but  is  too  complex  and  fractured  to  be  a  hit. Perhaps  the  smouldering  "Sunken  Love"  or the  hi-life  exuberance  of  "Keep  The  Sharks  Fro  Your  Heart" ( both  Neneh-sung )  might  have  done  better. Virgin's  patience  ran  out  and  the  band  split  later  in  the  year.

Neneh  and  Smith  divorced  in  1984  but  it  didn't  stop  them  working  together  in  Float  Up  C.P. who  were  four-fifths  of  Rip  Rig  and  Panic. They  released  a  single on  Rough  Trade , "Joy's  Address"  in  July  1984  a  leftfield  take  on  sixties  girl  group  pop  that  again  is  too  cerebral   and  complicated  to   work  as  a  pop  single. It  featured  on  their  album  "Kill  Me  In  The  Morning"  released  in  December  1985  which  saw  them  move  in  a  more  electronic  funk  direction  though  there  are  still  some  squally  horns  in  the  mix. "Assassins"  is  a  good  song  but  they  chose  not  to  release  any  more  singles. They  broke  up  soon  after  and  this  time  it  was  decisive.

In  1986  Neneh   duetted  with  Matt  Johnson  on  The  The's  track  "Slow  Train  To  Dawn"  and  made  a  memorable  appearance  in  the  video. It  was  released  as  a  single  the  following  year.
reaching  number  64. Neneh  wasn't  given  an  artist  credit.

Neneh  also  started  working  as  a  model  to  make  ends  meet  and  this  proved  to  be  her  musical  salvation. She  signed  up  with  London-based  designer  Ray  Petri  modelling  his  streetwise  range  of  clothing  under the  brand  name  Buffalo. At  the  beginning  of  1987  she  went  to  Heathrow  for  an  assignment  in  Tokyo   and  met  fellow  model  Cameron  McVey. They  immediately  became  an  item.

McVey  was  in  a  pop  duo  with  another  of  Petri's  associates, photographer  Jamie  Morgan   as  Morgan  McVey. They  had  a  single  ready  to  go  in  "Looking  Good  Diving" , an  attractive  pop  tune  and  "the  one  that  got  away"  for  producers  Stock,  Aitken  and  Waterman. Neneh  wasn't  on  the  A-side  ( though  she  appeared  with  a  guitar  in  the  video )  but  she  came  up  with  a  rap  for  the  B-side  "Looking  Good  Diving  With  the  Wild  Bunch"  which  incorporates  musical  phrases  from  the  A  side  as  well  as  Malcolm  McLaren's  Buffalo  Gals . It's   clearly  being  made  up  on  the  spot  but  key  parts  of  "Buffalo  Stance "  are  already  in  place.

Morgan-McVey  split  up  without  releasing  anything  else , freeing  up  McVey  to  work  on  Neneh's  debut  solo  album. The  track  was  taken  to  Tim  Simenon  for  polishing  up  and  restructuring  and  he  was  duly  credited  in  some  new  lyrical  parts.  The  lyrics  have  always  confused  me  a  little  since  Neneh  keeps  using  the  word  "gigolo"  when  in  context  it  makes  much  more  sense  if  you  substitute  "pimp" . It  then  fits  with  the  theme  of  refusing  to  be  exploited. The  McLaren  samples  were  retained , the  tuneful   refrain  fitted  into  the  right  places  and  the  blend  of  synthpop, hip  hop  and  street  sass  was  an  instant  winner. It  reached  number  3  in  the  US  as  well.