Your reap what you sew
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It was 25 years ago this month when I recorded a song to raise funds for the Chilean Solidarity Campaign. Tracey Thorn took lead vocals along with Claudia the wonderful Chilean singer.
We needed a 12 inch dance version and I asked everyone I knew to ask everyone they knew who played great Latino Jazz to come by Power Plant Studios one evening.
Among the varied and motley crew were a young sax player and a young keyboard player. They were great.
Two days later Simon Booth from Working Week told me ‘there is a great Nigerian girl singer doing some cool stuff’.
‘Great’ I said ‘I played a lot of African music while I was living in Paris. Put her in touch’.
The following day a tentative gent Lee Barret called me up ‘Can I send you a tape of my band Pride?’
‘I know them or at least I know Stuart and Andy. They played on my Chilean 12 incher’.
‘Great’ said Lee ‘I’ll send over a tape’.
The tape arrived. A very rough simple demo of two songs.
‘It doesn’t sound very African’ I thought ‘but it’s cool and the singer has a great tone in her voice’
The songs were ‘Smooth Operator’ and ‘Your Love Is King’: the singer was Helen ‘Sade’ Adu.
The rest, as they say, is history….
