Neneh Cherry & The Daughters of The Wild Bunch

I got into trip hop by accident. Brought up on Britpop, I'd never heard any until I randomly won Time Out's Best Albums of The 90s competition which included Massive Attack's 1991 classic Blue Lines. Having belatedly thought I'd 'got it', I recently decided to explore it again to actually understand what happened and what I hadn't envisaged was just how vital a role women played in its creation and so to celebrate Mother's Day and International Women's Day (belatedly in true Bristolian fashion!), I'm going to showcase what Neneh Cherry and the ladies that followed did for the most exciting musical development to come out of Britain in the nineties.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... existed The Wild Bunch, Bristol's most pivotal music group or rather posse - in the hip hop sense - were formed by (above from left) Grant Marshall (now Massive Attack's Daddy G), rapper Willy Wee, Nellee Hooper  and DJ Milo Johnson, after being inspired by the 1983 film Wild Style which dramatised the culture behind early American hip hop. Joined by Robert Del Naja (Massive's 3D) & Andrew Vowles (Massive's Mushroom), they were the coolest kids in town, dressing the smartest, holding the best parties and playing an exciting mix of rap, reggae, rock and soul.

Enter Neneh Cherry who after arriving in the UK from Sweden with her step-father American Jazz musician Don Cherry, joined him on his tour with The Slits and in the process met "her people". After joining post-punk bands Rip Rig + Panic (above), she would frequently visit Bristol as half of the group were former members of Bristol's The Pop Group and it is through this link she met The Wild Bunch as well as future husband Cameron McVey. They would hang out with them and so when she had the chance she grabbed it, rapping on her then boyfriend's band's single Looking Good Diving. Sadly for the band Morgan-McVey it failed to chart, but Cherry's turn made it onto its b-side: Looking Good Diving With The Wild Bunch. Remixed by Tim Simenon (aka 'Bomb The Bass') by coupling it with Malcolm McLaren's Buffalo Girls, turned it into Buffalo Stance and a star was born:

Cherry would go onto release her debut Raw Like Sushi with the help of McVey and future Massive Attack members Andrew Vowles (aka Mushroom), and Robert Del Naja (aka 3D) including the latter's rap on her next single Manchild which would - and they didn't know it at the time - start a run of great Bristolian singles featuring strong and maternal female characters:

Cherry's success at the back end of '88, coincided with The Wild Bunch calling it a day once a tour of Japan had been completed, with Hooper joining Soul II Soul and 3D, Daddy G and Mushroom deciding to form Massive Attack, ready in place to shape the future sound of Bristol and in particular a template of bass, drums and vocal, particularly female over slow dub and hip hop beats. The relationships forged already proved strong but as Daddy G explained:

We were lazy Bristol twats. It was Neneh Cherry who kicked our arses and got us in the studio. We recorded a lot at her house, in her baby's room. It stank for months and eventually we found a dirty nappy behind a radiator.

Whilst Cherry helped kick start the group into action, they still needed a soul singer who would be able to do something special over the slow menacing beats. Step forward Shara Nelson who had originally sung The Wild Bunch's cover of The Look Of Love and which set the template. Nelson stayed and sang on Massive's debut single Daydreaming and the chorus - "Well I'm walking on air when I'm daydreaming" - seemed to fit her voice like a glove:

Nelson also sang on Lately, one of the first songs they wrote as well as opening track and single the superb Safe From Harm:

 "But if you hurt what's mine, I'll sure as hell retaliate" - Nelson picked the baton off Cherry, exemplifying a toughness that perfectly complemented the dark groove played underneath. It was however Unfinished Sympathy - "the most beautiful dance record of the '90s" according to Tina Turner - that would steal the show, with its haunting melody was dreamt up by Nelson. Mixmag readers voted it the 10th best dance record ever:

The resulting Blue Lines was a masterpiece and virtually single handedly created a whole new genre of music which the media coined 'trip hop' a slightly crass but ultimately hard to better term. But as Phil Johnson, director of the excellent Straight Outa Bristol documentary said "No one in Bristol could quite work out how they did it". Clearly it was a posse effect and a demonstration of how good their tastes were as well as the product of their relationships including McVey, Johnny Dollar and Cherry. Cherry ever the team player wanted to kindly help after her initial success. Ostensibly listed as an arranger along with McVey, Cherry was in fact an important catalyst in getting Blue Lines done even co-writing and providing background vocals (uncredited) to Hymn Of The Big Wheel which beautifully closed the album:

Blue Lines was a triumph but Nelson abruptly left the group soon after for a solo career. At a crossroads they decided to not replace her but bring in guest vocalists instead, the most successful of these was Everything but the Girl's Tracy Thorn and it was Thorn who penned Protection and gave the band their next single:

Thorn was the perfect vocalist, with her lush, jazz-inflected vocals perfect for the music Massive would want to play behind her and it quickly became  a classic of the genre as it recalled the similar themes of recent single Safe From Harm. Their collaboration also bore out album track Better Things, which along with Protection left a lasting impression as EBTG decide to follow their own success of single Missing, with their most success record, 1996's trip hop and drum n bass infused Walking Wounded.

Shara Nelson wasn't the only member to depart after Massive Attack's debut and it was less surprising when Tricky also exited. He was the standout star of Massive and Blue Lines but also he felt musically stifled by being in the band. After befriending Mark Stewart - former singer of Bristol post-punk group The Pop Group -  and after a chance meeting with a 16 year old Martina Topley-Bird near his house, he'd record an early version of Aftermath but it was subsequently rejected by the group. After pottering around for another year or two and recording again with Massive Attack, he re-released Aftermath on the whim of a cousin and it resulted in Island securing him a solo record deal after a short bidding war; Tricky left because he wanted to use female vocals over his own raspy vocals and he felt Topley-Bird was his perfect foil. They subsequently grew a creative and romantic relationship which started with Maxinquaye, a dark and sometimes unsettling album which garnered universal praise even if it leaves the author a little bit cold:

The relationship would produce a number of albums including songs for an unofficial follow up to his debut entitled Nearly God - a set of demos recorded the following summer and named after a critic's interview question: "so how does it feel to be God...well nearly God?" - and superior follow ups Pre-Millenium Tension and Angels With Dirty Faces:

Whilst Tricky was the cover star, the act was very much as it was in real life - a partnership - and Topley-Bird was integral to this, providing lines - often in one take for spontaneity - that completed his dark vision. The media narrative clearly underplays her role whenever Tricky is discussed and this imbalance needs acknowledging; I'd go as far to say that without Topley-Bird, Tricky wouldn't have gone solo when he did and with the same courage of his convictions.

Bristolian by association, Bjӧrk met a besotted Dom Thrupp - a local DJ who had made it in London getting a residency at the hip Wag-club - whilst on tour in L.A. with her band The Sugarcubes and got her into dance music. Initially her plans for her first solo work would be to work with a variety of producers but after Thrupp introduced her to his friend Nellee Hooper, she decided to work alone with Hooper primarily because of how similar their recording styles were:  "I think it's quite rare, when you're obsessed with your job, as I am, when you met someone who's your other part jobwise and enables you to do what you completely want"

Debut was a tour-de-force and arguably re-positioned dance music in the mainstream and altered the public's perception of what could be achieved by this singles orientated genre. There were obvious nods to the new Bristol sound on One Day, Come To Me and single Venus As A Boy which featured Talvin Singh, another musician affiliated with TWB when he worked with Massive Attack:

Bjӧrk would go on to work again with Hooper on her sophomore effort Post but this time did use other producers as well most notably 808 State's Graham Massey along with Tricky whom she dallied with and wrote and produced a number of tracks with, two of which appeared on said album, two of which appeared on Tricky's Nearly God. The most interesting of these tracks would be Keep Your Mouth Shut:

Bjӧrk would have the most successful career of any Wild Bunch affiliate as she released critical and commercially successful albums and doing so in a strong and graceful way, that befitted those singers that came before.

Having taken a break to bring up her new born after the success of her debut, Neneh Cherry still was at the centre of the scene as girlfriend of Cameron McVey who was becoming a sought after producer. The first fruits of what would become Portishead materialised in Cherry's London kitchen as Geoff Barrow, a keen local DJ and Beth Gibbons, a singer exchanged ideas whilst waiting for McVey to finish his work on Cherry's sophomore effort Homebrew. And It Could Be Sweet was born:

 

...which led to a debut album Dummy and the kind of hyperbole that gave trip hop a bad name. Their mix of down soaked jazz blues, cinematic sound effects and scratching paradoxically perfected the genre but perhaps led to it's commercial downfall as it became more and more diluted thereafter? Singles Sour Times and Glory Box were huge melancholic anthems with Gibbon's vocal carrying the flag and the album went on to win the prestigious Mercury Winners Prize:

Once described as "the voice of God", Liz Fraser had been courted by Massive's 3D for some time before they eventually agreed to work together on Massive Attack's third album, the minor classic Mezzanine. It is hardly a surprise given her astonishing vocals for 4AD's Cocteau Twins and their house band This Mortal Coil and in particular the astonishing cover of Tim Buckley's Song To The Siren.

And the wait was particularly worth the wait as Fraser graced three tracks, most famously on single Teardrop with it's draw dropping vocal and spine-tingling harpsichord sample. Initially the track had been sent to Madonna but the band overruled the record company and they opted for Fraser. After hearing the news of former friend Jeff Buckley's death, whom she developed an intense relationship with, she poured her heart and soul into the song as they recorded it in 1997:

Cherry would return with a third successful album Man in 1996 which contained the hits Seven Seconds and Woman. When Cherry hit big with Buffalo Stance, it was the start of a reoccurring theme of strong female role models leaving their mark, lighting the way for serious adult pop to take over as they went into the noughties, which undoubtedly helped pave the way for the likes of Adele, Corinne Bailey-Rice and Dido and for that we should be grateful:

For further information on the formative years of The Wild Bunch please enjoy the following excellent documentary: