Library - Miscellaneous

Social issues and a Roxy Music cover? Yes, M People have decided to get serious on our ass with new album, 'Fresco'. But it's not all gloom 'n' doom... Just ask their percussionist (don't use any long words though!)

"Bon viveur?! What the fack was that all about?! Come 'ere!" From the far side of the studio cafe M People's bongo maniac launches himself towards the NME. "I should get a T-shirt made. 'Bon Viveuuuuur'!"

Shovell's up on his feet and advancing at a scary rate.

Chairs scatter. Tea ladies duck. And Shov lurches forward like a small Sumo-trained grizzly, lips puckered into monstrous pregnant sacks which plant a shuddering stubbleboom of a kiss on the cowering interviewer's cheek. Yeuch. Too much ruffness.

M People? A smooth 'n' calculated, mass soul-pop machine? Not if former plumber-turned-maestro percussionist Shovell has anything to do with it. In his rhythmic skin-whomping hands he holds the key to the band's rock debauchery potential. Or at least that was the suggestion that had got Shov up out of his chair in snogging mood.

"Decadent? What do you mean by decadent?" he frowns.

What I'm saying is that you, Shovell, are a bon viveur.

It's French.

That you enjoy the good things in life.

The Catford patter relaxes momentarily. In reality, of course, M People megatours have hurdled him gracefully across many a language barrier, but if you're named after the shape of your dick, and you support Arsenal, there's a reputation to be retained.

Looking forward to the tour then?

"Yeaaaarghg. Woorf Wooorf" Grrrrr!", Shovell snuffs the air. "Get me out there! I can't f-in' wait, mate. I hate all this. I feel like Norman Stanley Fletcher. But touring! Freeeeeeeedom! Let freeeeeeeedom be!"

I hear you had a bit of a mad time in Australia.

"I knew Noel when he was with the Inspirals," recalls Pickering. "Just knew him in the crowd. Now he lives round the corner from me at Supernova Heights. He had to take the sign down 'cos it was in bubble writing and they had to put it in frosted glass, all tasteful. Bob Hoskins and Derek Jacobi were up in arms!"

Do you feel like a godfather to all those people who came out of the Haçienda?

There is an instructive symmetry about Pickering living just down the road from Noel. Both of them are working-class Mancunians made millionaires thanks to a gift for populist songwriting. The difference is that Gallagher gets near blanket approval whereas Pickering's M People are still widely regarded as calculated soul charlatans supplying blithe dance'n'bland positivity for the stereos of sales reps searchin' for the hero inside the glove pocket of their Vauxhall Cavaliers.

Mmmmm. Could it be that the profound history of Chicago house and New York disco as recontextualised by Pickering and Heard, is still incomprehensible to the genre snobs who'll be 'raving' about speed garage in ten seconds time? Could it be significant that Heather Small is female and black? Could it be that they've never been forgiven for snatching the Mercury Music Prize from Blur in '94, 'confusing' Glastonbury into a rapturous reception and reworking (ho-ho-ho) the Small Faces` seminal 'Itchycoo Park' into a house anthem? Yes, yes and yes.

Six million albums sold, a mad percussionist and a fine sense of humour may not have put an end to musical prejudice worldwide, but it has at any rate got them inside Number Ten. As the band who supplied New Labour with one of the campaign anthems - 'Moving on up' - the Ms got an invite to a Blair-in alongside Ben Elton, Mick Hucknall, Harry Enfield, Dick Branson, Sir James Callaghan and Mike Leigh. We meet on the morning afterwards, with Pickering hungover from a post-party session with 'Ucknall (Simply Red to you and me) but still chuffed.

"Mike Leigh though! I was beside meself," he buurs in Mancunian, "I rang me mum first thing this morning"

Heather, meanwhile, is as fresh as a non-drinking vegan ought to be and still laughing about Cherie Blair.

"She was so taken by my outfit, she was pulling up the dress going, 'Oooh, I just had to have a look when I saw those silver flashing toes!'" grins Heather. "These photographers are snapping away while Cherie Blair's kneeling at my feet lifting my dress."

The People and the Blairs conferring over pop policy might seem a touch bizarre, but there are elements within the new album 'Fresco' that make them highly suitable for some sort of Handbag House of Commons. Twelve bouncy floorfillin' tributes to the joys of one-night-in-heaven it ain't. A year into the making 'Fresco' is their most considered record. It allows Small's husky genius to explore a bluesy terrain. It features Pickering's old mate Johnny Marr on guitar. And an angry social conscience prowls through tunes like 'Last Night 10,000' (Homelessness) 'Rhythm And Blues' (Racism) and 'Believe It' (Tabloid-fostered ignorance).

Mike Pickering is 41 with kids. Heather's 32 and just had a kid with her husband, England Rugby League star Shaun Edwards. The Prodigy they are not. Nor the Verve. But there's a level of soulfulness about M People that ought to be recognisable to even the most blinkered youth.

"We've written songs about social issues before, you know", points out Mike. "There are a few. 'Walk Away' is about Ireland, the Troubles. We've done songs about South Africa (Someday). But we're always remembered for the perky songs. People think that's what we're about but I think if we can get them to listen to this song then that'll change."

Moving away from the 'feelgood band' stereotype might not be that easy. There have already been problems. Album track 'Fantasy Island' was put forward for a big-budget US movie, but the lyrics were deemed unacceptable.

"They said, 'You can't have that 'cos the lyrics are contentious' - because it mentions Jews and Muslims and AIDS," Says Mike.

"That kind of mentality gets nobody anywhere," spits Heather. "It’s like, 'Ooh, that’s too big an issue we can't deal with that.' That's nonsense. They're a bit like that in America and it doesn't help. You can't just close your eyes to what's going on."

Those lines in 'Believe It' - "Boombox plays. Who gets the joke?" - seem a little odd for an M People tune. Er, Mike?

"It's all, 'How to get your man'," Heather joins in. "I know a few 20-year-old girls nad I despair at their lack of ambition. Which is sad. I'm really pro-women. But sometimes you do despair. There's all these magazines about using your looks to get a rich man. That's terrible. And there's lots of women who believe in it."

"I find the Spice Girls really offensive," confesses Mike, "At least Take That could dance, They didn't offend me, but these girls really offend me. We have enough ignorance where I come from. And for me they preach ignorance. I can't stand it."

Where's that line about "An idiot wind blows through this land" coming from?

"I was on Factory for four years, I mean that's really serving your dues," says Pickering, "That was hard labour! That was a chain gang!"

What? Producing the Happy Mondays?

So, M People do have hard times to draw on?

Does it piss you off, Heather, that you're seen as 'just' a pop singer rather than a great soul singer?

"We don't see soul as like Blues And Soul magazine and that whole cliquey thing," adds Mike, "We think the guy from The Verve's got soul. Liam's got soul because when he's at the microphone all he's thinking about is the emotions of the song."

"You can love Oasis or hate them," says Heather "But when Liam's at the mike that passion' there and he thinks he's the best singer in the world and his band are the best band in the world. And that's what you want from somebody."

Did you enjoy the fact that your cover of the Small Face's 'Itchycoo Park' irritated some people?

And now you've covered Roxy Music's 'Avalon' As a Drum 'n' Bass tune?

"Drink's responsible for that," admits Mike, "I used to be a real Roxy Music fan and I was listening to it one night on hadphones and you know when you've had a few drinks and you're lying on your back wishing you were Bryan Ferry or Al Green? I could just hear this version of 'Avalon' in me head"

On the spectrum of pop music, do you reckon you're to the left of Simply Red?

It's a question, perhaps, for Tony Blair, who, according to Mike, has plans to turn up at the M People London show. They are, after all, quintessentially, the people's People.

Deeper than you'd think, as passionate as anyone in pop and with Shovell's help, as up for rock 'n' rollin' it as the maddest bon viveeeuuurs in the packet.

You were saying Shovell?

 " And we walk out and they're all applauding us, and there's the whole cast of Home and Away! Then I got on the stage, and that was it, I'd gone. Every time I got into me hotel room to crash the phone'd go, 'Hello Shov, you met me four hours ago and we're gonna have a bit of a party' So I was off again. Ended up onstage the fifth night in Melbourne, shouting at the roadie and he thought it was for spanners, but I needed a bucket. Bleeeuurgh! It all came up. The St John's ambulance people were all staring at me. Needless to say, after that I had a shower and went out again. F-in' loved it, man. Fantastic."