Library - Miscellaneous

The lobby of M People's five star hotel is a hub of activity. Radio commentator Derryn Hinch marches across the marble floor looking resolute. A yuppie mum wheels out her funky pram, which, with its pine-green and ocean-blue plastic frame and bulging racing-car wheels, resembles an over-sized Lego toy. A well-to-do couple with aristocratic pretensions swan out to lunch after issuing a string of instructions to the staff. M People's percussionist Shovell -- an incongruous figure with his shaved head, sleeveless flannel shirt exposing a bikie tattoo, and rough jeans -- ducks out of the hotel for a few minutes to stock up on postcards, it later transpires. M People are in town to promote their latest LP, "Fresco", which, despite a lacklustre critical response, has already turned platinum back in the UK. Comfortable in a plush hotel suite, a shaded Shovell, joined by the group's glam diva Heather Small, discusses "Fresco" over chamomile tea (M People's other half -- Mike Pickering and Paul Heard -- are in the next room). Needless to say they feel it's their most uncompromising outing to date.

Although M People are generally perceived as an upmarket dance act, occasionally veering off into soulful ballads, "Fresco" is notable for its spread of easy listening. 'We've always done the slower, more reflective tracks,' counters Heather. 'I think that we're more confident and we are better at what we do and that should be the case with our fourth album. So I don't think that there's a huge change in the sound of the album.' Heather -- decked out with immaculately applied make-up, loosely-worn weave, figure-hugging black outfit and precarious stilettos -- looks like she has just emerged from a video. It's hard to believe that not so long ago she gave birth to her first child.

The group spent longer on this set than their previous albums, because for the first time they didn't feel any external pressure to sustain the momentum of their multi-platinum success. 'By the time we did "Fresco" we were more at ease,' says Heather, 'and we didn't think that we were going to drop out into oblivion.' 'Usually they say if you've had two good years you've been lucky,' adds Shovell. 'This is our eighth year and we're still going strong.' Indeed, M People have become one of those pop perennials like Sade, George Michael, or, at a pinch, Seal. Their music slots into different 90s formats: daytime radio, dinner party, hens' night, bucks' night, divorce splash . . . It's multi-purpose. Even the advertising agencies have solicited "Bizarre Fruit's" feel-good "Search For A Hero" to stimulate consumers' spending urges.

Oddly enough, on "Fresco" M People have in turn covered an FM classic: Roxy Music's "Fresco" But there's a twist in the plot. The band have redecorated "Fresco" with some jungle wallpaper -- a conspicuous first for the group. Is this a case of them jumping onto the drum 'n' bass bandwagon alongside the likes of David Bowie? No, not according to Heather. 'We have always incorporated things that we've enjoyed listening to, and have listened to all our musical lives. And if you live in London those are the sounds that you grow up with, regardless of your racial colour. I mean, Mike probably knows more about reggae than a lot of Caribbean people. It's a real mix of cultures musically.' Heather cites the multi-racial indie band Cornershop as an intrinsically British phenomenon (it's the brainchild of singer/musician Tjinder Singh who explores his Indian -- and English -- heritage). What's more, she believes M People share an affinity with the group. 'I see Cornershop and I know where they're coming from.'

Shovell for his part not only defends M People's jungle foray but also Bowie's recent exploits, emphasising that jungle is 'still under'. 'The only way I viewed that was whether I liked or disliked the record,' he says of Bowie's recent jungle-drenched long-player. 'My only thought was whether or not I felt it was a good job.' Heather believes that enduring artists like Bowie need to introduce new ideas to keep things fresh. 'With someone who's been in music as long as he has, it's gonna take quite a lot to excite him, and that must have excited him, because things come and go. I don't think people should be dictated to.' M People credit "Fresco's" stylistic diversity to the same impulse: they don't want to grow stale. 'When you get complacent -- you think you know it all and you have nothing left to learn -- then it comes through in your music, because it's obvious you're just rehashing what you've done before and people are sick of it. And when you rehash what you've done before, it's always a pale imitation.' It could be argued that "Fresco's" utopian current single, "Fantasy Island", isn't exactly a hundred miles away from club faves like "Movin' On Up", regardless of its funky zip. No doubt it comes down to successful musicians needing to find a balance of familiar elements and contemporary ideas to hold onto their established audience.

Some of "Fresco" was recorded in New York with calibre session musos and backing singers like Will Downing, Audrey Wheeler and Terry Burrus (Miles Davis), while Heather prepared for her son's birth in London. M People are yet to crack the segmented US market -- something Heather puts down to the band's multicultural persuasion. Their transatlantic excursion was not, they insist, an attempt to acquire an American edge. 'There's no way that I'm going to change what I want to do to suit one specific market,' Heather resolves. 'No place is worth that.'

"Fresco" is out through BMG.