Scritti Politti
Encyclopedia
Scritti Politti are a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

, originally formed in 1977 in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Although there have been various changes to the line-up, Cardiff-born singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Green Gartside
Green Gartside
Green Gartside , is a British musician, and the frontman of the band Scritti Politti....

 was the founding member of the band and the only member to have remained throughout the group's history.

Overview

Initially a left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

-inspired post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

 British rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 group, Scritti Politti developed into a more mainstream pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 project in the early to mid 1980s, enjoying significant success in the record chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

s in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Scritti Politti originally consisted of Gartside (born Paul Julian Strohmeyer) as the lead vocalist, Nial Jinks as bass player, Tom Morley as drummer, and Matthew Kay as the manager who sometimes played the keyboard. Morley also created much of the artwork on the band's album covers. Gartside and Jinks had gone to school together in South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

, and Gartside met Morley at Leeds Polytechnic
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds Metropolitan University is a British University with three campuses. Two are situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England while the third is situated in Bhopal, India...

, a college they both attended. They played one show as The Against in 1976, doing covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of Chelsea songs. Disillusioned and bored with art school, Gartside and Morley left in June 1978 and moved into a squat at 1 Carol Street in Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Jinks was invited to join the band. Gartside taught him how to play the bass in three weeks.

Gartside recorded a demo of one of his new songs, "The "Sweetest Girl"
The Sweetest Girl
"The “Sweetest Girl”" is a song by British band Scritti Politti, released in 1981 as a single. The single peaked at #64 in the UK Singles Chart...

", in January 1981, and the song was included on the C81 cassette compilation obtained with tokens from the March issues of NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

. The song prompted many major labels to offer Gartside record contracts, but he decided to stay with Rough Trade
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...

. By August 1981, Scritti Politti's debut album was complete and ready for release, but Gartside wanted to wait, most likely because he could not decide on a title. "The "Sweetest Girl"" was released as a single in November and reached only #64 on the UK music chart, but was cited by The New York Times as one of the ten best singles of the year. The single was later covered by pop band Madness
Madness (band)
In 1979, the band recorded the Lee Thompson composition "The Prince". The song, like the band's name, paid homage to their idol, Prince Buster. The song was released through 2 Tone Records, the label of The Specials founder Jerry Dammers. The song was a surprise hit, peaking in the UK music charts...

, with their version reaching #35 in the UK singles chart in 1986. Nial Jinks also temporarily rejoined the band around this time. The band's music was characterized by sophisticated studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

 production
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

, Gartside's sly, punning word play
Word play
Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...

 — influenced by his reading of deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...

 (the group's 1982 debut album, Songs to Remember
Songs to Remember
Songs to Remember is the debut album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti. Released in 1982, the album peaked at no.12 in the UK....

, features a song called "Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...

") — and the tension between the polished pop-funk stylings of their music and the subtle radicalism of the political and social messages embedded in their lyrics.

The group's most successful album, 1985's Cupid & Psyche 85
Cupid & Psyche 85
Cupid & Psyche 85 is the second album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti.It remains the band's most successful album, reaching No. 5 in the UK, and was certified Gold by the BPI for 100,000 copies sold. The album contained five singles, three of which were top 20 hits in the UK...

, spawned three UK Top 20 hits with "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
"Wood Beez " is the first hit single for British soul group Scritti Politti. It is, as the title says, a tribute to Aretha Franklin and displayed the group's smooth soul and R&B sound to a wide commercial audience, at least in the UK, where the single peaked at #10 in the charts, becoming the...

", "Absolute", and "The Word Girl
The Word Girl
"The Word Girl" is a UK hit single for British soul group Scritti Politti. It was released in 1985 as a single from the group's album, Cupid & Psyche 85....

", as well as a US Top 20 hit with "Perfect Way". The personnel for this album differed from that of their first album, and featured keyboardist David Gamson
David Gamson
David Gamson is a keyboardist/musician . He has worked with, among others, Ke$ha, Adam Lambert, Chaka Khan, Meshell Ndegeocello, Green Gartside, Sheila E., George Benson, Luther Vandross, Donny Osmond, Miles Davis, Al Jarreau and Roger Troutman.He is perhaps best known for his distinctive...

 and ex-Material
Material (band)
For the rock band of the same name, see The MaterialMaterial is a musical group formed in 1979 and led by bass guitarist Bill Laswell.-1978-82: The band:...

 drummer Fred Maher
Fred Maher
Fred Maher is an American drummer, programmer and record producer.He was a member of Massacre , Material, Scritti Politti, Lou Reed, and is best known as the producer of I'm Talking's album Bear Witness , Lou Reed's album New York , Matthew Sweet's album Girlfriend , and Information Society's self...

, both of whom would collaborate with Gartside on songwriting and production duties. Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...

 would also produce three songs for the album.

This new line-up remained for the band's next album, 1988's Provision
Provision (album)
Provision is the third album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti, release in June 1988.The album was the band's second top ten hit in the UK, reaching #8, and was certified Gold by the BPI for 100,000 copies shipped....

. This album was a Top 10 success, though it only produced one Top 20 hit ("Oh Patti"). After releasing a couple of non-album singles in the early 1990s, as well as a collaboration with B.E.F.
B.E.F. (British Electric Foundation)
B.E.F. are a band/production company formed by former Human League members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh who later became Heaven 17 .-History:Ware and Marsh's first release as B.E.F...

, Gartside became disillusioned with the music industry and retired to South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

 for the rest of the decade. He returned to music-making in the late 1990s, releasing two critically acclaimed albums, 1999's Anomie and Bonhomie (which included various rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

 and hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 influences) and 2006's stripped-down White Bread, Black Beer
White Bread, Black Beer
White Bread Black Beer is the fifth studio album from vocalist and guitarist Green Gartside's band Scritti Politti. It features the single "The Boom Boom Bap". For this album Gartside returned to Rough Trade Records, with whom he had recorded his first album back in 1982...

which returned to the more experimental era of the band's history.

Origins

The name Scritti Politti was chosen as a homage to the Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 theorist Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...

: The name is generally understood to refer to Gramsci's political writings (although the correct spelling in Italian would have produced "Scritti Politici"). Gartside changed it to 'Scritti Politti' as he thought it sounded more rock and roll, like "Tutti Frutti
Tutti Frutti (song)
"Tutti Frutti" is a 1955 song by Little Richard, which became his first hit record. With its opening cry of "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bop-bop!" and its hard-driving sound and wild lyrics, it became not only a model for many future Little Richard songs, but also one of the...

".

In the mid 1970s, Gartside was studying fine art at Leeds College of Art and Design (now Leeds College of Art). The Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...

 'Anarchy' tour which included The Damned and The Heartbreakers
The Heartbreakers
Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, also known as The Heartbreakers, were an American rock & roll band formed in New York in May 1975. The band was part of the first wave of punk rock.-History:...

 was launched at Leeds Polytechnic on 6 December 1976, and inspired Gartside to form a band with his childhood friend Nial Jinks, and fellow student Tom Morley. For their first public performance supporting local Leeds punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 group SOS the group went under the name 'The Against'. Upon finishing their studies the group relocated to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...

 around 1977 where they lived in a squat
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....

 at 3 Regent's Park Road and in the Carol St. Collective. Alongside other groups of what has been termed the DIY ethic
DIY ethic
The DIY ethic refers to the ethic of self-sufficiency through completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are more experienced or able complete them for one's behalf. It promotes the idea that an ordinary person can learn to do more than he or she thought was possible...

 or movement (notably the Desperate Bicycles
Desperate Bicycles
The Desperate Bicycles were an English new wave group who released a series of independent recordings in the late 1970s and inspired many other bands to do likewise. The Desperate Bicycles pioneered the do-it-yourself ethic of punk, adopting a proselytising role exemplified by their ardent...

 and Steve Treatment, the latter being associated with the Swell Maps
Swell Maps
Swell Maps were an experimental English rock group of the 1970s from Birmingham that foreshadowed the birth of post-punk.Influenced by the disparate likes of T.Rex and the German progressive outfit, Can, they created a new soundscape that would be heavily mined by others in the post-punk era...

), the group released a DIY record titled "Skank Bloc Bologna" on their own St. Pancras label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 in 1978. This appropriation of the means of production
Means of production
Means of production refers to physical, non-human inputs used in production—the factories, machines, and tools used to produce wealth — along with both infrastructural capital and natural capital. This includes the classical factors of production minus financial capital and minus human capital...

, to quote from the Marxist parlance that can be heard among the lyrics of these early works, might well have been equally inspired by the group's initial admiration for, and contact with, the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 left-wing rock band Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...

.

To the raw energy of punk, Scritti Politti added a creative spontaneity and a mock-philosophical intelligence in their lyrics, with scholarly allusions to Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

, Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...

, Derrida, Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote influentially on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus , both co-written with Félix...

, and Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...

. In early tracks, the punk-like fracturing of language and spikiness of the sound were held together by more lyrical melody than the more austere music of other left-field groups from the post-punk scene, such as Gang of Four
Gang of Four (band)
Gang of Four are an English post-punk group from Leeds. Original personnel were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill...

, London art-rockers This Heat
This Heat
This Heat were a British experimental music group formed in early 1976 in Camberwell, London by multi-instrumentalists Charles Bullen , Charles Hayward and Gareth Williams .This Heat were active in the ascendancy of British progressive rock and punk rock, but stood apart...

 or the Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 based The Pop Group
The Pop Group
The Pop Group are a British post-punk band from Bristol, England, formed in 1978, whose dissonant sound spanned punk, free jazz, funk and dub reggae. Their lyrics were often political in nature...

.

"Skank Bloc Bologna" picked up airplay on John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

's BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 show, and the band were signed to Rough Trade under Geoff Travis
Geoff Travis
Geoff Travis is the founder of both Rough Trade Records and the Rough Trade chain of record shops. A former drama teacher and owner of a punk record shop, Travis founded the Rough Trade label in 1978.-Biography:...

 in 1979, making them labelmates with the other Cardiff avant-garde band, Young Marble Giants
Young Marble Giants
Young Marble Giants were a post-punk band formed in Cardiff, Wales in 1978. A trio, their music was constructed around the powerful and minimal instrumentation of brothers Philip and Stuart Moxham along with the vocals of Alison Statton.-History:...

. Scritti Politti released two EPs in 1979 with singles "Bibbly-O-Tek", "Doubt Beat", "OPEC/Immac" and "Hegemony". "Hegemony" led to more melodic songs such as "Confidence", which in turn hinted at the direction the band would take in the 1980s. Gartside then slimmed the band down to a three piece.

By the time of "4 A-sides", a blend of strong melody and rhythmic jaggedness had been achieved. The band exhibited an explicit do-it-yourself attitude, which manifested itself in their hand-made record sleeves with detailed breakdowns of production costs, including addresses and phone numbers of record pressing plants, and even their own Camden squat address for feedback.

1980s

However, whilst on a UK tour with Gang of Four and Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...

, Gartside was overcome by the pressures of stage fright
Stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, whether actually or potentially . In the context of public speaking, this fear is termed glossophobia, one of the most common...

 and anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...

, leading to his first heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 at age 23. In order to recover from ill health, he retreated to his native Wales and began writing an album that was to be heavily influenced by the R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...

 and New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 sound he was listening to. The first outing of one of the new songs was "The "Sweetest Girl"
The Sweetest Girl
"The “Sweetest Girl”" is a song by British band Scritti Politti, released in 1981 as a single. The single peaked at #64 in the UK Singles Chart...

", which was featured on C81; a free cassette tape
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...

 given away with the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

. The song - which features Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...

 on keyboards - received strong reviews, but the track did not get a wide release for ten months, by which time momentum was lost, and it only achieved a minor placing in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 at #64.

1981's "The "Sweetest Girl"" marked a stylistic change toward the more melodic, and was followed by minor hits "Faithless" (UK #56) and double A-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 "Asylums in Jerusalem" / "Jacques Derrida" (UK #43). Drummer Tom Morley, departed in November 1981. The debut album, Songs to Remember
Songs to Remember
Songs to Remember is the debut album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti. Released in 1982, the album peaked at no.12 in the UK....

, was released on Rough Trade in August 1982. Displaying Gartside's previously hidden reggae influence, it was a critical and commercial success, reaching #12 in the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

. One of Rough Trade's most unlikely success stories, the album became their biggest selling release to date. Also during this period, Gartside recorded a duet
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...

 with Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...

 on the Eurythmics
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...

 track "Wrap It Up", for their Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) album released in early 1983.

Gartside was becoming influenced by the new sounds coming out of New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, especially hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

. He signed with Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...

 in 1983 (and with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

 in the US.) The original line-up was disbanded and Gartside moved to New York.

Collaborating with veteran producer Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...

, David Gamson
David Gamson
David Gamson is a keyboardist/musician . He has worked with, among others, Ke$ha, Adam Lambert, Chaka Khan, Meshell Ndegeocello, Green Gartside, Sheila E., George Benson, Luther Vandross, Donny Osmond, Miles Davis, Al Jarreau and Roger Troutman.He is perhaps best known for his distinctive...

 and Fred Maher, the first recording to emerge from these sessions was the single: "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
"Wood Beez " is the first hit single for British soul group Scritti Politti. It is, as the title says, a tribute to Aretha Franklin and displayed the group's smooth soul and R&B sound to a wide commercial audience, at least in the UK, where the single peaked at #10 in the charts, becoming the...

". Released in April 1984, "Wood Beez" was an immediate UK hit, peaking at #10, and was also successful in Australia, charting at #25. A series of intricately-programmed dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

/soul-style hits followed, including "Absolute" (UK #17), "Hypnotize" (UK #68) and the reggae-styled "The Word Girl
The Word Girl
"The Word Girl" is a UK hit single for British soul group Scritti Politti. It was released in 1985 as a single from the group's album, Cupid & Psyche 85....

", which became Scritti Politti's biggest UK hit single, climbing to #6 in May 1985.

In June 1985, Scritti Politti released their second (and most successful) album, Cupid and Psyche '85, with songs produced by Arif Mardin and performances by numerous session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

s. The LP was a Top 5 hit in the UK and also sold well in the US. In addition to the four already released singles, the album included the song, "Perfect Way". It was only a minor hit when released in the UK (#48) but it became the band's biggest US single, peaking at #11. Stylistically, the songs on the album feature dense timbral counterpoint (in fact, nearly every song on the album), using synthesizer chords and effects (as well as "real" instruments), programmed largely by David Gamson
David Gamson
David Gamson is a keyboardist/musician . He has worked with, among others, Ke$ha, Adam Lambert, Chaka Khan, Meshell Ndegeocello, Green Gartside, Sheila E., George Benson, Luther Vandross, Donny Osmond, Miles Davis, Al Jarreau and Roger Troutman.He is perhaps best known for his distinctive...

, creating a style that they would refine in their next album. In the US, "Wood Beez" was rereleased as the followup single to "Perfect Way", but it only managed to hit #91 (it had previously hit #4 on the US Dance Charts in late 1984).

In 1986 Gartside and Gamson wrote and produced "Love Of A Lifetime" for Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...

, which appeared on her Destiny
Destiny (Chaka Khan album)
Destiny is the sixth studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1986.Destiny was Khan's follow-up to the platinum-selling I Feel for You and was as high tech as its predecessor - symptomatically and characteristically for its period with more producers...

album. The same year they also collaborated to write the title track for Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...

's album, L is For Lover.

In 1987, Scritti Politti appeared on the Who's That Girl
Who's That Girl (soundtrack)
Who's That Girl is a soundtrack album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, from the film of the same name, and was released on July 21, 1987 by Sire Records. It also contains songs by her label mates Scritti Politti, Duncan Faure, Club Nouveau, Coati Mundi and Michael Davidson...

soundtrack with the song "Best Thing Ever". This track also appeared on the next Scritti Politti album, 1988's Provision
Provision (album)
Provision is the third album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti, release in June 1988.The album was the band's second top ten hit in the UK, reaching #8, and was certified Gold by the BPI for 100,000 copies shipped....

, which continued Gartside's development into synth-funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 as well as reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 and other styles. The roster of session players became even more notable, including contributions from Roger Troutman
Roger Troutman
Roger Troutman was the lead singer of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the Funk movement and heavily influenced West Coast hip hop due to the scene's heavy sampling of his music over the years...

 and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

, who performed on the single "Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy)", a UK #13 hit. However, although the album charted in the Top 10 in the UK (#8), it did not match the commercial success of Cupid and Psyche '85 in the US, stalling at #113.

1990s and later work

They hit the UK charts again in 1991 with their cover of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

' song, "She's a Woman
She's a Woman
"She's a Woman" is a song by The Beatles. It was released as the B-side to "I Feel Fine" in 1964, their last single release that year. It reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 from frequent airplay.-Composition:...

", which featured guest vocals from Shabba Ranks
Shabba Ranks
Shabba Ranks is a Jamaican dancehall musician.He was one of the most popular dancehall artists of his generation. He was also one of the first Jamaican deejays to gain worldwide acceptance, and recognition for his 'slack' lyrical expressions and content, when "ridin' di riddim"...

 and a remix version by William Orbit
William Orbit
William Orbit is an English musician, composer and record producer, perhaps best known to most for his work on Madonna's album Ray of Light. He has also co-produced several unreleased Madonna songs originally recorded for other albums...

. It became Scritti Politti's final UK Top 20 single, peaking at #20. However, a corresponding album never materialised, with Gartside deciding on another hiatus.

The hip hop inspired album Anomie and Bonhomie was released in 1999, and involved even more session artists. The now bearded Gartside dived directly into the now commercially accessible hip hop scene, borrowing tradesmen of the genre such as Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...

 and Jimahl amongst others. While considered by many critics to be a return to form, the album was not as commercially successful as previous output, reaching only #33 on the UK Albums Chart.

In 2003, Gartside resurfaced on Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...

's album Body Language
Body Language (Kylie Minogue album)
Body Language is the ninth studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue, released on 20 November 2003 by Parlophone. While Body Language failed to reach the chart and sales success of its predecessor, 2001's Fever, it still managed to chart inside the top five in several countries...

, duetting on the Emiliana Torrini
Emilíana Torrini
Emilíana Torrini Davíðsdóttir is an Icelandic singer, best known for her 2009 single Jungle Drum, 1999 album Love in the Time of Science and for performing "Gollum's Song" for Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.-Early life:Torrini grew up in Kópavogur, where, at the age of...

 co-write "Someday".

In February 2005 Rough Trade released Early, a compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 of Scritti Politti's earliest recordings.

In early January 2006, Gartside and a new incarnation of Scritti Politti, billed as 'Double G and The Traitorous 3', played a show in Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

. This was Gartside's first live appearance since 1980. This band, including journalist/musician Rhodri Marsden
Rhodri Marsden
-Journalism:Rhodri Marsden currently writes a weekly column for The Independent called "Life On Marsden", and a monthly "Cyberculture" spread for the same newspaper about technology and the internet. He previously wrote The Observer Music Monthly's "Guitarist Wanted" column, which required him to...

 on keyboards and Dicky Moore
Dicky Moore
Dicky Moore is a London based singer-songwriter who also plays guitar with Scritti Politti. Moore formed the band Scintillate in 1994 and enjoyed local success until their split in 2005. Shortly afterwards Moore joined Scritti Politti on guitar after meeting Green Gartside in a Hackney pub...

 on guitar, played a number of concerts previewing a new album, White Bread, Black Beer
White Bread, Black Beer
White Bread Black Beer is the fifth studio album from vocalist and guitarist Green Gartside's band Scritti Politti. It features the single "The Boom Boom Bap". For this album Gartside returned to Rough Trade Records, with whom he had recorded his first album back in 1982...

, which was released on Rough Trade on 29 May 2006. Later that year, White Bread, Black Beer was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize
Mercury Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize and currently known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established by the British Phonographic Industry and British...

, and gained critical praise.

The current line-up toured worldwide (under the Scritti Politti name) on the back of the album's success, and completed a UK tour in November 2006. They appeared at the Bestival
Bestival 2006
Bestival 2006 was the third annual Bestival organised by the Rob da Bank's Sunday Best label. It was held at Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle Of Wight between 7 September - 9 September. Around 17,000 people attended the three-day event...

 music festival in September 2006, and at Summer Sonic Festival
Summer Sonic Festival
The Summer Sonic Festival is an annual two or three-days rock festival held at the same time in Osaka and Chiba. The majority of the bands playing in Osaka the first day go to Chiba the following day and vice versa....

 in Japan. On 19 December, they played a short set at the Rough Trade Christmas party in London.

In 2007, Gartside worked on an album with Alexis Taylor, the singer with Hot Chip
Hot Chip
Hot Chip are an English electronic indie band. They have released four studio albums—Coming on Strong, The Warning, Made in the Dark and One Life Stand.-Formation:...

. The pair met at the Mercury Music Prize ceremony, and played a concert supporting Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid
Steve Reid
Steve Reid was an American jazz drummer who played with a wide range of artists including Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, James Brown, Fela Kuti and Sun Ra, and as a session drummer for Motown.- Biography :...

 at KOKO in London in March 2007.

In 2009, Gartside participated in 'Very Cellular Songs', a concert at The Barbican celebrating the music of The Incredible String Band, featuring Richard Thompson, Kamila Thompson
Kamila Thompson
Kamila Thompson is a singer-songwriter based in London and New York. Currently recording her first album, she has been seen touring with Bonny Prince Billy, Teddy Thompson, Sean Lennon and others, as well as appearances with the Wainwright clan at Carnegie Hall and with a host of illustrious...

, Alasdair Roberts, and Dr. Strangely Strange
Dr. Strangely Strange
Dr. Strangely Strange were an experimental Irish folk group, formed in Dublin in 1967 by Tim Booth , vocals and guitar, and Ivan Pawle bass and keyboards.-Career:...

.

Absolute, a compilation of singles and album tracks was released on 28 February 2011, with two new tracks, "Day Late and a Dollar Short" and "A Place We Both Belong" both written with David Gamson. Gamson played a large part in the making of Cupid & Psyche 85
Cupid & Psyche 85
Cupid & Psyche 85 is the second album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti.It remains the band's most successful album, reaching No. 5 in the UK, and was certified Gold by the BPI for 100,000 copies sold. The album contained five singles, three of which were top 20 hits in the UK...

 and Provision
Provision
Provision may refer to:* Provision , an industrial dance / synthpop band from Houston, Texas, USA* Provision , a term for liability in accounting* Provision , a term for a procurement condition...

.

Whilst promoting the "Best Of" album, Gartside confirmed that he is hoping to complete an album of new material for Rough Trade later in 2011.

Legacy

Miles Davis covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 Scritti Politti's track "Perfect Way". Davis also appeared on the Scritti Politti track "Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy)" on their album Provision. According to Phil Hayes, it is believed to have been one of Davis' last studio performances.

"The "Sweetest Girl"" was covered by Madness
Madness (band)
In 1979, the band recorded the Lee Thompson composition "The Prince". The song, like the band's name, paid homage to their idol, Prince Buster. The song was released through 2 Tone Records, the label of The Specials founder Jerry Dammers. The song was a surprise hit, peaking in the UK music charts...

 on their 1985 album, Mad Not Mad
Mad Not Mad
Mad Not Mad is the sixth album by the British ska band Madness, released in 1985 . It was their only album not to feature founder member Mike Barson, who had left the group the year before....

.

There are clear references to Scritti Politti's "sugar coated pop" sound on Max Tundra's
Max Tundra
Ben Jacobs, more commonly known by the stage name Max Tundra, is an English multi-instrumental musician, singer and music producer. His work is predominantly electronic music but incorporates non-electronic styles and instruments...

 "Parallax Error Beheads You
Parallax Error Beheads You
Parallax Error Beheads You is the third studio album by Ben Jacobs under his stage name of Max Tundra. The album was released on October 20 2008 through Domino Records. Tundra has worked on the album for the past six years.-Release:...

". He even welcomes the comparison stating "[the track "Which Song"]...sounds like Scritti Politti had they signed to Warp in 1991, Max admits, “I like the Scritti comparisons.”".

In his memoir "Lost in Music," Giles Smith
Giles Smith
Giles Smith is a British journalist and former musician. In 1998 he was named sports journalist of the year.Smith was one of the two members of the band Orphans of Babylon who in 1983 produced the cassette Pinch Me - I Think I'm In Kent.This cassette featured 36 tracks including "Helluva Break By...

 describes himself as "unhealthily obsessed with the clean lines of Scritti Politti's Cupid and Psyche
Cupid and Psyche
Cupid and Psyche , is a legend that first appeared as a digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius' novel, The Golden Ass, written in the 2nd century CE. Apuleius likely used an earlier tale as the basis for his story, modifying it to suit the thematic needs of his novel.It has...

, an album on which nobody does anything unless a computer says so."

Singles

Year Title Peak chart positions Album
AUS
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...

NL NZ
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...

UK
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

US
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

US Dance
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...

1978 "Skank Bloc Bologna" non-album tracks
1979 "2nd Peel Session"
1979 "4 A-Sides"
1981 "The Sweetest Girl
The Sweetest Girl
"The “Sweetest Girl”" is a song by British band Scritti Politti, released in 1981 as a single. The single peaked at #64 in the UK Singles Chart...

"
64 Songs to Remember
1982 "Faithless" 56
"Asylums in Jerusalem" / "Jacques Derrida" 43
1984 "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
"Wood Beez " is the first hit single for British soul group Scritti Politti. It is, as the title says, a tribute to Aretha Franklin and displayed the group's smooth soul and R&B sound to a wide commercial audience, at least in the UK, where the single peaked at #10 in the charts, becoming the...

"
25 26 10 91 4 Cupid & Psyche 85
"Absolute" 10 26 17
"Hypnotize" 68 43
1985 "The Word Girl
The Word Girl
"The Word Girl" is a UK hit single for British soul group Scritti Politti. It was released in 1985 as a single from the group's album, Cupid & Psyche 85....

"
18 18 6
"Perfect Way" 48 11
1988 "Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy)" 45 36 13 Provision
"First Boy In This Town (Lovesick)" 40 63
"Boom! There She Was" 31 55 53
1991 "She's A Woman
She's a Woman
"She's a Woman" is a song by The Beatles. It was released as the B-side to "I Feel Fine" in 1964, their last single release that year. It reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 from frequent airplay.-Composition:...

" (feat. Shabba Ranks
Shabba Ranks
Shabba Ranks is a Jamaican dancehall musician.He was one of the most popular dancehall artists of his generation. He was also one of the first Jamaican deejays to gain worldwide acceptance, and recognition for his 'slack' lyrical expressions and content, when "ridin' di riddim"...

)
20 non-album tracks
"Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me" (with Sweetie Irie
Sweetie Irie
Derrick Bent , better known as Sweetie Irie, is a British reggae singer and DJ.-Biography:Born in London in 1971, Bent began working on local sound systems as a teenager, bringing him to the attention of Angus Gaye of Aswad, who recruited him to toast on the dancehall mix of their single "On and On"...

)
47
1999 "Tinseltown To The Boogiedown" 46 Anomie & Bonhomie
2006 "The Boom Boom Bap" White Bread, Black Beer
2011 "A Day Late And A Dollar Short" Absolute
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Albums

Year Album Peak chart positions
NL NZ
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...

UK
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

US
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

1982 Songs to Remember
Songs to Remember
Songs to Remember is the debut album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti. Released in 1982, the album peaked at no.12 in the UK....

36 12
1985 Cupid & Psyche 85
Cupid & Psyche 85
Cupid & Psyche 85 is the second album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti.It remains the band's most successful album, reaching No. 5 in the UK, and was certified Gold by the BPI for 100,000 copies sold. The album contained five singles, three of which were top 20 hits in the UK...

9 12 5 11
1988 Provision
Provision (album)
Provision is the third album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti, release in June 1988.The album was the band's second top ten hit in the UK, reaching #8, and was certified Gold by the BPI for 100,000 copies shipped....

28 13 8 113
1999 Anomie & Bonhomie 33
2006 White Bread, Black Beer
White Bread, Black Beer
White Bread Black Beer is the fifth studio album from vocalist and guitarist Green Gartside's band Scritti Politti. It features the single "The Boom Boom Bap". For this album Gartside returned to Rough Trade Records, with whom he had recorded his first album back in 1982...


Compilations

Year Album
1983 The Basics
2005 Early
2011 Absolute

See also


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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