‘James Brown kept cutting our stage time’ – how the Stylistics made You Make Me Feel Brand New
‘The first time we opened for James Brown, we got 20 minutes on stage.Then when he heard the crowd response, he cut it to 15.By the end of the tour, he’d cut us back to five’Three of us were in a Philadelphia group called the Monarchs and the other guys were in the Percussions.When we left school, some went on to university and others were drafted into the military.The Monarchs were left with three members and the Percussions with two, so our English teacher and manager, Miss Beverly Hamilton, suggested we combine.
Our guitar player, Robert Douglas, came up with the band name, which suggested something stylish.As a five-member group, we modelled ourselves on the Temptations.After we released our first single, You’re a Big Girl Now, Avco Records hooked us up with the songwriter and producer Thom Bell.His production and material made the “Philadelphia sound” – and the sound of the Stylistics.Thom could be a little arrogant.
“Just do like I say,” he’d tell us,But we were just 17 and 18, so we respected him because of what he’d written for the Delfonics,Thom and the lyricist Linda Creed wrote such great material: there were five Top 10 songs on our first album,We never turned any of their songs down,Whenever you heard one for the first time, you got the chills.
When Linda first sang the melody to You Make Me Feel Brand New, I thought: “Wow, that’s a nice-sounding song.” I used to ask her: “What have you gone through to come up with these words?” They were simple lyrics but everyone could relate to them.You Make Me Feel Brand New was a joint lead vocal, with Russell Thompkins Jr.It was the first time I’d sung lead on a record.I went into the studio, did two takes and wanted to change it, but Thom was like: “No, no, leave it alone.
”Everything happened so fast for us.We did a tour opening for James Brown, and in the US south we saw the remnants of segregation – they’d painted over the separate signs on bathrooms for black and white people, but you could see them beneath.I think James liked us.When we first opened for him, we got 20 minutes.Then when he heard the crowd response to us, he cut it down to 15.
By the end of the tour, he’d cut us to five.He knew we were good.In the Monarchs and the Percussions, we covered songs by the Temptations and Sam & Dave, whatever was hot at the time.But combining the two groups took things to another level.Our guitarist, Robert Douglas, and our road manager, Marty Bryant, wrote You’re a Big Girl Now.
When a local label put it out, it became a hit in what we call the tri-state area: Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore.Then Avco signed us and took us national.Thom gave us so many hits: Stop, Look, Listen (to Your Heart); Betcha By Golly, Wow; You Are Everything.The list goes on.He was producer/arranger and also a teacher: you had to pay attention to learn.
Once we became successful, people like Elton John, the Jackson 5 and Dionne Warwick would come in to town to hear what he was doing,Thom and Linda were a songwriting partnership made in heaven,Linda was in her late 20s, not that much older than us,But she could take a simple phrase like “I love you” and turn it into a story,I don’t know whether it’s true that she wrote You Make Me Feel Brand New just after getting engaged, but she sang it to us with Thom playing piano and suggested the two separate lead vocals.
By the time a song reached us, Thom had everything in his mind and would play the piano, creating the recordings with the musicians called MFSB – Mother Father Sister Brother.While he was recording the rhythm section, he’d already know what the horns or violin were going to do.The moment we walked in the studio, it was down to business.The strange thing with You Make Me Feel Brand New is that, although it got amazing responses from audiences whenever we performed it, our label thought it was too long to be a single.We kept knocking at their door and eventually someone must have said: “These guys are right.
” So they shortened it for radio.When we sing it now, 50 years later, fans respond to it like it was just yesterday.The Stylistics tour the UK until 30 November.
UK will allay Trump concerns over Chagos Islands, says minister, as Priti Patel says Tories opposed to deal– as it happened
Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, was replying to Nigel Farage about the Chagos Islands. He said that, if the UK had not negotiated an agreement with Mauritius, “a legally binding decision against the UK [on sovereignty] seemed inevitable”. He said:I fundamentally disagree with what [Farage] has had to say.Let me be absolutely clear, this government inherited a situation where the long-term secure operation of this crucial military base [Diego Garcia] was under threatInternational courts were reaching judgments. International organizations were taking steps not to undermine Mauritian sovereignty, and this threatened the secure and effective operation of the base
Kemi Badenoch is her own worst enemy … and a gift for Keir Starmer and Labour | John Crace
On balance, Keir Starmer can probably live with this. The first four months of his time in office may not have been quite as straightforward as he would have liked – he must have been hoping for a six-month honeymoon period – but at least he can tick off prime minister’s questions as something he doesn’t have to worry much about.Kemi Badenoch is turning out to be the gift that keeps on giving … to the Labour party. Put simply, the more you get to see of her the less there appears to be.Behind her rather patronising, condescending facade there’s a largely empty interior
Labour tells watchdog of police failures over intimidation of MP and supporters
Police failed to intervene when the family of Shabana Mahmood, now the justice secretary, and her supporters faced intimidation during this year’s general election campaign, Labour has told the elections watchdog.In a document seen by the Guardian, party officials said officers from West Midlands police left the count on polling day before Mahmood, a close ally of Keir Starmer, and members of her family were barracked by political opponents in the seat of Birmingham Ladywood.The alleged incidents happened amid a tense campaign between Mahmood and Akhmed Yakoob, the solicitor who campaigned primarily against Labour’s policies on Israel-Palestine.Officers declined on three occasions to intervene after intimidation of Mahmood’s canvassers by supporters of Yakoob, the submission to the Electoral Commission said. It is also claimed that a Labour canvasser who was a black woman was told by a Yakoob supporter she should not be in a mainly Asian area because the residents were “not her people”
Peter Mandelson’s consultancy advised Shein until early 2024
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Sue Gray rejects envoy role amid warnings Keir Starmer was to withdraw offer
Sue Gray has decided not to take up the post of nation and regions envoy after it became clear Keir Starmer was planning to withdraw his offer, the Guardian understands.Sources said the prime minister’s former chief of staff, who was on a “short break” between roles after standing down almost six weeks ago, had been told No 10 was likely to rescind the job offer before she had even taken it up.Downing Street insiders had grown concerned about the media attention that would follow Gray, which could have made it harder for her to carry out the role. They were also unclear about what exactly the job would entail.Sources told the Guardian that Starmer, who is in Baku at the Cop29 climate summit, was expected to give Gray a peerage
Green party says Starmer must do more to cut energy use to meet net zero targets – as it happened
The Green party has said that, if Keir Starmer wants to achieve his net zero targets, he will need to do more to get people to cut their energy use. Responding to Starmer’s announcement about a new emissions reduction target for 2035, the Green party MP Ellie Chowns said:The announcement of an 81% cut in emissions by 2035 is welcome – we need to remove fossil fuels from our economy as rapidly as possible.However, the transition to clean energy needs to be matched by moves on energy reduction. We need a mass home insulation programme and large-scale investment in public transport and active travel. Instead, we have seen Labour downgrade the retrofitting of homes, fail to make solar panels on new builds mandatory, hike bus fares by 50% and offer only loose change for walking and cycling
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