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Lisa Jane Stansfield was born in
Manchester on April 11th 1966. Her family moved to
Heywood, then to Rochdale at age 11. Lisa has an
elder sister, Karen, and a younger sister, Suzanne.
Lisa's style is one of soul, jazz, and dance music.
She admits that her mother's playing of Diana Ross
and the Supremes was her first musical influence,
with her idols being Barry White and Marvin Gaye. At
the age of 14, she entered a talent contest
sponsored by The Manchester Evening News. It was at
a club - The Talk Of The Town - where she won a
singing competition, which led to TV .
Approaching the age of 15/16, she started to record,
making successful pop records. Wanting to get her
records played on a show called
"Razzamatazz", she sent pictures and her
recordings. From this, the producer hired her for
the show.
About 1983, Lisa, and former school mates, Andy
Morris and Ian Devaney, formed the group Blue Zone
(known as Blue Zone UK in the US). They wrote some
songs, produced a demo, and took it around to record
labels.A small indie label, Rockin' Horse Records
signed them. Rockin' Horse was eventually bought up
by Arista Records. Blue Zone's first single "On
Fire" was getting popular, but a disastrous
fire at King's Cross made them pull the record as
not to offend. The next tune was "Thinking
About His Baby", with the b-side "Big
Thing". KISS-FM picked up on "Big
Thing", as did the clubs, and it sold 10,000
singles in a week.
Andy and Ian had worked previously with the
production team of Matt Black and Jonathan Moore,
know as Coldcut, on the song "Stop This Crazy
Thing". They told Coldcut of Lisa's vocal
skills, and in 1989, Blue Zone with Coldcut recorded
and released "People Hold On". The song
soared to Number 11 on the UK charts. On the
strength of this hit, Arista signed Lisa as a solo
artist, with Andy and Ian as her composers,
musicians, and producers. Coldcut returned the
favour by producing Lisa next record "This Is
The Right Time".
"All Around The World" went to Number One
in 1989, and the album "Affection" became
an international hit, selling 4 1/2 million copies
worldwide.
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