Tracey Thorn
Location: London
Websites:
Bio: Born 26 September 1962, Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, UK.
Tracey formed her first band in 1979, Marine Girls (aka the Marine Girls) while still at school with ... (more)
school friends Gina Hartman, and sisters Jane Fox and Alice Fox. Their first official album - recorded in local engineer, Pat Bermingham's garden shed - was 'Beach Party' (1980) released on the TV Personalities’ Dan Treacy’s independent Wham! label before being picked up by London independent, Cherry Red Records for re-release the same year.
In October 1981 Tracey started and English Literature academic course at the University Of Hull. During a holiday afternoon in 1982 back down in Pat Bermingham's shed she recorded the eight songs that were to make up her first solo mini-album 'A Distant Shore' released on Cherry Red in August 1982. It's raw emotion and direct simplicity, allied to Tracey's unique voice, drew unanimous plaudits from the rock press and the album was soon topping the UK Independent Album Chart. The album included the single 'Plain Sailing'.
The same year she had started recording with another artist at the University of Hull, also coincidentally signed to Cherry Red Records – Ben Watt. They chose the name Everything But The Girl (the name stolen from the shop front of a retro furniture shop in Hull). Capturing the emerging popjazz experimentalism of the day, they recorded the 'Night and Day' single for Cherry Red - a cover version of the Cole Porter jazz classic plus two self-penned B-sides. The single went to the top of UK Independent Singles chart in late 1982. Performing on stage at the ICA in London in January 1983 a few weeks later, Tracey famously beckoned the newly jazz-obsessed Paul Weller onto the stage for a secret joint performance - his first appearance since splitting up The Jam a few weeks earlier.
In 1983 the Marine Girls recorded their second album 'Lazy Ways' in London in Brixton's The Fridge studios with Young Marble Giants' Stuart Moxham producing. It was released on Cherry Red. The band toured briefly before imploding and disbanding under an array of personal and geographical pressures.
Tracey returned to the studio with Ben Watt. Everything But The Girl
recorded their debut album 'Eden' produced by Robin Millar in the autumn of 1983 in London before the pair returned to Hull for their final year at university. The album was scheduled for release on Cherry Red, but with the label's A&R chief Mike Alway forming the breakaway label Blanco Y Negro (with among others, Rough Trade's Geoff Travis) with major label funding from WEA UK (now Warner Music), the album was shifted onto Blanco Y Negro/WEA and released in the spring of 1984.
Understated emotion and sharp lyrics mixed with deft pop-jazz arrangements defined the album's mood and the first single 'Each And Every One' cracked the UK Top 40. The album peaked at Number 14 on the UK Album Chart. The band were signed to Sire Records in the US.
The Paul Weller connection continued. Tracey (vocals) and Ben (guitar) then contributed to the debut album by The Style Council with Tracey singing the ballad, 'The Paris Match'. Tracey also sang with Robert Wyatt on 'Venceremos'the debut single by jazz-soul crossover artists, Working Week, whose guitarist Simon Booth has guested on ‘Eden’.
Tracey remained a part of Everything But The Girl for the next sixteen
years. The duo recorded eight more studio albums racking up one platinum and six gold discs in the UK. During that time they took an orchestra in Abbey Road Studios to mine 60's pop-soul influences on 'Baby, The Stars Shine Bright'(1986). On 1988's 'Idlewild' they covered Danny Whitten's folk-rock classic 'I Don't Want To Talk About It' and watched it climb to Number 3 on the UK Top 40. They played several sold out shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall and in 1989 they travelled to Los Angeles to record their breakthrough American album 'The Language Of Life' (incl. VH1 hit, ‘Driving’) with jazz giants such as Stan Getz, Joe Sample and Omar Hakim produced by Tommy Lipuma.
In 1993 following Ben's recovery from a lengthy near-fatal illness, the duo toured America for a year as an acoustic duo before returning to England to absorb the influences of the burgeoning UK electronica scene. It was to create a new high point in their career. They employed electronic music experimentalist John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack) to co-produce the 1994 album, 'Amplified Heart', and harnessed the talents of veteran musicians such as Danny Thompson (John Martyn, Pentangle) and arranger Harry Robinson (Nick Drake, Sandy Denny) to create a 'folk-electronica' prototype.
As the album was completed in late 1993 Tracey accepted an invitation to write and record with Bristol band, Massive Attack who were working on the follow-up to their breakthrough debut, 'Blue Lines'. Supplied only with skeletal demos she wrote the lyrics and the melody to one track, turning it into the seminal title song 'Protection'. Together with Ben she then wrote and sang one more for the project - 'Better Things'.
In the spring of 1994 ‘Missing’ the second single pulled from ‘Amplified Heart’ was remixed for club play. Initial UK remixes by Chris & James and Ultramarine made little impression, but a New York club mix by Todd Terry commissioned by EBTG's US label, Atlantic Records, began to bubble in the gay clubs of Florida and Texas, and on the European summer club scene.
Unimpressed by 'Amplified Heart''s chart performance and lacking insight into the potential of the Massive Attack collaboration and the Todd Terry remix, WEA UK famously dropped Everything But The Girl in 1994.
Massive Attack’s ‘Protection’ was released to enormous acclaim. Meanwhile the Todd Terry remix of 'Missing' was gaining a natural momentum of its own without a marketing budget behind it. It became a slow-burning phenomenon, steadily sweeping across Europe topping pop charts in Germany and Italy until WEA UK were forced under public pressure to re-release the track over a year later in October 1995. It finally peaked at Number 3 on the UK Top 40, staying in the top three over Christmas 1995 for six weeks. In America there was a similar pattern. From the clubs it percolated onto crossover radio with little marketing support from EBTG's US label, Atlantic Records. When the label finally woke up, 'Missing' climbed stratospherically to be the most played track on US radio, peaking at Number 1 on the Billboard Airplay Chart and Number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also broke a twenty-two year record for most weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 (54 weeks).
In 1996 Everything But The Girl signed to Virgin Records, recording the
platinum album 'Walking Wounded' (1996) and its follow-up, 'Temperamental' (1999). UK Top 40 singles during the period included
'Walking Wounded', 'Wrong', 'Single', 'Before Today' and 'Five Fathoms'.
After a lengthy world tour, in 2000 Everything But The Girl played their final concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival before a self-imposed hiatus. Tracey instead chose to focus on the raising of her first children with Ben - twin girls born in January 1998 - and moved out of the limelight completely. A third child, a boy, was born in 2001.
In 2007, with the family more grown up and Ben now carving out a new career as an established international DJ and record label boss (with his own Buzzin’ Fly Records) she returned to the music scene with the acclaimed album 'Out Of The Woods' (Virgin Records). Teaming up with English producer, Ewan Pearson for the first time, and collaborating with other artist-producers such as Charles Webster, Vector Lovers and Alex Santos, the album blended alternative pop, folk and disco and included the single 'It's All True'.
In late 2007 Tracey travelled to Berlin to work with Ewan Pearson again on new songs. The emphasis was to be on stripped back simplified arrangements. The result was 'Love And Its Opposite' completed in 2009. Recorded in Berlin and London, and featuring guest contributions from Hot Chip's Al Doyle, The Invisible's Leo Taylor and Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman, the album is steeped in a compassionate directness.
Set for release worldwide in May 2010 on partner Ben Watt's Strange Feeling Records (sister label to his more well-known, Buzzin' Fly) except in North America (Merge Records), it includes the stand-out track, 'Oh, The Divorces!' already a Single Of The Week in many UK and US publications.
Apart from her appearance with Massive Attack, Tracey's other
collaborations over the years include guest backing vocals for Lloyd Cole and The Go-Betweens in the mid 80's, lead vocals for Adam F ('The Tree Knows Everything', 1997), and vocals and lyrics for Tiefschwarz ('Damage', 1996).
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