Music: Neneh Cherry

The Buffalo Stance lady is back in town

Bursting onto the scene with her performance of ‘Buffalo Stance’ on Top of the Pops in 1988 whilst pregnant, and then returning to the charts with her her best known song ‘Manchild’, baby in tow, Neneh Cherry has before and since paddled her own canoe, interspersing the odd solo album (only four in total) with countless collaborations that span rap, reggae, jazz and punk.

Born in Sweden to a Swedish painter and textile artist, and a Sierra Leone drummer, her mother then married Don Cherry, an American jazz musician, who helped to bring her up as well as introducing her to his family, who include musician Eagle-Eye Cherry.

“The way they were with their creativity, their art … the music, and their idea of how they want to live, was all very much connected. They had an idea that they wanted to create together, with other people. So our house was an ‘open house’. A lot of people visited, a lot of musicians came. That upbringing has definitely filtered through into who I am and the way I live”, Cherry has said about her upbringing.

After moving to New York in the early ‘70s, she left school at age 14 and eventually went to London, where she quickly identified with the likes of Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex. “One day I was singing along to their records, Germfree Adolescents or Oh Bondage Up Yours!, but I found my voice. And I’ll never forget it happening.” She also met The Slits whilst touring with her dad, eventually performing with them, but also New Age Steppers and left field jazz-punkers Rip, Rig & Panic, as well as DJing, playing early rap music on a pirate radio station.

Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja and Andrew Vowles (aka Mushroom) both contributed to Raw Like Sushi, and the subsequent success of that album and her long-standing involvement with the Bristol scene enabled her to help Massive Attack, financially and artistically, via helping to arrange some of the music on their debut album Blue Lines.

Her most recent album, Blank Project, is only her fourth since 1988. “I’ve always been doing stuff, being creative. But I got to the point where I starting to feel this longing, craving, itchy feeling – which was the first sign that it was time. I’ve made a few attempts to make other solo records, but when I’ve looked back at the body of work I’ve always felt like I was never quite there. But now I feel like I’m inside these songs – they embody the place that I’m living in right now.”

Prince Albert, 24 & 25 January, 8pm, £12.50