News of Skunk Anansie’s return to action almost 10 years after breaking up, albeit with the S.C.A.M moniker, has made me nostalgic. The band’s mid-90s releases coincided with my teenage years, a period where I was going to three or four gigs a week and devouring new music at a ridiculous rate. They were also one of the first bands I watched gradually play to larger crowds and more spacious venues going from strength to strength.
It all started in awkward fashion: A friend and I travelled to a small club on the industrial side of Milan to see Therapy? play on their ‘Infernal Love Tour‘. Queuing for the toilet I found my friend amicably speaking to a striking lady who spoke in a strong London accent. Ever the diplomat I nudged my friend and asked: “who the fuck is this?“, my friend looked mortified and whispered “its Skin from Skunk Anansie“, my quick retort as I left to speak to another friend was “who the fuck are Skunk Anansie…”
10 minutes later I was made to eat my words; confronting the predictable scepticism that faces unknown bands the 4-piece burst onto the stage and grabbed the audience by the balls and imprinted themselves on the collective minds of the 300 odd people gathered on that night and ended up outshining the headliners. At the end of their performance I sought out Skin and apologised for my earlier snide remarks; She was extremely cool and even gave me a copy of their debut ‘Paranoid & Sunburnt‘ which I constantly played for the next few months. I definitely knew who Skunk Anansie where now.
A year later the band released their follow up album ‘Stoosh‘ and I spun it obsessively. Building on the experience of months on the road SA seemed more focussed adding varying dynamics and subtle mood switches to their trademark sound and the songwriting was excellent throughout. Ace was as cool a guitar hero as you could find, Cass‘ bass grooves where compelling, Mark delivered a massive sound and Skin‘s voice was strong, extremely unique and as good as any I had experienced. The bands stature was slowly growing and in my own way I was supporting the British underdogs.
My path has crossed the members of Skunk Anansie on a few other occasions over the years. I caught live shows in Milan, Paris, London and Tel Aviv was blown away each time. They also began popping up in some less rock n roll settings. For example:
- I was walking through the centre of Milan with some friends and I caught two quarters of the band shopping in a large department store.
- I was taking my seat in a near empty Tel Aviv cinema for a daytime showing of the Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones mega movie Men In Black when I saw the whole band sitting a couple of rows behind me. They chuckled throughout.
- Recently I found myself standing next to Skin, some ten years from our initial encounter, staring at the same photograph in New York‘s MoMA.
I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with the band’s third (and so far last) album ‘Post-Orgasmic Chill‘. The singles ‘Charlie Big Potato‘ and ‘Secretly‘ were very accomplished songs but deviated too much from the sound I associated with SA. It seemed that the hefty recording budget afforded to them by moving to Virgin gave them a larger sound and more varied instrumentation, but at the expense of some of their immediacy. Additionally, ‘Secretly’ was seemingly used in TV advertising for seemingly every product under the sun from liquors to tampons.
It is clear by now I “quite” like this band and maybe I was just getting precious about their success. So I was surprised and genuinely gutted when I found out they had decided to break up. I still remember the press release claiming they had hit the glass ceiling that affects small British rock bands. Still the members kept themselves busy with various music projects, most notably Mark joined Feeder. Skin herself released 2 solo albums and collaborated with various artists worldwide. One of the best examples is a guest appearance on ‘La Canzone Che Scrivo Per Te‘, a superb track by colourfully named Italian art-rockers Marlene Kuntz.
The band are now recording material for a Best Of album and are also planning a tour, this may be your last chance to catch this formidable outfit live. If they put in only half the energy they did all those years ago you won’t go away disappointed.
MP3’s:
Skunk Anansie – 100 Ways To Be A Good Girl
Skunk Anansie – Infidelity (Only You)
Marlene Kuntz (feat. Skin) – La Canzone Che Scrivo Per Te
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