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.
Source: www.lisa-stansfield.com
