The Shamen

This article is about the Scottish electronic music group, The Shamen. For the type of healer, see Shaman. For the album by Pep Love and Jay Biz, see The Shamen (album).

The Shamen
L-R: Mr. C, Victoria Wilson James, and Colin Angus
Background information
Origin	Aberdeen, Scotland
Genres	Electronica Techno House Acid House Rave Alternative rock
Years active	1985–1999
Labels	Moksha Recordings One Little Indian Records Epic Records
Past members
Colin Angus Richard West (Mr C) Will Sinnott (Deceased) Jhelisa Anderson Keith McKenzie Peter Stephenson Derek McKenzie Victoria Wilson James Plavka Lonich Bob Breeks Gavin Knight Allison Morrison

The Shamen were an experimental electronic music band, from 1985–1999, initially formed in Aberdeen, Scotland, as a psychedelic-influenced indie rock act. The founding members are Colin Angus (born 24 August 1961), Derek McKenzie (born 27 February 1964) and Keith McKenzie (born 30 August 1961) . Peter Stephenson (born 1 March 1962) joined shortly after to take over keyboards from colin. Several other people were later in the band. Colin Angus then teamed up with Will Sinnott who together found credibility as pioneers of rock/dance crossover, before moving on to international commercial success when joined by Mr. C with "Ebeneezer Goode" and the Boss Drum 1992 album.

History

1980s

The Shamen were preceded by Alone Again Or, the Love-inspired name under which they recorded their first psychedelic electronic pop singles. After their name change, further singles picked up airplay from John Peel. Released in June 1987, The Shamen's first album, Drop illustrated their love of 1960s psychedelia, with influences such as Love, Syd Barrett and the 13th Floor Elevators.

By mid-1987, frontman Colin Angus was discovering the sounds of early house-music pioneers, such as S-Express and M/A/R/R/S, and increasing his knowledge of the latest studio gadgetry. By September 1987, the Shamen were applying these techniques to their own music, mixing rock guitars, techno and hip-hop rhythms and sampled radio voices to create the prototype rock-dance sound which was to prove so influential to groups like Jesus Jones and EMF. However, the newfound sound proved too radical for co-founder and vocalist Derek McKenzie, who then left the band in late 1987 to study at university. The Shamen were suddenly one crucial player short. Help was at hand in the charismatic form of Will Sinnott (23 December 1960–23 May 1991), aka Will Sin, who joined the group in October 1987, on bass, freeing up Colin Angus to handle vocal and guitar chores. Sinnott's musical background was an extensive one. He had already made an impression as part of the Can/SAHB influenced improvisation troupe Edith And The Ladies, and his father, a master wood craftsman, had made guitars for the Incredible String Band and John Martyn.

"Knature of a Girl" was the first record by the Shamen to feature Sinnott, but it wasn't until June's "Jesus Loves Amerika" single that the techno influence began to show. By this stage, Angus and Sinnott had become hooked on the acid house movement taking place in London, and its music and clubs were to exert a massive influence on the pair. Keith McKenzie and Peter Stephenson were less impressed by these new developments, and left the group the following summer, after the January 1989 release of the In Gorbachev We Trust album, which saw the group further enhancing their sound.

Angus and Sinnott relocated to London, allowing them to start afresh, and plunge headfirst into the emerging rave scene. 1989 was to be a busy year. They set out on their legendary Synergy tour, a nightclub experience combined with live music from The Shamen and others like Orbital and with DJing from the likes of Paul Oakenfold, Mixmaster Morris.Mr C, and Evil Eddie Richards The tour was to last nearly two years. Synergy was innovative at the time, in being a touring rock dance club introducing live bands to clubber's and house, techno and ambient Dj's to rock fans. They also released the Phorward mini album, produced by ex-Fiction Factory singer/songwriter Kevin Patterson.

1990s

Their third album, En-Tact, was released in 1990, and it spawned the hit singles "Move Any Mountain (Progen '91)", "Hyperreal" and "Make It Mine". Also notable was the appearance of rapper and DJ Mr. C (real name Richard West), as well as incorporation of a female vocal talent, Plavka Lonich – The transformation into a successful rave-music act was complete. Tensions had already begun to show, however. The band's barely concealed espousal of the then-fashionable New Psychedelics, the artistic pressures of altering direction from that of an acceptably skilled guitar band to an electro-pop group. As they continued their Synergy tour, their popularity in the United Kingdom began to rapidly expand.

In May 1991, The Shamen headed to Tenerife, to film a video for "Move Any Mountain". On 23 May, Will Sinnott drowned while swimming off the coast of La Gomera. Colin Angus later said:

"When it first happened, I was still reeling from the shock of Will's completely unexpected and tragic death, and I couldn't think about the Shamen at all, couldn't see how anything could continue. But as I came to terms with it and thought about the situation I realised that what the Shamen's about was positivity and that positivity is like the spirit of the music and positivity acknowledges the need for change. So for those reasons I elected to carry on and also I knew that the name Shamen really meant a lot to Will and that was one of the main attractions for joining the band for him."^[1] Soon afterwards, in July 1991, Plavka Lonich chose to leave the band.^[2]

With Mr C now a full member of The Shamen, and Jhelisa Anderson (who was chosen to replace Plavka) providing guest vocals, the Boss Drum album followed in 1992. Boss Drum featured a spoken-word collaboration, "Re:Evolution" with Terence McKenna, and The Shamen's biggest and most controversial hit: "Ebeneezer Goode". "Ebeneezer Goode" was accused of promoting drug use, owing to the refrain, "Ezer Goode, Ezer Goode" as homophonic with "E's are good" ("E" being slang for the dance drug Ecstasy) and to double entendre drug references throughout the song. This echoed similar references in previous songs such as "Synergy"'s "M D M A-zing... we are together in ecstasy". Despite – or maybe because of – the subsequent storm of publicity, the song stayed at the top of the UK charts for 4 weeks.

Subsequent singles such as "Boss Drum" and "Phorever People" were chart hits, and they were voted "Best New Act" by Radio 1 listeners at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party in 1992, but after the unexpected success of Ebeneezer Goode some long-term fans believed they paled in comparison to earlier singles.^{[citation needed]} As Terence McKenna observed:

"Nothing ruins you for the underground like success. So when Boss Drum went double platinum, they were obviously 'establishment'... I've talked to Colin about this, and he agrees. It would have been wonderful to hit it big at 23. At 35 it becomes a pain in the ass, and you just have to manage the money and the image."^[3]

However, The Shamen's new mainstream popularity enabled them to release an unusually large number of remix singles, EPs, and LPs during the Boss Drum era, including the "Face EP", the "S.O.S. EP", and the On Air and Different Drum albums. On Air featured a series of popular tracks from En-Tact and Boss Drum as performed live on BBC radio; Different Drum was a remix album containing alternate versions of every track from Boss Drum. The tracks "Boss Drum", "LSI (Love Sex Intelligence)", "Phorever People", "Ebeneezer Goode", and "Re:Evolution" were all released as singles in their own right. It was however impossible for the band to fully escape the shadow that Will Sin's untimely exit had cast across them. At a time and in a scene when performers were very often both masked and anonymous, the emerging early 90s Electrorock world had lost one of its more notable personalities.

Axis Mutatis was released in 1995, with new vocalist Victoria Wilson James replacing Jhelisa Anderson. Early special editions of this album featured a bonus disk, Arbor Bona Arbor Mala, an ambient album.

Always seeking to push out musical and communication boundaries, the Shamen saw themselves as an information band. Their Internet site Nemeton was amongst the first uk music sites to host to unique web based events, e.g. releasing the first ever UK band single and LP's on the net in 1995^[4] and it also features a remarkable piece of software devised by Colin to convert the DNA structures of human life into electronic music. "S2 Translation", a track on "Axis Mutatis", was generated using this software.[1]

The Shamen continued recording into the late 1990s, releasing two additional LPs with an increasingly experimental bent. Their penultimate studio album, the instrumental Hempton Manor, followed an acrimonious split with their label One Little Indian. It is alleged to have been recorded in seven days to conclude the recording contract with One Little Indian, and the first letter of each track spells out "Fuck Birket", referring to label founder Derek Birket, who wanted the group to move back into more commercial territory.^[5] UV, in 1998, was their last album. UV was released independently on Moksha Recordings and marked a return to form, with both modern techno production and classic Shamen song structures.

Mr. C has since continued as a house music DJ and became a successful nightclub owner of the The End club. As of 2007, he was also recording as a member of the group called Sycophant Slags, with Francis Harris a.k.a Adultnapper on his record label, Superfreq Records. Colin Angus worked in a project called Pablo Sandoz, from 2004 to 2008.

Band members

• Colin Angus - Vocals, guitars, keyboards (1985–1999)
• Derek McKenzie - Vocals (1985–1987)
• Keith McKenzie - Drums (1985–1988)
• Allison Morrison -live Keyboards, backup vocals (1985–1986)
• Peter Stephenson - Keyboards (1986–1988)
• Will Sinnott - Bass, vocals, keyboards (1987–1991)
• Richard West (Mr C) - Vocals, keyboards (1989–1999)
• Plavka Lonich - Vocals (1990–1991)
• Cheryl Melder - live Vocals (1991–1992)
• Richard Sharpe - live Keyboards (1991-1992)
• Bob Breeks - additional live keyboards (1992–1999)
• Gavin Knight - live drums (1992–1999)
• Jhelisa Anderson - Vocals (1992–1993)
• Victoria Wilson James - Vocals (1994-1998)

Discography

Main article: The Shamen discography

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
• List of number-one singles from the 1990s (UK)

References

1. ^ Chaos Control interview, 1993
2. ^ Splash Magazine article, 1991, plavka.com.
3. ^ Terence McKenna interview, Oct 1996
4. ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/2658102305/in/photostream/
5. ^ "Shamen, The - Hempton Manor (CD, Album) at Discogs" Discogs.com, 2009, webpage: DC: notes "the first letter of each track spell...".

External links

• Official Shamen website