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She loves Mabel, she says – “I’m such a massive fan” – and Adele too. “If you’re a new band, a small band, you’re not going to make any money whatsoever. The impact on new bands she compares to her own roots in Blue Zone, saying young people will be put off touring because it will cost too much for visas. No politician ever does what they say they’re going to do anyway, or they’ll do half of it and the whole Brexit thing is just total b******s.” I was the sort of person who would always say ‘use your vote’ but what the f*** do you use it for? It’s really awful because if Labour did get in, then fair enough but I don’t know what Corbyn would end up doing. “Honest to god, politically, I really don’t know what to believe in anymore. I see him on a Sunday with his Jesus sandals on, playing a guitar with his little minions around him.” She is also appalled, she says, by the party’s lack of action on the recent antisemitism row she is at a loss where to vote. “I don’t know what trouble this is going to get me into, but that’s the way I see him.
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I think he thinks he can get away with quite a lot.” He’s talking the talk that she doesn’t know yet. “The way he is with young people, it’s like he’s an older man having a younger girlfriend because he can impress her. She rolls her eyes and says that the demands she experienced was simply the norm being a female artist in the industry at that time: “I was like, this is me, and I’m not going to do that because it’s not what I’m about, and I’m not having you and the rest of the world think something of me when it’s not what I represent.” “I am very fortunate in a sense that if somebody wants me to do something and I don’t want to do it, I will stand up – I have stood up – because a lot of the time, what they were asking me to do would make me feel physically sick…” Stansfield stood up to countless industry people, point-blank refusing to do work that would often make her feel deeply uncomfortable. “You have a constant struggle – even now – a constant struggle to fight against people trying to strip you of the interesting things about you and what you do.” “I don’t know why they do this, but by trying to control everything about you, they’re literally stripping away every bit of personality that you’ve got.” She grinds her teeth and hits her fists on the table at the memory. In her trademark candid way, she says she had to fight daily to retain her individualism. Did it make the journey for her harder? No is the straight answer she gives.įor Stansfield, a bigger issue was the industry trying to control everything about her in the early days of her career, from her appearance to musical style. “The Manchester music scene was very male dominated,” she begins, as she racks her memory for examples of female identifying acts emerging at the same time as her from the north. While the likes of New Order, Joy Division and The Smiths were emerging from Manchester around the same time, there was little in the way of northern female acts to follow. “It’s just the thought that everybody was there because of Freddie Mercury. Get on with it – it’s lovely that you’re going to do that.” Stansfield beams at the memory and says she is still overwhelmed by the experience. “I said to him, ‘is it in really bad taste if I do that?’ And then he said, ‘my god, I’m so f***ing glad you’ve suggested that – that’s what this band is all about, bad taste. It turns out Stansfield was trying to pluck up the courage to ask Queen’s Roger Taylor if she could perform “I Want to Break Free” in curlers with a vacuum cleaner on stage in homage to Mercury’s famous video performance. I thought to myself, ‘oh my god, Freddie Mercury was not like that at all.’ I just thought, I’m going to ask him.” She starts to act out what happened next. “When we were at rehearsals, we did one or two days and I just noticed that everyone was just really sombre. (“I wonder what that careers officer is doing now?” she laughs, doffing her flat black cap in mock jest. A critical and commercial success, it sold more than 5 million copies, went triple platinum in the UK and earned her two Grammy nods since then she’s sold around 20 million records in her career to date. Her debut solo album, Affection, certainly won her both the moon and the stars. “It’s like in one of my favourite films, Now Voyager, at the end when Bette Davis says.” Stansfield momentarily clears her throat and starts a routine, mimicking Davis’s voice and mannerisms dramatically: “‘Oh Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon when we have the stars!’ It’s a bit like that, isn’t it? If you wish for the moon then you will get the stars so why not?” “You should set your sights high,” she bellows, recalling how angry the memory still makes her. She had too many teeth and lot of moles with hairs sticking out.” “I always remember being fascinated by her face,” Stansfield says.