Sweet Female Attitude | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Manchester, England |
Genres | |
Years active | 1996–present |
Labels |
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Website | leannebrownmusic |
Past members |
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Sweet Female Attitude are a UK garage duo, consisting of Leanne Brown and Catherine Cassidy, who are considered a one-hit wonder in the United Kingdom. Their April 2000 single "Flowers", with music video directed by Pete Nilsen and Ryan Davids, made it to number two in the UK Singles Chart. It went on to be the 37th biggest selling single of that year, but the October follow-up, "8 Days a Week", stalled at number 43.
Sweet Female Attitude began life in 1996 when music manager Mike Powell, artist and DJ Shine MC and then seventeen year old Leanne Brown began writing music together. Collectively, they developed a group consisting of three singers including Leanne Brown, Sarah Bridgewood and Charlene Morrison who would later leave the group in 1997. In 1998, Leanne and Sarah were joined by Shine MC and they renamed themselves to "Trinity Way", leading onto their first signing which was filmed by MTV at Manchester's 'In The City' event, an event organised by music Lawyer Rudi Kidd in August 1998.
The record deal signed with Cutfather and Joe Recordings included an album deal which would see the group travelling to Denmark to record at Cutfather Studios. Two songs were chosen for immediate re-record and release, an uptempo song called "That's the Way It Is" and a ballad called "Flowers", the track which was later to be remixed by Sunship and become a UK chart hit.
In early 1999, Shine MC decided to return to his role as a songwriter leaving Leanne and Sarah to front the group. They renamed themselves as Sweet Female Attitude and continued to record and promote their tracks, approaching various record labels up and down the UK. Sarah would also leave the group that same year and Leanne was asked to either front the group alone or find a second singer which led to her holding auditions along with Mike Powell in Manchester. After a series of auditions, they came across singer and musician Catherine Cassidy who would join the group and together with Leanne, would go on to record the album In Person in 2000.
After an initial white label release in 1999 by Milkk Records, a subsidiary of Reverb Records, the Sunship mix of "Flowers" began to gain popularity in the London UK garage scene. Leanne and Catherine moved to London under the management of Gordon Charlton and began to heavily promote the track. "Flowers" was subsequently released by Warner Music Germany in April 2000 selling in excess of two hundred thousand copies, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart, bringing the group a UK and European club tour, TV and radio interviews, including performances on Top of the Pops, MTV, T4, and on Radio One’s 'One Big Sunday'. They were also nominated for a Brit Award.