Sweet Female Attitude

Sweet Female Attitude
Origin	Manchester, England
Genres	UK garage house R&B
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Milkk Reverb XL All Around the World
Website	leannebrownmusic.com

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.

History

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.

Following the release of "Flowers", Leanne and Catherine spent much of their time in Denmark and Germany recording the album. Their subsequent single “DJ Play It” didn’t enjoy the same success as "Flowers" and their third follow-up single, 2001’s “Don’t Tell Me” was only released in Germany. November 2001 saw the release of the album In Person, again released only in Germany.

"Flowers" has been included on several Pure Garage compilation albums and is widely regarded as being an old school garage anthem. Their songs "Nothing to Lose", "Dreamin'" and a remix of "Flowers" by Cutfather & Joe were added to the song list of the Xbox 360 game Dead or Alive Xtreme 2.

In 2009, the duo recorded an unsigned single called "Crazy" and an unreleased version of "Flowers" with the Miami Superfly Boys before individually pursuing their own projects. A later mix of "Flowers" by DJ and producer Jamie Duggan would be released on Universal Music in 2009 and a subsequent version by Sam Divine and Curtis Gabriel was released on All Around the World in 2015.

Discography

Album

In Person (2001)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Flowers"	3:50
2.	"8 Days A Week"	4:48
3.	"Don't Tell Me"	3:31
4.	"Rose"	3:54
5.	"Nothing To Lose"	3:20
6.	"Ready For Love"	4:06
7.	"DJ Play It"	5:09
8.	"Dreamin'"	3:29
9.	"Best Friend"	6:11
10.	"New Love"	3:40
11.	"8 Days A Week (Acoustic)"	3:10
12.	"Flowers (Cutfather & Joe Mix)"	3:58

Singles

"Flowers" (2000)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Flowers (Sunship Mix)"	5:02
2.	"Flowers (Cutfather & Joe Mix)"	3:59
3.	"Flowers (Wackside Tweaker Mix)"	7:06
4.	"Flowers (Sunship v Chunky Mix)"	6:24
5.	"Flowers (Solomon’s Precious Mix)"	5:57

"8 Days a Week" (2000)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"8 Days A Week (Sunship Mix)"	5:01
2.	"8 Days A Week (Tribag Mix)"	6:10
3.	"8 Days A Week (Studio 45 Disco Mix)"	4:48
4.	"8 Days A Week (X Men Ten Below Mix)"	5:05

"DJ Play It" (2000)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"DJ Play It (Sunship Mix)"	3:50
2.	"DJ Play It (Hackney Soldiers Mix)"	5:01
3.	"DJ Play It (Trick or Treat Mix)"	6:24

"Don't Tell Me" (2001)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Don’t Tell Me (Hackney Soldiers Mix)"	4:51
2.	"Don’t Tell Me (C & J Mix)"	3:32
3.	"Don’t Tell Me (Wackside Tweaker Mix)"	7:53
4.	"Don’t Tell Me (G4orce Storm Mix)"	7:03

Remixes

"Flowers" - Jamie Duggan Mix (2009)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Flowers (Jaime Duggan Mix)"	4:00

"Flowers" - 2015 mixes

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Flowers (Sam Divine & Curtis Gabriel Mix)"	6:37
2.	"Flowers (Majestic & That Guy Mix)"	3:58
3.	"Flowers (Freejack Mix)"	4:49
4.	"Flowers (ANOTR Mix)"	6:13

External links

• Sweet Female Attitude official site
• Leanne Brown on Last.fm
• Sweet Female Attitude PureDJs.com
• Sweet Female Attitude on Last.fm