The Blu Rose Todmorden

The year 2017 sees Sweet Female Attitude reach its 20th year in the industry. Originally starting off as a collaboration between singer & songwriter Leanne Brown, and songwriters Mike Powell & Shine MC; the brand has seen life as a trio then duo including singer and songwriter Catherine Cassidy before being fronted solely by Leanne Brown, her production team and DJ Nekxtman.

Sweet Female Attitude began life in 1996 as a collaboration between three songwriters: Mike Powell, DJ Shine MC and Leanne Brown; who collectively developed a group including Leanne Brown, Sarah Bridgewood and Charlene Morrison (who would later leave the group in 1997). In 1998 and prior to their first release, they briefly renamed themselves to “Trinity Way” after Shine MC decided to perform alongside Leanne and Sarah. They would later revert back to Sweet Female Attitude after signing their first record deal with Cutfather and Joe Recordings at Manchester’s ‘In The City’ event in August 1998. Shine MC subsequently resumed his songwriting role.

In early 1999, Sarah Bridgewood left the group and Leanne Brown was asked to either front the group alone or find a second singer. After a series of auditions, Catherine Cassidy joined the group and together with Leanne, they would go on to record the album In Person in 2000. It was under the creative direction of music manager Gordon Charlton, that one of their songs “Flowers” was remixed by UK Garage producers Sunship.

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. “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.

Under creative direction of their management, after releasing “Flowers”, Leanne and Catherine spent much of their time in Denmark and Germany recording their first album and promoting the brand on the European market. 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 in Germany, it would later be re-released globally by Reverb Records in September 2015.

After nearly a decade of performing, in 2009 Sweet Female Attitude recorded a fourth ‘unsigned’ single called “Crazy” along with an unreleased version of “Flowers” with the Miami Superfly Boys. Subsequently, an official remix of “Flowers” by DJ and producer Jamie Duggan was released on Universal Music in 2009, leading to the group undertaking a UK tour. Catherine Cassidy would later leave the group in 2014.

In 2015, a “Flowers” remix by Sam Divine and Curtis Gabriel was released on AATW records along with mixes by Majestic & That Guy, Freejack and ANOTR. The release saw global success within the underground house scene. Sweet Female Attitude would go onto release a further single in October 2016 with South African producers Beebar & Symphonik and a further eight singles in 2017, collaborating with UK house producers eSquire, Reload, & the Peverell Brothers; French producer Rio De La Duna, and UK Garage producers Control-S resulting in their track ‘I Quit’ being featured on the Majestic Pure House & Garage 2 compilation.

In 2018 there has been a further five singles and two EP’s by Sweet Female Attitude seeing collaborations with the band Platnum and numerous DJ’s & Producers including underground artists Ill Phil, Danny Blaze, Rick Live, Joe Hunt, Soulecta and No F in Irony. An October release by Krept & Konan also featured a sample from the 2000 single “Flowers” and Sweet Female Attitude joined the House & Garage Orchestra as a guest vocalist to provide two track’s on their album released in November 2o18.