Labi Siffre
Background information
Origin	Hammersmith, London, England
Genre(s)	R&B Folk Jazz Poetry
Years active	1970 - present
Label(s)	Pye Records China Records EMI Xavier Books
Website	Labi Siffre - Into The Light Labi Siffre - Breaking The Bloody Glass

Labi Siffre (born June 25, 1945) is an English poet, songwriter and singer.

Contents 1 Life and career 2 Album Discography 3 Cover versions 4 External links

Life and career

Born the 4th of 5 children, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital Hammersmith, London to a Barbadian / Belgian mother and a Nigerian father, Siffre was brought up in Bayswater and Hampstead and educated at a Catholic monastery school, St Benedict's School, in Ealing.

Jazz and Blues records provided his musical education: Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Charlie Mingus among many. Jimmy Reed and Wes Montgomery loomed large as guitar influences; Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed and Mel Tormé as vocal influences.

In July 1964 he met his partner Peter Lloyd. Under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, they became legally recognised partners when the Act entered into force in December 2005.

While trying to earn a living as a full time musician, Labi worked as a filing clerk at Reuters in Fleet Street and as a mini-cab driver and delivery man. During the 60s, in a Jimmy Smith style trio, with Bob Stuckey on Hammond Organ and Woody Martin on drums, Labi, on guitar, played for nine months at Annie's Room, a jazz club fronted by the singer Annie Ross. He went on to form another three-piece group called Safari, playing London's Soho clubs. From here Siffre accepted solo engagements in Amsterdam's folk clubs gaining experience and honing his art.

His first real break in Britain came when he toured with Jackie Edwards, the Jamaican Soul and Reggae singer, and then when friends sent a tape of his songs to the DJ, Dave Cash and music publishers MAM. This led to a contract with Festival Records, and his recording debut in 1970 which was released in the UK on the Pye International division of Pye Records.

Siffre's first six albums of songs were released between 1970 and 1975, and a further 3 albums between 1988 and 1998. In the early 1970s he had solo hits with "It Must Be Love" (No. 14, 1971) (later covered by and a No. 4 hit for Madness, for which Siffre himself appeared in the video); "Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying" (No. 11, 1972); and "Watch Me" (No. 29, 1972).

During this period Siffre toured Britain and Europe, both headlining and supporting the likes of Ike & Tina Turner, the Hollies, Chicago, The Carpenters and The Supremes. He often appeared on television, including the series "In Concert" and "Sounding Out".

Having broken Europe and the UK he went to the USA in 1975 supporting Olivia Newton John on the East Coast. He moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and wrote with Tom Shapiro. Around this time Siffre decided to quit the music business as a performer and concentrate on writing. After nine months in California he moved back to the UK when, in 1978 two of his songs, "Solid Love" (performed by Siffre) and "We Got It Bad" (co-written and performed by Bob James) reached the UK finals of the BBC's A Song for Europe.

In December 1979 Siffre released 'One World Song' a duet with Jackie which received heavy rotation on Radio Luxembourg in the final week of that year into 1980. The lyrics of the song reflected a theme which has run throughout much of his songwriting; that of peace and harmony.

Siffre came out of self-imposed retirement from music in 1985 when he saw a television film from South Africa showing a white soldier shooting at black children. He wrote "(Something Inside) So Strong", an anti Apartheid anthem, a song of defiance in the face of oppression and prejudice, a song of personal inner strength and more. The song has remained enduringly popular and is an example of the political and sociological thread running through much of Siffre’s lyrics and poetry since the single “Thank Your Lucky Star” and the album “For the Children” (1973). It won the Ivor Novello Award for "Best Song Musically and Lyrically", and has been used in Amnesty International campaigns, a television advertisement and Alice Walker's film against female genital mutilation: Warrior Marks. His stance on civil and human rights has further enhanced his reputation.

Searching for expression beyond the "limitations of songwriting" he wrote his first poems in 1984. Three books of his poetry have been published: "Nigger" 1993, "Blood on the Page" 1995 and "Monument" 1997. More appear on his blog, "Labi Siffre - Into The Light".

His poetry is direct, robust, multi-layered, insightful, passionate and compassionate, addressing "wide ranging themes of theology, childhood, supposed adulthood, sociology, love, hate, language, critical thinking and the lack of it, communication, various "isms" and the methods by which the mainstream dismisses the marginalised and the dispossessed".

Beginning with “Let’s Pretend” on the 1973 album “For the Children” and especially in his poetry (“Creation Myth Also” being his first published poem) Siffre has been, and remains, a determined advocate for secularism.

His play, "DeathWrite", staged at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff 1997 was later televised.

For rapper Eminem's hit single "My Name Is," hip hop record producer Dr. Dre wanted to use a sample (written by Siffre and including Siffre on electric piano) of his song "I Got The Blues" for the rhythm track. Siffre objected to what he describes as "lazy writing" (in the sleeve notes of the EMI re-mastered CD of the source album Remember My Song): "Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims".

Eminem and Dr Dre had to edit their song to get the sample cleared. The original bootlegged version can be downloaded on file-sharing networks. Labi Siffre's original is available on his 1988 album "So Strong", the 2006 re-mastered EMI CD "The Best of Labi Siffre" and the usual download sites.

He released a new album, The Last Songs, in 2006.

Album Discography

• Labi Siffre (1970)
• The Singer And The Song (1972)
• Crying Laughing Loving Lying (1972)
• For The Children (1973)
• Remember My Song (1975)
• Happy (1975)
• So Strong (1988)
• Man of Reason (1991)
• The Last Songs (1998)
• The Last Songs (Live) (2006)

Cover versions

• "(Something Inside) So Strong" was covered by Kenny Rogers in 1989 (and became the title track to a hit album). The song was also covered by Vanessa Bell Armstrong in 1988 and again by a host of gospel artists as a tribute to Rosa Parks in the mid-90's.
• The Flying Pickets covered the song in their 1994 Album, The Warning.
• Michael Ball also released a cover of the song in 1996, which reached Number 40 in the UK.
• It has also been covered by Rik Waller in 2002, when it was released as a single.

External links

• Labi Siffre's own web site
• An interview with Labi Siffre

• The Argotist interview