Thursday Open Thread – Black British Invasion

Bailey Rae was born in Leeds to a Kittitian father and an English mother as the oldest of three daughters.
Bailey Rae began her musical career at school where she studied classical violin before she turned her attention to singing: “I started off singing in church, I suppose, but people think it must have been a gospel church because of the whole, you know, black assumption,” she says in reference to her multiracial background. “But it wasn’t gospel at all, it was just your regular Brethren church, very middle-class, where we would sing these harmonies every Sunday. It was always my favourite part of the service, the singing.”

Put Your Records On -2005

 Performing in church broadened Bailey Rae’s musical horizons, and her love for making music was solidified after the church youth leader offered to lend her the money for her first guitar. In her mid-teens, she was highly influenced by Lenny Kravitz, and through him she discovered rock legends Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Bailey Rae formed an all-female (barring the drummer) indie group called Helen, which was inspired by similar acts such as Veruca Salt and L7. The group raised eyebrows on several fronts; in the white male-dominated world of indie music, they were a mainly female group, fronted by a mixed-race singer from Leeds. The moniker “Helen” also drew attention, albeit for not all the right reasons.

The group played many gigs around Leeds and whilst unable to attract offers from any UK labels eventually were approached by US based heavy metal record label Roadrunner Records, home to acts such as Slipknot, in 1998. This deal disappeared before it was even signed however after the bassist became pregnant and the group disbanded.

Bailey Rae studied English Literature at the University of Leeds where she graduated in 2000. While at University, she began work as a hat check girl on an evening in her local jazz club. Permitted to sing on stage with the jazz band when business was slow, it was there that she discovered a different type of music that sent her on a different musical path. 

 

In the three years after she got married, Bailey Rae began working on solo material—this time steering away from her indie past and embarking on a more “soulful” path. She collaborated with Leeds-based funk group The New Mastersounds on the track “Your Love Is Mine,” featured on their 2003 album Be Yourself, released via One Note Records. The following year she again worked with another Leeds-based group, Homecut Directive, on the song “Come the Revolution”, which was the first single from the group’s debut album. In 2004, Bailey Rae got a breakthrough when she was signed by Global Talent Publishing and then approached by Craig David’s mentor Mark Hill, from the duo The Artful Dodger. The resulting collaboration, “Young and Foolish”, was released in April 2005 and brought Bailey Rae to the attention of the major record label bosses. Bailey Rae released her debut single, “Like a Star”, in November 2005 and her first album, Corinne Bailey Rae, in February 2006. It debuted at number one in the UK and entered the top ten of the U.S.Billboard 200, peaking at number four and spending 71 weeks in the chart from 2006 to 2008. The album sold 1.9 million copies in the United States alone.

The lead single, “Like a Star” became a hit in the UK and US. Follow-up single “Put Your Records On”, her biggest hit to date, rose to number two in the UK, and sold close to 1 million downloads in the U.S.

Corinne Bailey met Scottish-born Jason Rae in a jazz club in Leeds where she had a part-time job as a cloakroom attendant. She married him in 2001 at the age of twenty-two and changed her name to Bailey Rae. Jason Rae (born in 1976), a musician, played saxophone for the eight-piece group called Haggis Horns, and had recorded with Bailey Rae.  On March  22, 2008, Jason Rae was found dead in a flat in the Hyde Park area of Leeds. He died from an accidental overdose of methadone and alcohol.