Skunk Anansie

Skunk Anansie were a British rock band whose members included Skin (Deborah Dyer), Cass (Richard Lewis), Ace (Martin Kent) and Mark Richardson. The group formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2001. They were named after the West Indian folk tales of Anansie the spider-man, with "Skunk" added to "make the name nastier". They were often grouped as part of a Britrock movement, running alongside Britpop.

Lineup

Vocals: Skin (Deborah Dyer)
Bass: Cass (Richard Lewis)
Guitar: Ace (Martin Kent)
Drums: Mark Richardson

Former Members

Drums: Robbie France

History

The group played its first gig at London's Splash club in March 1994 and soon after that two of their songs, "Feed" and "Selling Jesus", appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Strange Days in 1995. "Selling Jesus" became Skunk Anansie's controversial second song to receive radio play, following their first radio release "Little Baby Swastikkka". In 1995 they were voted Best New British Band by the readers of Kerrang! magazine. They were also voted best British Live Act in the same magazine in 1996. In 1997 they were nominated for Best Live Act and Best Group at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

Their first two albums, Paranoid and Sunburnt and Stoosh, were released under One Little Indian Records in 1994 and 1996 respectively. After switching to the Virgin label in 1998, their third and final album, Post Orgasmic Chill, was released in 1999.

The group has been labelled as a "political" band, but the group has emphasized that they would prefer to be labelled simply as a "rock band". Skin herself, however, has described Skunk Anansie as a "clit-rock" group, which All Music Guide clarifies as "an amalgam of heavy metal and black feminist rage". Members Skin and Ace have mentioned the Sex Pistols, Blondie, dub music, reggae, electronica, hip-hop music and world music as significant influences.

Throughout the nineties, Skunk Anansie toured globally with such bands as Lenny Kravitz, Bad Religion, Rollins Band, Therapy?, Rammstein, Soulfly, Sevendust, Oomph!, Staind, and Powerman 5000. Skin made a guest appearance on Sevendust's "Licking Cream," featured on the band's 1999 album Home, and a video was shot for the single in Germany. The group's first collaboration, however, was with Icelandic singer Björk, in which they contributed a rendition of her popular single "Army of Me" specifically for the song's CD-single.

Since the breaking up of the band, Skin has gone on to a solo career, releasing her first album Fleshwounds and her second album Fake Chemical State in March 2006.. Ace has followed a more low-key solo career with Still Hungry, an album with collaborations with many different rock artists. Mark Richardson is now drumming for British band Feeder. It is thought that Cass is concentrating on photography. In 2002 he recorded the album Scars together with Gary Moore.

Discography

For further details of all Skunk Anansie's releases, including tracklistings, see Skunk Anansie Discography

Albums

Cover	Title	Released
Paranoid & Sunburnt	September, 1995	UK #8
Stoosh	October, 1996	UK #9
Post Orgasmic Chill	March, 1999	UK #12
Paranoid & Sunburnt with DVD	December, 2005
Stoosh with DVD	December, 2005

Singles

Cover	Title	Released
Little Baby Swastikkka	1995	Limited release
Selling Jesus	March, 1995	UK #46
I Can Dream	July, 1995	UK #41
Charity	September, 1995	UK #40
Weak	January, 1996	UK #20
Charity (Re-release)	April, 1996	UK #20
All I Want	September, 1996	UK #14
Twisted (Everyday Hurts)	November, 1996	UK #26
Hedonism (Just Because It Feels Good)	February, 1997	UK #14
Brazen (Weep)	June, 1997	UK #11
Charlie Big Potato	March, 1999	UK #17
Secretly	May, 1999	UK #16
Lately	August, 1999	UK #20
You'll Follow Me Down	?	?

* Little Baby Swastikkka was released as a limited edition vinyl record.

Soundtracks and Featuring

Hollow Man (OST) - Track: Charlie Big Potato''
Cruel Intentions (OST) - Track: Secretly
Welcome to the Epidrome - Track: Brazen (Weep)
Tonnage 2 (OST) - Track: Black Skin Sexuality
Mission Impossible (OST) - Track: Weak
Strange Days (OST) - Track: Feed and Selling Jesus
Army of Me CD 2 (Björk) - Track: Army of Me CD Single - Track 3

External links

Official Virgin Records Skunk Anansie site
Kelv's Skunk Anansie fansite - very detailed with tracks, lyrics and guitar tabs
Annu's Skunk Anansie fanpage (Menu links Firefox incompatible, work in IE)

Notes and references

British rock music groups | Punk rock groups | English musical groups | One Little Indian Records artists

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