ALISON LIMERICK

“. . . . full of energy and vitality and when you combine this with her incredible voice you know that this woman is a special talent.” Melody Maker

alison Limerick was born in London and trained as a dancer at the London School of Contemporary Dance. She went on to perform with Ballet Metropolis and MAAS Movers. Although first singing professionally for the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Phoenix Dance, alison’s powerful vocals were soon in demand on commercial sessions. She found herself working with artists and songwriters including The Style Council, Pete Murphy and This Mortal Coil. alison is one of the (uncredited) singers heard performing the closing theme song on each episode of the BBC’s Blackadder the Third series.

Session work led to a successful solo recording career that took alison to the forefront of the international dance scene. Signed to Arista Records in 1990, she released her first solo album, And Still I Rise in 1992. Named after one of alison’s favourite Maya Angelou poems, the album yielded four singles in addition to the worldwide hit Where Love Lives:
Come Back For Real Love - production care of Arthur Baker and Lati Kronlund with extra BVs by Jocelyn Brown and Papa Dee; remixes by Paul Oakenfold/Steve Osborne;
Make It On My Own - produced by Steve Anderson; remixes by Tony Humphreys and Todd Terry
Getting It Right - co-written with Steve Anderson who produced; Frankie Foncett and Masters At Work on remix duties
Hear My Call, most notably mixed by Driza Bone (Billy April/Vincent Garcia).

The 2nd album With A Twist produced two singles - Time Of Our Lives and Love Come Down, the latter a cover of an Evelyn Champagne King tune, both tracks gaining alison a place in the UK national top 40. Although Frankie Knuckles claimed the lion’s share of production, the album also featured contributions from Dave Morales, The Beloved and the John Waddell/Tim Bran partnership.

In 1996 Arista released Alison Limerick: Club Classics, a remix album. From this release Where Love Lives again topped the dance charts with Make It On My Own following. For the first time Where Love Lives was released in America and reached number 4 in the Billboard Hot Dance 100 Chart. To top off the year alison was nominated for a MOBO award.

The album Spirit Rising, released in 1998, featured the single Put Your Faith In Me (released in ’97, produced by Living Joy's Visnadi Brothers) which became a top 5 dance track. A second single Let’s Hold On (to Love) and an Italian release of Never Knew also came from the album.

‘Where Love Lives, a track so mammoth,
that even the term classic seems inappropriate.’ TOP

There can be no doubt that it was the 1991 release of Where Love Lives - voted the ‘Greatest Dance Record Of All Time’ in Mixmag - that catapulted alison onto the dance scene. A huge dance hit, not only in the UK but across the world, that has so far been included on over 50 compilations world-wide, including all the main players’ ‘Classics’ collections (Cream, Pasha, Ministry Of Sound, Dave Pearce’ 40 Classic Dance Anthems and the Pete Tong Collection). Time-Out voted it one of the 20 Best House Tracks Ever. DJ Magazine described it as a game-changer, “A seminal track that altered dance forever”. The song must also be a contender for the most remixed track in dance history and includes all-time classic mixes by such luminaries as Frankie Knuckles and David Morales, whose Classic Mix shines brightest in the minds of many fans.

Writing/singing collaborations include Love Will Keep Us Together with the James Taylor Quartet for their album In The Hand Of The Inevitable, tracks for each of the five Vibrophonic albums, two tracks with Japanese band Key of Life for their self-titled album (released on Victor), Workin’ On It on Angel Reef, This Girl on Identity Records, Let Me Lead You To Heaven on Rebirth and In The Blood a song co-written with Xpress 2 released on the Skint Label. The versatile vocalist has worked with other producers including Arthur Baker, Joe T Vanelli