MUSIC

...and soul, and jazz, and on. Julian Owen meets the singularly talented Lady Nade.

“I guess Lady Nade is a bit diva-ish,” confides the person closest to her. “She wants a fuss made of her.” Let’s clear this one up quickly: the revelation isn’t slanderous gossip, but an explanation, and comes from the Lady’s creator, Nadine Gingell. “When I’m on stage I’m nervous and have to put on a front. ‘Lady Nade’ is about getting into character, being someone else.”

On stage and off, in the last five years or so Nade has become emblematic of the Bristol music scene at its best: a distinctively individual performer, but fully aware of the community around her, a pupil become teacher. It was as pupil that Venue first came across her, just after she’d negotiated an early-years fork in the road: “I really liked drama and music in school. I was thinking of doing a drama course after college, and then the Access To Music course came up.” Rock Desk was invited to address Nade’s class and, at talk’s end, she was one of those brave enough to offer up a MySpace address for our consideration. Thus, later that evening, we got to enjoy one of life’s Bloody Hell! moments. Blue in tone, jazz in flavour, Nade’s is a singular voice: a commanding alto haunted beyond its years, oak deep and rounded, the kind you’d expect to hear spun from a thick cut of shellac at 78rpm.

Shortly after our meeting, she was a shoo-in for a ‘Young stars of tomorrow’ feature. Nade takes up the story. “This promotion company invited me to the studio. Grant [Massive Attack’s Daddy G] was there, and Dave Brayley [DCB Promotions]. He told me they were looking for singers, had been coming to my gigs and following me since the article. I was like, ‘I love Venue!’ I knew the classic songs, but not their repertoire, so I was nervous they’d ask me what ones I knew: ‘Er... that karma one..?’” Though nothing concrete came of the session, says Nade, “it was really nice just to have that opportunity; a great experience.”

Back then, she was still playing with her college band, the funk-and-beats-leaning Soul Karate Space Orchestra, and the launch pad to a versatile solo career encompassing blues, soul and jazz, as heard on newly released debut EP, ‘Wrap Me Up, Pick Me Up, Take Me Home’. “I go through phases,” she explains, “and don’t want to tie myself down to one style. I’m trying to reach different audiences. Some of my songs are turning out kind of country at the moment. I think it’s from listening to loads of Leonard Cohen and Loudon Wainwright. Amazing songwriters.” She’s no slouch herself: “I’ve never known my father/He’s never known himself, or so I’m told,” she sings on the new EP.

“I grew up with my granddad and listened mainly to his records, 50s rock ’n’ roll stuff.” With girlish glee she starts singing The Coasters’ ‘Yakety Yak’. “I didn’t even know that there was pop until the Spice Girls came out. Then I got into dance music, going out to raves, then a rock phase where I was listening to Nine Inch Nails and Muse.” The latter proved an unlikely catalyst, sending her straight towards her most recognisable influence. “I was looking for their version of ‘Feeling Good’, typed it in wrong, and the Nina Simone version came up. I was like ‘Oh my God! Why have I never heard of her before?’ My grandad said, ‘If you like her, then you might like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald.’ You just keep on going, finding new artists, looking at their influences, and then follow what they were listening to.”

As well as ATM, Nade enrolled on the Colston Hall’s REMIX scheme and, encouraged by her mentors, Clumsy, attended an open mic night at the Old Duke. “I was shaking, threw up before I performed.” Hence the Lady Nade persona and, today, her confidence-bolstering open mic hosting at No 51. “I thought: it wouldn’t just be about music and playing, but talking with the audience every 10 minutes.” High-profile support followed. “Rita Lynch came down, Sian Evans from Kosheen. It’s so nice to see big Bristol acts actually putting something back.”

She’s doing that herself, at REMIX. “Now I’ve passed all my qualifications I’m an official music leader. I know how much I got out of being guided, so to be able to go and do that for someone else is really rewarding.” Work largely comes during school holidays, but also “open sessions for young people in housing difficulties. We get them in for a couple of hours on a Friday night and go ‘Hey, you don’t have to get bladdered if you’re going through a hard time, you can come here and make some music.’” Thus far, Bristol has largely had Nade to itself. Not for long. Festival plans are afoot, including a just-confirmed booking at the Secret Garden Party. We trust they’ll make a fuss of her.

LADY NADE PLAYED THE GRAIN BARGE ON FRI 11 FEB. FFI: WWW.LADYNADE.CO.UK
 

Copyright Julian Owen 2011

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