The finest singer songwriter to hail from Manchester is Lee Griffiths, fact!
He might look like a scally but has……..THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL!
The Lee Griffiths
Some seven years ago we at Shadders we trying to blagg a James gig on their greatest hits tour, we ended up by been told unfortunately there we no spare tickets available for the likes of us lowly fanzine writers as they had bigger media fishes to fry. However, we were told that as a consolation there was a brand new ZTT records act playing our town a few days later, a single would be sent to us along we were promised our names would be on the door for the gig. The single duly arrived, along with the James album it has to be said, we picked up the press release; some lad from Manchester blah blah, sings about real life blah blah so the single is popped into the cd player, my god this lad can really sing. As promised our names were indeed on the door at Doncaster’s infamous toilet circuit venue, the Leopard, unfortunately we have no idea what he looks like! It's not exactly packed by the venue’s knack of not actually advertising gigs! There’s a group of musicians with some obvious record company types and some dodgy looking manc geezer stood in a corner, we have a chat the ZTT types, they know who we are and gather our thoughts on the single. The next thing we’re surprised to see the dodgy manc bloke on stage and then he only starts singing, my god what a voice, he looks like a scally but has the voice of an angel! He plays a sensational set, to just a few people but he plays like he’s in front of a packed out Wembley arena, the songs are as memorable as the voice. He’s there with just an acoustic guitar with a couple of musicians for company on stage, it should be classed as folk but he defo don’t look or sound like a cardigan wearing folk muso, but it’s hardly rock in the true sense of the word either. Anyway we aren’t here to pigeon hole people and the songs definitely aren’t no soapy folk nonsense this is real life, school of hard knocks, not in some patronising ivory tower way but somebody writing and singing it as he’s seen it. Over the next couple of years we manage to catch up with Griffo on a good number of occasions, touring and building up fans with the likes of Eddi Reader and more favourably Manc survivor Clint Boon. Each time he gets better and better, confidence never a problem in any situation but as the gigs roll by the songs sound better and better, more rounded and ready for that debut album. Then something strange happened ZTT records got world famous producer Trevor Horn twiddle the knobs on the album and he makes a truly awful job of it! Lee sings about real life shit, bollocks stuff that just happens but Horn decides to try and make it sound like a Guardian readers coffee table album, to say he missed the point is the fucking understatement of the century! It also seemed that ZTT had lost the plot; by the time ‘Northern Songs’ finally came out it had been much delayed and even had suffered a name change! The release was too low key, minimal advertising, no tour, ZTT had missed a real opportunity. First things first about ‘Northern Songs’ it sounds really overproduced, Horn tried to suck the soul out of it, first listen it sounds like he succeeded but give it a good few listens, get past the production and listen to the songs. Once you get to the songs, take in the lyrics and once you do this you’ll realise that this is a collection of truly great songs. The album is self penned bar one select cover, the sublime ‘Sweet Baby James’ by James Taylor, a great song that deserves a great version and that’s what Lee does, it’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up on end! Of Lee’s own tracks to be fair there isn’t a duff track on ‘Northern Songs’ but there’s two that really stand out for us. ‘The one about the smackhead’ is the soundtrack to the haunting downside to modern living but that track is beating that is ‘Astronaut’, it’s a showcase of Lee’s true songwriting genius and anyone wanting to know the measure of the man should listen to this track. He’s is a product of his surroundings yes but also as much a product of some rather fine influences from the aforementioned songwriter James Taylor and everyone’s fav dead scouser John Lennon. So Lee has the voice, the material and the songwriting talent so why isn’t he at number one right now? Fuck knows is the answer. Since the ZTT debacle Lee hasn’t been sitting back and licking his wounds, he’s got a second album written and recorded with a producer of his choice, a man he can trust. Unfortunately due to the usual legal wrangles that seems to kill the dreams of many a talented musician it’s not in the shops yet but Lee doesn’t lie down so it’s just a matter of time. In the meantime go to his website www.lee-griffiths.com and you can download the album in full under the banner of ‘Fuck the record company’ and there’s a few bonus tracks on there too. Lee does some sporadic fantastic live shows, one such gig was recently held in the shadders HQ kitchen to celebrate a member of the team’s birthday, needless to say it was feking awesome! With no pressure (apart from a screaming unappreciative baby in the background) he stormed through some of his favourite tunes by the likes of The Beatles, Pink Floyd and James Taylor then sticking in some of his own classics. We’ve seen some gigs in our time but hats off to this lad, absolutely blinding, everyone blown away especially the birthday girl to whom it was a complete and fantastic surprise. What more do you want for your birthday? All your friends and family around you enjoying themselves with a memorable soundtrack, just remember to get the kettle on for Griffo, he’s partial to being the best singer in the world with a nice mug of tea in his hand!