(House,Garage House,Disco,Piano House) [CDS] M People - Moving On Up - 1993, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

M People are an English dance music band which formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is from the initials of Mike Pickering, who formed the group.Pickering had been a member of Factory Records dance act Quando Quango, but became more noted as one of the original DJs at The Haçienda. Paul Heard was a member of acid jazz band, Ace of Clubs and Shovell had previously been in the collective Natural Life. The original plan had been to have a roster of different singers for different songs but having been spotted by Pickering and Heard, Heather Small became the distinctive vocalist of the group. She had been in the English Soul band Hot House, which had released a number of critically acclaimed records without scoring any major success.Their first release came in the form of "Colour My Life", a limited white label pressing which got them some recognition, but it was the first official single "How Can I Love You More?" that gave them their first Top 30 hit and a following in and around the Manchester club scene, where Pickering was still DJ-ing. Their first album, Northern Soul, provided other singles, including a full release of "Colour My Life", "Someday" and "Excited", followed by a re-release and repackaging of the album.1993 started with the re-released and remixed single from 1991's "How Can I Love You More?" which was released at the end of January and provided the band with their first Top 10 single, peaking at number 8. While this single was in the chart the band were working on new material for the second album to be released that autumn; a preliminary single, "One Night in Heaven" was released in the summer and peaked at number 6. It provided them with a dance/pop success that set up a bigger worldwide hit with the second single, "Moving on Up". The album Elegant Slumming went into the Top 5 on release and peaked at No. 2, remaining on the chart until the following summer and later winning the band a Mercury Music Prize. A further two Top 10 singles followed: "Don't Look Any Further" (a cover of the Dennis Edwards song) in December, and "Renaissance" which was used as the theme tune to the BBC 2 show, The Living Soap, sending the single to number 5 in the UK Singles Chart.In 1994 and 1995 M People won the BRIT Award for Best British Dance Act, the latter as a result of the release of Bizarre Fruit. The first single from that album was "Sight for Sore Eyes" which climbed to number 6, helping the album to enter the UK Albums Chart and peak at No. 4 and stay in the Top 10 for four months into the following year. The second single from the album was "Open Your Heart", which became their seventh consecutive Top Ten hit in two years and at the Brit Awards '95 they collaborated with Sting on his track "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free". Their third single "Search for the Hero" was later used in the TV advertising campaign for the Peugeot 406. The song got to number 9 in the chart.
In 1995, the band embarked on their first world tour entitled the Come Again Tour and two more singles were lifted from a re-issued album: Bizarre Fruit II which charted and peaked one place higher at number 3; these singles were a remixed "Love Rendezvous" and "Itchycoo Park". The former was the least successful single from the album charting at number 32, and the latter was a cover of The Small Faces 1967 single, charting at number 11.
In the United States, their biggest success was on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where they achieved five Top 5 singles, four of which hit number one.
After touring and promotion of Bizarre Fruit II for 18 months the band took a break in 1996. The album, having been released in November 1995, did not leave the chart until April 1997, becoming one of the biggest selling albums of the decade. They made some outdoor live UK performances called the Summer M Parties in June 1996, at Crystal Palace, Alton Towers plus a televised performance on BBC 1 on 29 June 1996 from Old Trafford, Manchester for The Crowd are on the Pitch: The Euro '96 Extravanganza, where they performed along with bands Dodgy, Madness and fellow Mancunians Simply Red and comedians Nick Hancock and Jo Brand to a crowd of 60,000 at party celebrating the Euro 1996 football championships.In March 1997, lead singer Heather Small gave birth to her son. With the closure by BMG of the deConstruction label in 1996, the band founded their own record label, M People Records, to release the forthcoming album. In September they released the lead single "Just for You" which peaked at number 8 on the chart and two weeks later, their album Fresco was released and went in the UK Albums Chart at number two, going on to sell 1.1 million copies and certified platinum. The band achieved their third multi-platinum selling album and this time appeared on Jools Holland's BBC 2 show, performing album tracks "Never Mind Love", "Angel St" and Small also performed, solo, the million-selling charity single that she appeared on, "Perfect Day".
Fresco also bore the hit single, "Fantasy Island" (number 33) and went on a fifteen-date UK Tour supporting the album to rave reviews. The final single lifted off the album was Angel St which got to number 8 and earned them their tenth Top 10 chart hit in March 1998, making the band one of the most consistent hit-makers of the 1990s on both sales and airplay.During the summer of 1998, the band prepared for their fifth album, a compilation entitled The Best of M People which also contained three new tracks: "Testify", "Dreaming" and a cover of the Doobie Brothers classic: "What a Fool Believes". The album went on to sell 1.75 million, peaked at number 2 and was certified 3x platinum. Of the three new tracks, "Testify" and "Dreaming" were released as singles. "Testify" got to number 12 in October 1998 and "Dreaming" got to number 13 in February 1999, their eighteenth and final single to date.After the release of The Best of M People, the band took an extended hiatus. Heather Small recorded a successful solo album: Proud (UK #12 certified Gold), and it seemed that the band had split. However, a re-packaged Greatest Hits album was called Ultimate Collection released in 2005 leading the band to embark on a short tour of the UK. Small continued to pursue a solo career recording a second solo album in 2006 titled Close To A Miracle (UK #57), her song "Proud", from her 2000 Proud was the soundtrack to the successful London 2012 Olympic bid.
M People toured once again in 2007 as part of the Forestry Commission's 2007 Forest Tours at Delamere Forest, Cheshire; Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire Moors; Thetford Forest, Suffolk and Westonbirt Arboretum, Wiltshire to support The Forestry Commission's social and environmental programmes. Small said: "We have played in many different locations but never in forests so we’re really looking forward to doing these gigs". In addition to these gigs M People performed at the Hampton Court Festival in Surrey, London on 12 June 2007, and the Chichester Real Ale and Jazz festival on 4 July 2007. Elsewhere, they played a concert in Warsaw, Poland on 7 September 2007. The band also played some festival dates in 2008 before Small starred as a contestant in that year's BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing in the UK.
In 2012, as part of a series of Summer Concerts in Kew Gardens from 3–8 July, M People were one of 5 acts performing live on each day of the five days. The other acts included Status Quo, Will Young, James Morrison and the Gipsy Kings. M People performed a 60-minute set on Wednesday 4 July supported by Chic featuring Nile Rodgers.In April 2013, it was announced that the band would undertake an extensive fourteen date 'Greatest hits' tour in October to mark 20 years since the release of the Mercury Music Prize-winning album Elegant Slumming. This was the band's first UK Tour since 2005's Ultimate Collection Tour. Pickering did not take part in this tour.

Moving on Up is the seventh overall single from British band M People and the second single from their second album, Elegant Slumming (1993). Written by Mike Pickering and Paul Heard and produced by M People, it was released on 13 September 1993. The song peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and was the biggest selling M People single.Previous single "One Night in Heaven" had garnered the band a massive-selling summer hit single with both sustained radio airplay and critical acclaim. As another precursor to the highly anticipated album Elegant Slumming, they would release another classic song with a feel good, radio-friendly vibe."Moving on Up" is an uptempo dance-pop and house song with elements of disco, and follows in the footstep of previous single "One Night in Heaven" although this time with much more a sassier, angry edge. It has a harder edge focusing on the end of a relationship from the perspective of a spurned lover. The song was recorded at The Roundhouse Studios in Chalk Farm, London. The backing vocals during the chorus is sung by vocalist Juliet Roberts who was featured prominently on the last single.
The song is made up of fewer, and more simplistic, elements than the last single, but the melody line is guided by the insistently looped infectious moog bassline, subtle rhythm guitar, programmed drumming, and underlying blowy synth effect with high hat synths and a four to the floor thumping house beat. This is embodied by the progressive and euphoric chords and additional chords during the choruses. Finally, Shovell's percussion is more on tambourine and less on bongos.
The middle eight of the song is split between a saxophone break followed by a choral break with the insistent refrain: #"Moving on Up, Moving on Up, Moving on Up, Moving on Up"#. Particular mention goes to the saxophone which provides the songs main instrumental ad-lib comes from the saxophone played quietly throughout and then predominantly during the instrumental break and throughout.
The song is set in the time signature of common time with a faster tempo of 124 beats per minute and is written in the key of C minor. Its start of with a keyboard intro on prominent first keyboard chord structure to move into a joint first and second keyboard (strings) intro looping the same structure leading into Heather vocals.
Lyrically, the song is written from a female perspective towards a useless lover who has let her down again "this time you've gone too far" and is written with the perspective of breaking out of a relationship that clearly no longer works. Throughout there is a sax riff reminiscent of Motown classic "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" by The Temptations."Moving on Up" became the third consecutive M People single chart in the Top 10 and then climb higher. It entered the chart at number four following the strongest ever one week sale for the band to date in excess of 118,000 copies. In the second week the single was then to climb once more to the highest chart position of any M People single, to number two, selling a further 121,000 copies.
In its fourth week, when the parent album Elegant Slumming was released shifting 39,000 copies to chart and peak at number two this still had very little effect on the single sales as it remained at number five for two weeks. This provided M People with a top five single and album for one week for the very first time, which would happen when the fourth single "Renaissance" was released the following February (in 1994).
The single spent a total of five weeks in the top 10, selling a total of over 550,000 copies.
"Moving on Up" proved to be M People's biggest hit worldwide but just reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart. The single was also a success in Switzerland, Sweden and Netherlands.
It also topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the US in 1994. It is also M People's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 reaching number 34."Moving on Up" was serviced to radio five weeks before physical release on Monday 9 August 1993 while "One Night in Heaven" was still being very heavily rotated on UK Radio spending its second month in the Top 15. After the first week on airplay, the single landed at number 61 being played over 300 times on UK Radio. In a direct switch as soon as station played "Moving on Up" more and "One Night in Heaven" less causing the single to glide from 61 32 to 21 to soar to 9 and then to 5 in the week of physical release. Once again, most UK Independent Local Radio stations BBC Radio 2 and particularly Radio 1 were major supporters to the song and had quickly added the song to their A-Lists.
It stayed in the Airplay top ten for a total of seven weeks and then took a further eleven weeks to leave the Airplay Top 75. So after a grand total of 22 weeks, it was still being heavily played when its successor, the slower "Don't Look Any Further" was released to radio. This meant that since May 1993, M People had at least one single continually in the Airplay chart until that December (seven months).The video was filmed in at a studio in Shepperton, London on 7 August 1993 and sees the band performing on stage within a club/bar scene. Heather starts the video in the first shot as she enters and walks down the steps in an elegant black dress and wearing sparkly jewellery. As the video progresses it becomes clear that a literal interpretation of the song is being played out as the packed bar is visited by a couple whose relationship is on the rocks. Heather walks through the club of dancing people singing and looking directly at the camera while Paul Heard plays the bass guitar, Shovell on drums and Mike Pickering on the sax in the background. Before the first verse is finished, the couple are already seen arguing and remonstrating with each other and then, by the end of the chorus, the male part of the couple has already been pulled away and is seen dancing with another girl much to the annoyance of his girlfriend who looks on. By the bridge of the second verse, the girlfriend has clearly had enough and pulls him off the other girl and they are arguing seems more pronounced. He then ignores her and still persists with dancing with the other girl.
The video is inter-cut with particularly striking shots; there are white-shirted twins who watch the unfolding events from the bar throughout and the barman and barmaid who continually flirt across the bar. During the choral middle eight, a stroked black cat, is first seen being stroked, and is seen walking along the bar and then when the camera cuts away, a Frenchman's closer inspection while on an old-fashioned phone, looks though his monacle to see that the black cat has turned white. Additionally, while he is on the phone, a lizard is seen moving across the dialler.
By the final chorus, the girlfriend returns, cup of water in hand, and turns him round from talking with that other girl and pours the water on his head, looks satisfied and he looks shocked. The music then plays out with the final shot of the continually dancing crowd.When performed live, "Moving on Up" proves itself to be the biggest crowd pleaser and since the Bizarre Fruit Tour in 1994 has always the final song of the set and the encore. It's a time for the band to really get in the funky dance groove and turn the song into a highly soaring, hands-in-the-air anthem.
All the members of the band get a chance to shine, with the backing vocalists having their section, Shovell gets a chance to wonder around the stage armed with a tambourine, Paul Heard and Paul Birchall on the 1st and 2nd keyboards, but particularly outstanding is the sax solo performed by Snake Davis in the outro as he has almost 90 seconds to ad lib his way through a jazzy, soulful breakdown solo while the audience clap until the end.
During the Bizarre Fruit II tour, Summer M Parties and Fresco tour, they performed a longer version of the song providing the audience with a chance to chant the refrain: "Moving" six times, before the final chorus.The first two tracks on the CD single were the radio edit and album version. M People themselves created a dub of the original radio edit as the third track, which was the only time this was done on one of their singles. Finally, the fourth track was an actual remix by the American House Music DJ Roger Sanchez on the uplifting 'Roger S. Gospel Revival mix'.
A further mix of the single appeared on the Elegantly American (EP) – the 'MK Movin' Mix’.On UK and European versions of the single the cover appeared with three-quarters of the cover featuring a side profile of lead singer Heather Small looking serious to hint that she's moving away. The bottom quarter of the single has a purple banner all the way across with the title written on it. On US versions of the single, the colour of this banner was red, yellow or blue."Moving on Up" featured on many compilations including Now That's What I Call Music! 27, Telstar's Hits 93: Volume 4 in the UK and many other across the globe. The single has also been featured in many films including the 1997 British blockbuster The Full Monty, The Next Karate Kid and the American comedy The First Wives Club.