Brett Lewis Anderson
(born 29 September 1967) is an English singer-songwriter, best-known as the former lead vocalist of Britpop band Suede. After Suede disbanded, he fronted The Tears, who are currently on indefinite hiatus. Anderson has also released two solo albums.
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BRETT ANDERSON TICKETS
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Biography
Born in
Haywards Heath,
West Sussex,
England, Anderson spent much of his childhood playing sports and practicing hair styles.
In his teens, Anderson played guitar for garage bands such as The Pigs and Geoff, the latter featuring future
Suede bassist
Mat Osman. In the late-1980s, Anderson and Osman formed Suede with Anderson's girlfriend,
Justine Frischmann, soon recruiting guitarist
Bernard Butler through an advertisement in the
NME. After receiving percussional help from former
Smiths drummer
Mike Joyce, in 1991,
Simon Gilbert joined Suede as their official drummer. It was around this time that Frischmann left Anderson for
Blur frontman
Damon Albarn, which created an early rift in the burgeoning
Britpop scene of the early 1990s. After missing too many rehearsals and flaunting her relationship with Albarn while still living with Anderson, Frischmann was fired from the group, going on to front
Elastica.
Even before Suede's first album appeared in stores, Anderson's
androgynous style and vague "confessions" about his sexuality stirred controversy in the British music press. His infamous comment that he was "a bisexual man who never had a homosexual experience" was indicative of how he both courted controversy and a sexually ambiguous, alienated audience. In 1993,
Suede
hit number one on the UK charts. Combining
Morrissey's homoerotic posturing with
David Bowie's glam theatrics, Anderson achieved instant fame in the UK. America, however, was still spellbound by the
grunge revolution and Anderson's grim yodellings clashed with the raw anger of
Nirvana's
Kurt Cobain and
Pearl Jam's
Eddie Vedder. Furthering complications across the Atlantic, due to a trademark dispute with the American lounge singer
Suede, the band were forced to change their name to The London Suede for the American market. Although the departure of songwriting partner Butler in 1994 during the recording of second album
Dog Man Star
(number three on the UK charts) led many to fear Suede's eventual demise, the band continued to release critically and commercially successful material in the UK, such as 1996's critically-acclaimed
Coming Up
(another number one of the band).
Coming Up
proved to be a last high point, as Anderson's well-publicised problems with
crack and
heroin addiction put the band on hiatus in the late 1990s. The band carried on to release
Head Music
(number one on the UK charts and in several countries) in 1999. But
A New Morning
was a commercial disappointment in 2002. In 2003, after the release of their "Singles" compilation, Suede disbanded.
Anderson has commented that the history of Suede is "...ridiculous. It’s like
Machiavelli rewriting
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
. It involves a cast of thousands. It should star
Charlton Heston... it’s like a pram that’s just been pushed down a hill. It’s always been fiery and tempestuous and really on the edge and it never stops. I don’t think it ever will.”
On his own, Anderson collaborated with
Stina Nordenstam, and his guest vocals can be heard on the album
This Is Stina Nordenstam
and has made a duet with
Jane Birkin in 1995 which appeared in 1998 Birkin's Best Of album. He also sang the lyric "You're going to reap just what you sow" in the
Children in Need charity single "
Perfect Day".
In 2004, after resolving their differences, Anderson and former Suede guitarist
Bernard Butler formed the band
The Tears with Will Foster, Makoto Sakamoto and Nathan Fisher and released their debut album
Here Come The Tears,
which was met with mixed critical and popular reactions. It was produced by Bernard Butler and largely recorded at home, and featured the singles "
Refugees" and "
Lovers".
Anderson was close friends with
Simon Hobart (promoter of Popstarz) and was the
DJ at the benefit night held in Hobart's honour after his death.
In May 2006, Anderson announced details of a solo album consisting of 11 tracks, which was released on 26 March 2007. He told
NME that the title would be
Brett Anderson
since "...that's my name, you see." The accompanying video for Anderson's first single "
Love Is Dead" debuted on UK television in February 2007, quickly finding its way to YouTube. "Love Is Dead" made its debut at #42 in the UK singles chart, and the album went to #54 the following week. The keyboardist-producer on his album is Fred Ball, and former Suede bass player Mat Osman joined the live band on tour.
In July 2007 Brett Anderson modelled Nick Hart for Aquascutum's autumn/winter 2007 campaign
In May 2008 it was announced that Anderson's second album was to be premiered on 7 July in a special concert at London's mermaid theatre. A free copy of the album, entitled
Wilderness, was given to all ticket buyers, in the form of a
USB stick. The album was also made available in lossless formats through the
Bowers & Wilkins Music Club on July 8 as well as being released on CD/Downloads via his own label BA Songs. According to Brett Anderson on his website, the recording process was very swift: www.brettanderson.co.uk: " i recorded everything live to 2 inch tape with no click tracks and just one other musician playing cello. the whole thing was recorded and mixed in 7 sunny days in May and it was one of the most satisfying records i have ever been involved with.it is simple, personal, bleak ,raw , romantic and soulful and is full of the jagged edges and hiss and crackle of the studio.". He plays the piano and the acoustic guitars, and is accompanied by Amy Langley on cello. One of the songs "Back to you" written with Fred Ball of the Norwegian band Pleasure is a duet with French actress
Emmanuelle Seigner. The cover photograph of the album is by Allan Jenkins with further photography by Paul Khera who documented the recording process of Wilderness from the song-writing to the premiere in a series of photographs which can be viewed on and
Brett's third album, Slow Attack, will be released in October 2009.
Solo discography
Studio albums
- Brett Anderson
(26 March 2007) - (UK #54) [1]
- Wilderness
(1 September 2008) - (UK #161, UK Indie Chart #16) [2] [3]
- Slow Attack - to be released October 2009
Live albums
- Live in London
(9 May 2007) (Limited Edition of 1500)
- Live at Union Chapel|Live at Union Chapel
(19 July 2007) (Limited Edition of 1500)
- Live at Queen Elizabeth Hall
(20 October 2007) (Limited Edition of 1500)
Singles & EPs
- "Love Is Dead" (19 March 2007) - (UK #42)
- "Back to You" (EP) (9 July 2007) (Non-chart eligible)
- "A Different Place" (21 July 2008) (Digital download)