[ Music ]
My career in the entertainment industry
has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent.
“Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects”
industry professionals, whether famous stars, or behind-the-scenes staff have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stores. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information
on how they evolve into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to start them, discuss their struggles and successes and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. It's ready for intriguing behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment.
[ Music ] Hi, I'm Tony Meantour. Welcome to almost live Nashville. Joining us today is Allison Limerick. She is a celebrated UK-based singer-songwriter
whose powerful soulful voice has defined generations of dance and house music.
Born in London and trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance, she began her career blending performance art with music from Western musicals to backing vocals for icons like the style council. She exploded on the global scene in the early 1990s with her timeless club Anthem, where love lives.
A soaring house classic that topped US dance charts multiple times and remains a staple in clubs worldwide. Follow-up hits like make it on my own, cemented her status as a dance diva, earning her the best female artist award at the 1992 DMC Awards. With a career spanning decades, Allison has collaborated with legend
such as Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, and Brooklyn Funk Essentials, while continuing to perform live at festivals, orchestral house events, and venues across the globe. Her enduring legacy lies and tracks that uplift, empower, and keep the dance floor alive.
She has so much to share about the stories behind her iconic songs and her exciting plans for her future. So before we dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted show right after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for joining us today.
Pleasure, Pleasure, absolutely pleasure. Yes, great to have you here. In your early years in the 90s, you performed in pubs and bars in London.
“Could you tell us a bit about the history of what led you there and what got you started?”
Well, yeah, even before the 90s, because the 90s all kind of kicked off with the single. But prior to that, I had been a singer for higher. I've done sessions. I've been in a couple of bands that try to get a deal,
and just get bands that gigged. I did two Western musicals, one out of town musical, one regional musical. Yeah, I was busy. reasonably busy. Yeah, that's great.
Whether we get a deal or not, all we want is to do what we love to do. Exactly. I've been so lucky and I've just been able to keep doing what I love to do. Yeah.
Yes, it's the, I guess, the mid-80s. So in the 90s, you were doing musicals, you were doing bars, pubs. That's kind of what springboarded your career, I understand. So I was in, I was actually doing a weird kind of fashion show where the DJI owners didn't want to use models, but they wanted to use performers
of, so we had jugglers, we had dancers, we had singers. And Latte Kronland who wrote where love lives. He saw me singing God Bless the Child of all songs. And said, I want to work with that voice. Oh, kind of hit me up after the show finished said,
and I'm, I'm a producer. I'd love to work with you. Do you fancy doing it? I love it. Yeah, why not?
And that was about two years before he wrote where love lives.
“So it, we did, I think we did maybe three songs.”
The first time I worked with him because he lives in Sweden.
And then he came back and said, I've got some more songs. And I think we did two more songs. And one of them was where love lives. And then he kind of went off to do whatever he was going to do. And I was at that point in a Western musical.
And I got a phone call from, from Arista Records saying, "We want to sign your record." I was like, "Well, I'm sorry. What record? What is this? What is this?" It's slightly startled and surprised because it had been months since I had seen Latte.
And meanwhile, he'd been working really hard to get it onto the, onto a table in front of an A&R guy. And Chris Cook at Arista had heard it. Love it and decided immediately that he wanted to sign it. I think he had a bit of encouragement because I think he'd taken the demo of it. Two America and Frankie Knuckles had heard it.
And had said, yeah, I'll remix that. That sounds great. So he came back like, we need to get the paperwork done and get it all signed off.
So that's what happened.
Mm. By the time I finished, because I was signed to Starlight Express, that was my last musical for a year. So by the time it finished, about a month later, where love lives was ready to be promoted.
So I went straight from a Western musical to singing clubs and, you know, dance weekend as up and down the country. Yeah, that's a great start.
“Now was this song released in '92, if I remember correctly?”
Um, it was released. So we made it in '90.
Got its first proper release in '91.
Okay. Yeah. And then I think 92, the album came out. I think it was 92, the first album came out. Is it so long ago?
I know. I've been here in Nashville for 30 years now. And I have to think from time to time what I was doing back in 1992. Yeah. Exactly. But that year was a good year for you too. If I remember correctly, you was up for Best Female Artist
for the DMC Awards. Yeah, yeah. That was lovely. That was in a award show. I think that one was at the Rolab at Hall. It's a huge venue.
Yeah. And they didn't tell me I'd won. Oh, wow. Okay. Because they said you're just going to do it.
You're just going to sing at the award show. And I'm like, oh, yeah, not a problem. And then I came out expecting to sing me in my two dances. And then I got dragged off to the side and said, you have won this.
And I'm like, oh. So then I had to sing. And my brain was just gone. So I don't know how I got through the song. Yeah.
So yeah. I won the Best Female or something or other at the DMC.
“I think we were up for a mobile that year as well.”
It didn't mean very sad. But I got to go to the awards. Which is far up. Yeah. Yeah.
So from there, you just kept putting out new material. One after another and just kept building your career. Then you kept recording. And I think it was with your fourth album that you hit top five and you hit gold again. Where put your faith in me.
Oh, yeah. Put your faith in me. Yeah. That was a came off the full album. That was on a tiny little label.
So we were really pleased that he got any attention at all. Yeah. Yeah. That was a track that was written for me by the Viznardi brothers. Okay.
So they did a really cracking job on that. Yeah. Put your faith in me was lovely. That was a lovely album that spirit rising and spirit rising that I'm re-releasing now. Because it's got some cracking songs on it that people don't really know that I've done.
Yeah.
That's always cool when someone hears something new and they don't realize it's you.
“Now, with everything that you've done, what stands out that you really like to do the most?”
The first and the first and last is that I love to perform. And I will be performing until my last breath probably. So I'm having the single has just it's enabled me to keep working live. I love working live. Yes, I like recording.
I love working with musicians in the studio when you can be very focused on getting exactly the right sound that you want. Sure. At the end of the day, it's all as a as a means to an end and that is I am a performer. I've been on a stage since I was 15. Yeah.
In one form or another, whether as a dancer or as a singer. And I've just I've just I've been so lucky that I've just been able to just continue to do that. Yeah, so it's going to be a busy next year as well because we're going to be doing lots of live. Yeah, that's awesome. Now, I understand this year where love lies has kind of resurrected itself because of an advert has come out with a large company there in the UK.
Yes, here in the UK, there are some big institutions that every year they drop their Christmas advert into the marketplace. John Lewis is one of those. It's a very traditional kind of department store. It has doors in different parts of the country. It also has its own kind of affiliated food grocery door as well.
And every year they have the Christmas advert and sometimes they are amazing, sometimes they're emotional, sometimes they're funny,
but everybody knows about the John Lewis advert. And this year, why I don't know, but they chose my first single with Arista to be the song that gets played on their ads. Nice. So it's just been all over the TV. People have been talking about it.
It's astonishing. So it's reaching a really huge wider audience than it ever has before. Yeah, that's great. And isn't it really cool when you go through your life, you go through your career, you create your own following. You know what to expect from them. Then all of a sudden you get a new group of people that are exposed to your music.
Yeah, it's amazing to me. I mean, considering that the song is 35 years old. Yeah. It was really released in '96. And in fact, in the UK, it charted higher in '96 than it did when it came out in '91.
Wow.
So it's had a second bite of the cherry, but I thought, but that came kind of through normal channels.
It was really released. There were some remixes on it.
“It got played in the clubs and then it got played on radio.”
Great marvellous, did some TV fabulous. But this is a whole other realm of exposure. And everybody seems to know the song. And it's a kind of cross-generational thing, because people are looking at the advert and seeing themselves and their children in it. Or their people that grew up listening to my song in the '90s have children.
And they're resonating with what they're seeing on the advert. So yeah, it's our whole new advert. Our new kind of audience. I'm on TikTok. I didn't have an account until about a month ago.
And now I'm on TikTok, and it's people that you're trending. You're trending, all right? I don't know what that means. I love it. I love it.
I love it. So when you first heard that, it was going to be released that way. And then all of the attributes that's been coming in, all the exposure, the new fans.
“What was going through your mind with all that happening all at once?”
Because it's completely different than first getting signed and putting out your first record. Yeah, entirely different. One, I had no expectations when I was first signed. I did not know what was going to happen. I didn't know it was going to have the life it had.
The song was going to have the life it had. I knew once I was told that the song was going to be used for the advert that it would get. I mean, immediate exposure because when John Lewis or a company that's that big, when they promote it, it's on everybody's scene at least once. Everybody in the country who has a TV who has any kind of advertising coming at them will have seen it.
So it's great for me because I'm thinking I'm going to reach people that have forgotten about the song that knew it in the 90s. Right. But also you're out there being played not to your niche audience, not to a club audience. Not to people that wouldn't necessarily like your kind of music anyway, but people that might hate it. I have had a couple of comments where people have said, this is not a Christmas song.
It's a Christmas advert. Why is this? This is not in any way shape or form a Christmas song. Right. But those comments are so few compared to the people who have just welcomed it and loved it and been so generous with their praise of it. Yeah. I'm told it's now our Christmas song, which is very strange.
Yeah, but that's nice. Have you found your phone ringing or your emails, ringing with opportunities because of it? Yes. I mean, I have a manager and he had to set up a whole new email because our original company email just got swamped by people saying congratulations first. But also can you come and do this or do you want to do this or can you work in this country or there's a show and yeah. So I have had offers for work that I will be taking through to autumn next year. Nice.
I mean, I always have a few shows booked in advance, but never this many.
Yeah, I need to day very, very fit next year because there isn't zero time. There is zero time, town time. There won't be a holiday next year. It'll just be worked through and then next Christmas, I'll have a rest with my family. Yeah. Nice. Nice. So I understand that you're reworking some of your songs and going to do a new release for next year. Yes. So next year we'll be making a kind of album that's going to have brand new music on it.
Okay. And also we are we are collating songs because I've worked with a lot of different producers and remixes throughout the years and not everybody knows that I've done these other works. So we're going to try and get them all under a kind of single umbrella. Not sure how it's going to work because there's a lot of songs. And just present the world with a more complete picture of what Alison Limerick does and has done. So it'll be in brand new music and there will be also songs that people will be surprised to know that I did.
Yeah. Yeah. From 10 or 15 years ago.
I'll tell you being a producer here in Nashville is always just a great feeling to go back in the studio and work with session players and develop and create new music.
“So how is that felt going back in and reworking some of these things knowing that it's going to get a new audience that you might not have hit before?”
Yeah. I love actually being in the studio. I stress slightly that I never quite get that definitive take. But working on sounds and working on arrangements, it's great and the idea that a new audience will get to hear them is... Yeah. I would say it's really lovely. Yeah.
Now, with everything that you've done, anything in your bucket list that you still want to do. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. There's probably the bucket list. There's probably reasonably long people that I would want to work with or places I'd love to play venues I'd love to play.
It's all really about work.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I want to go back to Japan and work in Japan again. I love being in Japan every time I've been I've loved it. So yeah, I'd love to do that. But yeah, I love what I do. So if I can keep doing what I do wherever I'm doing it, I will be happy. Yeah. And you know, I really truly love it that you love what you're doing. I have friends of mine here in Nashville and they're very, very well known throughout the world. Then all of a sudden you'll see them playing with someone and they're not getting paid and people are wondering why they're doing it. And it's because they love the music.
Yeah. All it is is they like to play. They like to be around other musicians. They don't care what the money is. They only care that they're doing it.
“Yeah. That's the most important thing. Yeah. Exactly. I always say to young people who are starting out, you have to want to do it.”
Even if you've got sudden success, that success can actually be really hard work. Yes. And you have to want to do it because what I hate seeing is people start out and have got all the enthusiasm. And then it's like, well, I don't really want to go and see the people. I don't want to perform. I don't want to see. I just want to be in the studio. Well, how are your audience supposed to engage with you? Look you in the eye. You look them in the eye. Right. You need to encourage them to want to stay loyal.
Yeah. I've never understood singers that don't want to sing. Yeah. I agree. A hundred percent because there is nothing like being on stage.
Seeing someone that might have a bad day, then because of your music, they're having a great day. And you just don't get that type of engagement any other way. It's fantastic. Yeah. It's a magical. It's a two-way street as well. You can, I can be knackered. I can be ill. And I'll get on a stage. And they lift me and I want to give to them and then they give to me and I give to them. Yeah. That conversation with an audience is great. And it doesn't even have to be a stadium audience. It can be a small hundred-room audience.
Exactly. But they give to you. And if you think they're not white, we do. You just work a little harder and you see the faces come around and they come up to the front. And then at the end and they come off and they go, that made my night. That made my night. I was feeling a bit grumpy and that just made my night. And that's worth everything. Absolutely. Before I moved to Nashville, I was a singer-songwriter myself. And I performed in many four to five hundred seat venues. The atmosphere you get from that kind of venue, you can't buy it.
It's one of the most real situations you'll ever have as a performer. Exactly. And you can't imagine it. You can't do it. Imagine it from your bathroom.
I do have some friends that have given up the business because it's too terrifying every time I go on stage. I mean, I always get nervous.
I don't have nerves, then I'm not caring enough. So I always have nerves before I get on stage. But then they use that. I use that to fuel the performance. Yeah. And it takes practice. It takes practice. And you will get used to it. And you use it. Well, you know they say as long as you're doing something you love, you're never working. This is what they say. Never work a day in your life if you love what you do. Yeah.
“That's exactly right. Now, how do people find you? How do your fans and new fans find you on your website and social media?”
I have the socials. I have the Facebook. I have the Instagram. I even have, I want to call it Twitter. It's not Twitter. It's what is its ex now. And I've just taken an account on TikTok. But it's just that I can go and see what's happening. But yeah, so it's the easiest is to go through the socials. I also have a management company and they have a website, so blueprint management, that's my management company.
I have been working on my own website for a very long time. And it's never quite.
It's never quite. But yeah, by the beginning of next year, that will be up and running. And I will be able to kind of centralise everything so that people can go via that and then find everything else. So, with everything that you've done, you have, of course, like everyone else. You have lifelong fans that have followed you for your career and practically their whole life, probably. What do you think is important that they know that they might not know and once they hear it,
“it might just surprise them because they didn't realize that you was doing all the things that you've been doing?”
Um, if it depends on the kind of fan there are, I have fans that only know me for the two or three house tracks that no charted. I would love for those fans to go check my first album, which was "Install I Rise" and my second album, which was with the twist and the new album, or the re-release album, which is called Spirit Rising. But also to know that I have sung on jazz albums, I've done Asi Jazz albums, I've done Opera. I am, and will always be a jobbing musician.
What I am first and foremost is a musician who loves to sing.
I hope that those that know me from the Asi Jazz, I mean, I did a couple of t...
And I've met people who only know me for the tracks that I've done with "This Mortal Coil", which are as far away from house music as you can get. Right, right. So what I'd love is for these people over here, and these people over here, to kind of meet in the middle, and to see the full spectrum of what I have done and what I can do, and what I'm hoping to present in the future.
I love what you just said in the fact that you loved to sing, and you've got such a wide variety of music that you've done and recorded.
“With that said, looking back on everything that you've done, songwriting, singing, recording, what stands out to you?”
What are some of the favorite things that you've done over your career? Oh, my, that's a question. I love my house tracks. Okay. I love the energy that brings.
I probably, for the last few years, probably, what has brought me the most fun is working with Brooklyn Funky Essentials. Okay. Which is a kind of seven is retro band with new sensibility. So I've written on the last two albums. So it's day good and intuition with the two albums that I've sung previously.
We've got a new album that will be finished and will come out in April next year. Two singles came out this year. Another single is going to come out next year. And I, I've been touring through Europe with them. Nice.
France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain. We've been, I love that. I love working in a band with people. There's nothing quite like it.
“So you feed off each other and something, you want somebody wants to let the end of a song go.”
Somebody wants to add live. And we've got horns, we've got two piece horns section.
Sometimes three piece horns sections, always we have sax and trombone.
At trombone player is astonishing ever-osman. We also have a trumpetar called Jessica Pina, who is phenomenal. So we have this great horn section and that live thing. I think that's the thing. That's what I like best.
Being on stage with musicians, whether it be the the Brooklyn Funky Essentials or my own band. Or like just a few days ago, I was on stage with Pete Tongs, E.B. Ther classics. So I, you know, 48-piece orchestra, strings, horns, percussion, and a full band. And an amazing vocalist, that in front of a, you know, at the O2, which is an enormous arena. Just fantastic.
And it's that live thing. That's what fires me the most, I think. Well, when you're on stage and you're feeding up an audience. And they're feeding up you. Here's a win-win.
Yeah, always. I love going to see live music as well. So yeah, that's great.
You mentioned being on stage with an orchestra. I mean, that's awesome. All the different instrumentation, all the different sounds that you can get. All those intertwining sounds the way they work, it is just, man, it's just great. That's an experience that not many people get to feel.
Yeah, yeah, I ain't always encouraged everybody. If you have a band that you like or a kind of a style that you like. Sometimes our heroes are so far away or the tickets sell out in three seconds or two expensive. But you, there are local bands who will play that you can still go to your local event, a local arena, go to a festival and see bands that you didn't think you would like
and seeing them perform live, can really switch you on to their music.
“And then you can go and study their back catalog if you want to.”
But yeah, live is something, it's unmatched in any other arena. You can watch a live concert, but being there in the room or in the field or going to a festival, it makes it more. More, the sum of its parts is more than just the parts themselves.
It comes together and that audience and that it's almost on stage make better, always.
Absolutely. And when you're on stage, the band is in sync and everybody's feeling it. There's no better experience than having that kind of sound on the stage at that point in time with the audience, just grooving right along with you. Yes, yeah, hearing it. And hearing it, it's new every time.
It doesn't matter how we host you are or how slick you are. Every time you play it's new, it is just all. And I love drama is called Huxterlux, Huxnetomum, is an amazing drummer and he's really solid, really solid in the groove. But every time it's new, the fills are new. And it can raise your game and it'll raise your game again and the horns go.
And the backing vocals go and the guitar goes and the voices go, oh, tingles.
Yeah.
Yeah, I get it. I've been there. It's nothing like it.
“Now, what else would you like to tell people that they might just not know about you?”
Um, uh, I don't know if there's anything that you've had everything from me. Um, yeah, I'd love them to check out the album, spirit rising, and if anybody's gonna pop over to England, come see us play. Absolutely. And I'm sure they would see a great show and come away with great feelings of what you do.
“Now, do you have a site or any place where they can see where you're going to be?”
Some kick has a lot of the shows. She's a website that does that.
I will be posting on my socials. I always try and keep a list of what's upcoming in the next kind of couple of months.
Yeah. So I will, that's the easiest way to find out what I'm doing. But again, as I say in the new year, the website will even if it's just got a list of where I'm going to be and what I'm going to do and who I'm playing with. Oh, I will have that early in the new year. It's Alison and Limerick.com. Yeah. That's great. This way here, they can follow you and keep up with you on where you're going to be. Exactly. Yes. Yes.
Yeah, because right now, you're getting a great warmth because of what you're doing and everybody's loving it.
So it's going to be a great feeling for you.
“It's lovely. Yeah. Now, I'm going to have the best Christmas of my life, I think.”
Just feeding off that. It's lovely. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I've really loved this. I think you've shown some of your fans something that they may not have known about you. I think some of them definitely will have found out that things they didn't know. Yeah. Well, this has been great. I great conversation, great information.
I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. It's been a pleasure. It's been really easy. Thank you. Oh, it's been my pleasure. Thanks again. Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show. This has been a Tony Mantua production for more information, contact [email protected]
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