Soul Creatures

Gill came to London as a jazz singer. Around 1999 to 2000 she crossed over into dance music and recorded two tracks as the featured vocalist with Soul Creatures, released on vinyl.

Gill writes that she was "a jazz person", a regular at London's late night jazz haunts, when she was drawn into dance music, a move the serious end of town frowned on.

She recorded two tracks with Soul Creatures, "Was That All It Was" and "Mystery to You", in a Soho studio, and remembers waiting in clubs for her songs to come on, then dancing with "sheer joy and freedom".

Looking back, she calls it "Living in Life Before ......where I didn't know there would be a Life After....".

The story1

Dance like no one is watching

Whenever I listen to these tracks (released on vinyl circa 1999/2000) I am immediately back in an elaborate recording studio in Soho, London. I had just enough life experience to feel like an ‘old’ soul, even though I was so young. I remember that feeling of having your whole life ahead, how uncertainty and change weren’t things to fear but rather exciting challenges that offered an opportunity to grow and become the ‘who’ I wanted to be.

I was a jazz person. I’d lived in London long enough to know the tube routes and I was a regular at the late night jazz haunts, desperate to find that tiny opening within the scene so that I could slip in and ‘become’.

Doing dance music was frowned upon by the serious end of town, almost an act of blasphemy but I was seduced by the lure of being something more than an unknown singer in a world of elite musicians. Perhaps it was Ego, perhaps it was frustration, perhaps it was just timing - whatever it was, I had crossed over and started down a path that was completely unexpected.

Instead of Jazz bars, I was going to dance clubs and waiting for my songs to come on and then go completely CRAZY on the dance floor. I’m smiling as I write this, bits of vision and memory floating back, even the feeling of being drenched in sweat and the sheer joy and freedom of moving my body with such spectacular force.

Living in Life Before ……where I didn’t know there would be a Life After….

PUSH PLAY!

Music4

Mystery to You (Creative Broken Dub)
Mystery to You (Classic Disco Instrumental)
Was That All It Was

Soul Creatures featuring Gill Hicks, Classic Disco Mix.

Mystery to You

Soul Creatures featuring Gill Hicks.