He looks like a scally and sings like an angel -SHADDERSONLINE
A self-styled 'shit-kicker from Moston' Lee Griffiths was discovered as a youthful soul prodigy by Paul Morley in the late '90s and signed to ZTT Records. After a spectacular falling-out with superstar producer Trevor Horn, Lee disowned his debut album Northern Songs and returned in disgust to civilian life in North Manchester. He finally began writing and recording at home again in earnest while holding down a series of low-paid jobs to keep the rent - and after five years Armchair Anarchy is the result.
40 years on from Sergeant Pepper, Hippy Dippy is a sly, knowing nod to sixties counterculture over an insanely catchy groove. Scared recounts a late coming-out after years of denial. But the album's centrepiece is perhaps the acoustic showstopper Meet Me Halfway. Lee's tender/tough delivery and aching vulnerability make him Manchester's answer to Ray Lamontagne and José Gonzales.
Battered and broken - but back on storming form - Lee Griffiths looks more like a prizefighter these days than the pugnacious waif first signed by Horn and Morley for his astonishing voice. And as word of his comeback begins to spread, musicbiz movers and shakers in the know have been stepping forward to lend a hand.
Ian Grimble (Manics, Texas, Wannadies, Travis, etc) helped produce tracks for the new album. Take That manager Nigel Nartin-Smith and Tom Robinson (2-4-6-8 Motorway) has shot and edited two videos for the album, and Culture Club producer Steve Levine has mixed the latest version of Meet Me Halfway free of charge in his West London studio. Joseph Galliano is running a three-page spread in July acclaiming Lee as the UK's "next great gay voice".
