Sometimes things can change in the blink of an eye. Dreams shattered. Lives changed. Destinies rewritten. And that change often comes completely without warning.
Back in 1995, the members of Huddersfield-based dance outfit Shiva had no clue tragedy was coming their way. Paul Ross and Gino Piscitelli had originally begin to collaborate as dance producers in 1993. Named Shine at first, they were joined unofficially by Gino's brother Franco who was credited with extra creative influence and technical support as they developed their sound - a nudging of the repetitive beats of turn of the decade rave into something that bit more melodic - and most importantly commercial.
Pete Tong's ffrr record label signed the group in short order, and following a legally-enforced change of name released their debut single at the end of April 1995. The label had ensured Work It Out was pushed as a priority project, the track in the hands of the most important DJs (pushing its white label to the top of many club cuts charts at the start of the year) with the single release itself boasting an array of remixes from big names such as David Morales.
But what really made the track stand out was the voice of its singer.
A native of the Armley area of Leeds, Louise Dean had been discovered by Gino as she sang in the queue for Huddersfield nightclub Hard Times. She was blonde, pretty, and had been hard at work carving a musical career for herself already, having worked as a backing singer for public appearances by Rozalla and Urban Cookie Collective. But it was her voice which made her stand out the most. Louise was a full-throated, lusty house diva with a delivery that withstood comparison with other great house divas such as Alison Limerick or Heather Small. It was the kind of transformation that would have earned a standing ovation had she strode out on the Britain's Got Talent stage in another age. The Shiva track wasn't all that spectacular in terms of composition or production, let's not kid ourselves, but with Louise Dean's voice front and centre it was a genuine floor-filler.
Hard promotional work (including local radio stations, which is where I met her myself late on evening in Bradford) propelled Work It Out to a reasonably creditable No.36 on release. The group appeared on the Saturday morning show What's Up Doc to promote it. A small hit then, but it was a start at least, and laid the groundwork for the follow-up which the label were determined to unleash just six weeks later.
Freedom was the song in question. A track that wasn't actually all that dissimilar to its predecessor, but it had a better chorus, a proper hook, an uplifting gospel flavour, and seemed destined for its fair share of airplay. Promotional work was well underway by the middle of summer. On Sunday June 18th Louise and Shiva were due to perform at a Kiss 102 roadshow event in the evening. The next day they were due at the offices of their label where a publishing deal with BMG Rights Management was on the table. Louise really was considered to be that special and worth investing in.
At 1pm that day Louise parked on the Manchester Road in Huddersfield. She had called into a shop on the other side of the road and was walking back to her car when tragedy struck. A red Talbot van appeared from nowhere around the corner and struck the singer with force. Pausing for a moment to survey the damage, the driver fled.
The accident was witnessed by local resident Richard Lonnen, travelling just behind. With passers by attending to the injured, he pursued the van in his car, his girlfriend contacting police via mobile phone. PC Dennis Buckley was nearby in his own patrol car. Taking the dispatch, he swiftly intercepted the runaway van and arrested the driver. The driver, who does not deserve to be named here, was an alcoholic who only a few days earlier had discharged himself from a local hospital after attempting treatment for his addiction. The arresting officer noted he reeked of alcohol and when breathalysed was found to be three times over the legal limit.
Louise in the meantime had been rushed to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary where alas doctors were unable to save her. She was just 24 years old.
Her assailant would subsequently be charged with causing death by reckless driving, causing death by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol, aggravated vehicle taking, driving with excess alcohol, failing to stop after an accident, driving without insurance and driving without a licence. He subsequently pleaded guilty at trial later that year and was sentenced to six years in prison and a ten-year driving ban.
To release Freedom immediately after this tragedy would have been wildly inappropriate, and the single was indeed shelved. But only temporarily. At the request of Louise's family the track was rescheduled for mid-August, this time serving as a tribute to a life snatched away in the blink of an eye. Freedom would debut at No.18, one week before the infamous Battle Of Britpop that dominated music headlines that month. It was enough to qualify the song for a play on Top Of The Pops, although the video shown was one cobbled together from offcuts and alternate takes of the footage short for the Work It Out video. It is an awkward watch, Freedom sharing much of the same vibe as Work It Out and now with a video featuring much of the same imagery. But it was alas, all that Louise had left behind.
Louise Dean's story would close with a charity event held in November in her honour, one which raised more than £10,000 towards a memorial fund and which would be donated to drink-driving charities. Shiva themselves would regroup and try again, the two men recruiting former D:Ream backing singer TJ Davis to take Louise's place, but no further hits resulted from their 1996 singles and the project came to a natural end a short time later.
The story of dance music at the end of last century is littered with a surprising number of tragedies. Roger "Wild Child" McKenzie passed away from a heart condition, also in 1995, at the age of just 24. His track Renegade Master would eventually become a Top 3 hit in early 1998 thanks to a Norman Cook remix. 20-year-old Jon Donaghy of rave pioneers Together would pass away from injuries he sustained in an Ibiza car crash in October 1990, just two months after the group's seminal Hardcore Uproar had been a chart smash. Ibiza would also be the demise of Will Sinnott of The Shamen, who drowned during a video shoot in the summer of 1991 for the track that would become Move Any Mountain. Peter Slaghuis, the Dutchman behind acts such as Hithouse and Video Kids died in September 1991 at the age of just 30 in yet another car crash. It was the same fate that befell Culture Beat's Torsten Fenslau in November 1993. He was aged 29. And then there were the turn of the millennium tragedies, most notably that of Melanie Thornton, erstwhile singer with La Bouche who perished in a plane crash in November 2001, just weeks before the release of her song Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) which has been the soundtrack to festive Coca-Cola adverts ever since.
All lives rich in promise, all people with creative talents they had only just begun to realise. And all careers brought to a shuddering halt by tragedy. The lesson from this all is to perhaps seize each day, as you never know what the next will bring. And to at least appreciate the work these people left behind, that which stands as their enduring legacies.
Louise Dean made just two records in her lifetime, the sole remaining record of her most extraordinary voice. Somewhere deep in a vault those tapes still exist. Perhaps just waiting to be rediscovered. Who knows, one day a lone producer may hear Work It Out or Freedom and contemplate a new use for those vocal lines. Rework them into something entirely new, just as Casso did with RAYE's voice for Prada. It would stand as a quite fitting tribute.
With grateful thanks to Athie Heagerty for her research and dedication to the cause.
