Soul II Soul in Stockport: Music legends' big return to Greater Manchester

Back to life, back to reality…

Six simple words that take many of us back to a specific period of time - whether it’s raving it up on the dancefloor, bopping along to the radio, or even watching the first episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

The Soul II Soul classic Back To Life has remained a timeless anthem since its release in 1989 - and the band’s founder, Jazzie B, knows only too well how the song has become so important to people over the years.

“We had the nuts to call that record Club Classics,” Jazzie, now 60, tells the M.E.N. “Everyone at the time, especially the suits, all laughed at us for that. But look who’s laughing now?”

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Hailing from Hornsey in London, Jazzie started his music career running sound systems in the late 1960s and 1970s. Working as a tape operator for British Rock n Roll star Tommy Steele at Nova Sound studios near Marble Arch led him to work alongside friends as the sound system Jah Rico - before changing their name to Soul II Soul in 1982.

At the time, as well as a group, the name was to be used for the sound system, a clothing line, a record imprint and even a Camden record shop. But the release of debut single Fairplay with Rose Windross in 1988 changed things forever, as did the follow up - Keep On Movin’ with Caron Wheeler - and then Back To Life, which was named one of the 200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone last year.

“I’m forever based in music,” Jazzie says. “My sound system has been part of my life since I was a child. I chose it as a career as it was connected to music and that’s what led me into production. It was through working with everyone from Hans Zimmer