Бретт Андерсон: от Suede до сольной карьеры.

English singer

Brett Lewis Anderson (born 29 September 1967) and Haywards Heath Sixth Form College. In his teens Anderson played guitar for garage bands such as the Pigs and Geoff, the latter featuring future Suede bassist Mat Osman. In the late 1980s, while a student at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, Anderson and Osman formed Suede with Anderson's girlfriend, Justine Frischmann, and soon recruited guitarist Bernard Butler through an advertisement in NME. After they had received temporary help from former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, in 1991 Simon Gilbert joined as their permanent drummer. Around this time Frischmann left Anderson for Blur frontman Damon Albarn, which created an early rift in the burgeoning Britpop scene of the early 1990s. After missing too many rehearsals and flaunting her relationship with Albarn while still living with Anderson, Frischmann left the band, going on to front Elastica.

Even before Suede's first album appeared in stores, Anderson's androgynous style and vague "confessions" about his sexuality stirred controversy in the British music press. His infamous comment that he was "a bisexual man who never had a homosexual experience" was indicative of how he both courted controversy and a sexually ambiguous, alienated audience. In 1993, Suede hit number one on the UK charts. Combining Morrissey's homoerotic posturing with David Bowie's glam theatrics, Anderson achieved rapid fame in the UK, though not in the US. Due to a trademark dispute with the American lounge singer Suede, the band were forced to change their name to The London Suede for the American market. Though songwriting partner Butler left in 1994 during the recording of second album Dog Man Star, the band continued to release critically and increasingly commercially successful material in the UK, Europe and Asia, such as 1996's Coming Up (another number one for the band). The band went on to release Head Music (number one on the UK charts and in several countries) in 1999, but A New Morning was a commercial disappointment in 2002. In 2003, following the release of their "Singles" collection, Suede disbanded. Anderson commented that the history of Suede is "ridiculous. It's like Machiavelli rewriting Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It involves a cast of thousands. It should star Charlton Heston it's like a pram that's just been pushed down a hill. It's always been fiery and tempestuous and really on the edge and it never stops. I don't think it ever will." As a solo musician during Suede's career, Anderson collaborated with Stina Nordenstam and his guest vocals can be heard on the album This Is Stina Nordenstam. He also sang a duet with Jane Birkin in 1995 which appeared in 1998 on Birkin's "best of" album. In addition he sang the lyric "You're going to reap just what you sow" for the Children in Need charity single "Perfect Day". Following persistent rumours, the boss of the band's former label, Nude Records' Saul Galpern, confirmed to the NME that Suede would be playing together again. "It's [for] a one off gig," The band performed warm up shows at the 100 Club in London and Ritz Ballroom in Manchester, and the success of the shows led to a European tour in the summer of 2010. Further festival dates occurred in 2011, along with UK dates where Suede performed their first three albums in full.

In 2004, Anderson and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler briefly formed the band the Tears with Will Foster, Makoto Sakamoto and Nathan Fisher and released their debut album Here Come the Tears, which was met with generally favourable reviews. It was produced by Butler, recorded at 2 kHz Studios and Rak Studios (London) as well as at Butler's home studio ("Bernie's Buttons"), and featured the singles "Refugees" and "Lovers". Following the cancellation of a European tour in support of the album, the band were dropped by Independiente and the project was abandoned.

In the early days of Suede's career, Anderson made a comment that he was "a bisexual man who never had a homosexual experience." The recording of Suede's Head Music was plagued with difficulties such as Anderson's addiction to heroin and crack cocaine which showed in his increasingly unpredictable behaviour and gaunt appearance, which contrasted with his previously healthy and androgynous appearance. While Anderson had been taking drugs moderately during Suede's career up to that point, he was addicted for two and a half years, but stopped in late 1999, when somebody very close to him became ill. He has been clean since. Anderson is married to Jodie, a naturopath, with whom he has a step son and son. In 2018, Anderson released an autobiography titled Coal Black Mornings. The second part of the book, called Afternoon With The Blinds Drawn was released a year later.