Denise Johnson

Denise was born and raised in the working-class district of Hulme, Manchester before moving with her family to Whalley Range in 1981. Denise attended Whalley Range High School for Girls.

Denise was a self-taught singer, who learnt her craft listening to her mother Joy’s music collection that included Jimmy Cliff, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross and Simon & Garfunkel. She was approached by accident to sing whilst appearing in a fashion show at The Ritz nightclub. Denise went onto join Fifth of Heaven in 1988/89, and major break came for Denise the band was invited to support the American classic soul band Frankie Beverly and Maze.

Denise recorded with Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson of ACR under the guise of ED209 on an early Acid House record ‘Acid to Ecstasy’ released on Dave Rofe’s DFM label in 1988.

Denise also worked on Ashley & Jackson’s The Sermon and Solid Gold and went onto have a longstanding career with A Certain Ratio appearing on ACR:MCR.

Denise went onto record with the rave band, Hypnotone which led to her working with the Scottish band Primal Scream and recording Screamadelica. The album produced by Andrew Weatherall won the first ever Mercury Music Prize in 1992. She also toured internationally with Primal Scream and recorded a second album with them on the equally popular Give Out, But Don’t Give Up. Both albums had considerable success in America.

Denise’s voice has blessed tracks with Electronic, New Order, Ian Brown, Heavyload, Mike Scott and Bernard Butler, to name but a few.

In 2018 and 2019, Denise was performing acoustic sets including The Charlatans North by Northwich Festival (2018) and at Blue Dot Festival at Jodrell Bank (2019) and she was also recording tracks for her new album.

Denise’s debut album Where Does it Go featured covers of iconic Mancunian songs from 10cc, Elkie Brooks and New Order as well as original Denise songs. The album was recorded mainly with Thomas Twemlow and the artwork was photographed by Danny Bird. She was set to release her album, and sadly died 6 weeks before the release.