Dance Culture, Volume 1

Biography

Urban Cookie Collective are a British techno and house band from Manchester, UK, best known for their hit single "The Key The Secret", which was originally released in 1993. Rohan Heath (born 19 July 1964) was the driving force behind the group. He played keyboards, but crucially wrote and produced their songs. Heath had formerly worked with Yargo and A Guy Called Gerald. Urban Cookie Collective’s original vocalist was Diane Charlemagne, who co-wrote some of their tracks. The other main members...

Urban Cookie Collective are a British techno and house band from Manchester, UK, best known for their hit single "The Key The Secret", which was originally released in 1993.

Rohan Heath (born 19 July 1964) was the driving force behind the group. He played keyboards, but crucially wrote and produced their songs. Heath had formerly worked with Yargo and A Guy Called Gerald. Urban Cookie Collective’s original vocalist was Diane Charlemagne, who co-wrote some of their tracks. The other main members were Simon Bertall (b 17 October 1967) and Peter Samson (bongos) (b 15 May, 1968). Guest rappers took part from time to time to create an eclectic mix in the studio.

Heath had learned classical piano as a child, and decided on a career in music after abandoning a PhD at Vermont University. After a tour of Japan supporting the Happy Mondays, he left A Guy Called Gerald to release “Hardcore Uproar” under the title of ‘Together‘, which made number 12 in the UK singles chart in August 1990. After a brief stint with Eek A Mouse, he created the Urban Cookie Collective in 1992.

They achieved a major breakthrough in 1993 with “The Key The Secret”, which peaked at #2 in the UK, #3 in Australia and #5 in Germany. It was originally a track written at home by Heath, in a soul and hip hop vein. After a subsequent re-mix provoked a massive club response it was picked up by the Pulse 8 record label. The follow-up release was “Feels Like Heaven“ which was also very successful. But, slowly diminishing returns met subsequent releases. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.