They used to be called The Family but now they're known as fDeluxe - and after a 26-year hiatus the cult group originally put together by Prince in 1985 are back with a brand new album, 'Gaslight.' The band are due to play at London's Jazz Café on Thursday January 19th and Black Sheep's Charles Waring recently caught up with the quartet's leading lady, singer/songwriter, Susannah Melvoin, who gives the lowdown on the new album, the group's history, and, of course, Prince.

"Fuck, that doesn't sound like ours!" So says Susannah Melvoin, recalling her reaction to hearing Sinead O'Connor's rendition of the Prince song, 'Nothing Compares 2 U,' which became a huge global hit in 1990. That was just five years after Susannah had recorded the first version of the song as part of the group, The Family. Created by Prince and rising from the ashes of The Time - the legendary Minneapolis funk group that originally included singer Morris Day and future R&B production duo, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis - The Family released two singles and a solitary self-titled LP for Paisley Park Records before inexplicably succumbing to an early grave. But now, some 26 years after their premature demise, former founder members St. Paul Peterson, Susannah Melvoin, saxophonist Eric Leeds and drummer Jellybean Johnson are back in business – but not as The Family. Fearing a legal battle with Prince over the use of the name, The Family, they opted for a new moniker, fDeluxe.

Explained a personable Susannah Melvoin: "Prince doesn't own the name: there's no copyright to it, but he owns the branding. So we could have used the name but we couldn't even go out representing who The Family is. If we used the name The Family, we would have litigation problems that we would never be able to get ourselves out of. Prince would make it difficult. It's not that he would win the battle because it wouldn't show him in a good light but it was just something that we didn't care enough about to fight about."

So what made you choose fDeluxe? "We went for fDeluxe because - and I kid you not - there was nothing else available," says Susannah. "Trying to copyright a name and own a name, we couldn't get it. You couldn't get anything. So fDeluxe worked and when we were designing the logo with Steve Park, it had that very familiar kind of feel that it did with The Family." Melvoin adds with a laugh, "And it looked good on a T-shirt."

It's the knowing laugh of someone who has experienced life's vicissitudes – who's tasted both the joy of success and the bitterness of disappointment - but who has also been able to channel those experiences to feed her creativity. Talking about the inspiration behind the song, 'Over The Canyon' – just one of several outstanding tracks from fDeluxe's new album, 'Gaslight' - Susannah alludes to trials and tribulations in her personal life: "I've been going through some very difficult times and personal stuff and it's been trying me tremendously: I've had lots of heartache. 'Over The Canyon' refers to a place where I go and write and it's up in Laurel Canyon."

So does she find it a cathartic release to write about her own life in the group's songs? "Yes, for sure. I'm blessed that I have a vehicle and I can get to express it that way as an artist. Everybody wishes they have that one thing that really helps them release their feelings and let the air out of the tyre, as they say."

Now 47 but still strikingly beautiful and with a voice to match, Susannah was by her own admission "just a baby" when she hooked up with Prince, who became aware of her after he had hired her twin sister Wendy (of Wendy & Lisa fame) for his band, The Revolution, in 1984. She was just twenty and toured and recorded with Prince as a backing singer. He also famously romanced her and in 1985, she got a chance to step out of the shadows as the co-lead singer of The Family.

Remembers Susannah: "Everybody was in rehearsals for the 'Purple Rain' tour and I'd been working with Prince as his background vocalist, so I was already in the fold, as was Paul Peterson and all the other guys that were with The Time. The Time dissolved right before 'Purple Rain' was released and Prince said "I want to keep everybody working," and I think that he felt bad that The Time dissolved because there was so much great talent in it. He really believed at the time in Paul, who was this young kid who had this great voice. So Prince said, 'I'd love to be able to put a band together and I'd like you, Paul, to be lead singer in this. How do you feel about that?' He said 'yeah man, that would be great.' Prince also brought in (saxophonist) Eric Leeds. Prince was given a tape of Eric's stuff by Alan Leeds, who is Eric's brother and was then Prince's road manager. So we all came together and Prince designed the record. He didn't give us songs he had in the vault: these were fresh songs designed for us."

According to Susannah, after writing the material and recording demos, Prince practically left the band to their own devices. "He wasn't working with us at all through that," reveals the LA-born singer. "He just recorded the songs and then just handed them over to me and Paul and David Z, who was producing it. And then he stepped out of the way. He relinquished a lot of the control."

After making the record, the band played a showcase gig at a club called First Avenue in Prince's home town, Minneapolis. "It was fantastic," remembers Susannah. "It was a packed house and totally exciting." Sadly, though, the band's debut also proved to be their final gig. Singer/keyboardist St. Paul was secretly offered a solo deal at MCA and being young and ambitious, abruptly left the band, much to the chagrin of the other members. His departure signalled the end of The Family, whose album in recent years has become a hard-to-find, highly-sought-after collectors' item.

Putting past issues aside, the band reconvened a few years ago for a benefit concert that Prince's former drummer, Sheila E, was organising. "We had such a great time doing it, all of us decided at that moment, let's make a record," says Susannah. "We've always kept in touch and always been great friends and we've all seen each other throughout the years. It just seemed like the right time."

'Gaslight,' the new album stays true to the spirit of the original Family album, though this time the group are responsible for all of the songs. Says Susannah: "A good 20% of the record was inspired and motivated by the first record. I can honestly say that back in that time Paul and myself, Eric Leeds and Jellybean Johnson were all characters that were part of a great novel that Prince was in the middle of writing. These characters had a life to them but the novel was never finished. There was another two chapters left but it had to be finished. We took it and wrote the rest of it, wrote the ending. So that's what this record is."

One of the most striking aspects of The Family's distinctive sound was the string arrangements that featured on the first album. They were written by veteran jazz arranger, Clare Fischer, who went on to collaborate with Prince on a lot of projects. The strings on the new album are moody and dramatic and seem to bear Fischer's trademark, though ironically they were created by Paul Peterson with a Vienna string orchestra sample. "I wished it could have been Clare," reveals Susannah. "How that first record got Clare Fisher's string arrangements on it was because of myself and my father's association with Clare; my father (studio musician Mike Melvoin) worked with Clare many, many years on and off. As a 19-year-old girl I loved the Rufus with Chaka Khan records 'Rufusized' and 'Ask Rufus.' Clare's arrangements on there were unbelievable and that's what we wanted. Prince and I even had that conversation and that's what we were going for. So calling Clare again for the new album, he said 'I'd love to hear the record' so we sent what we had and he said he'd love to do it but in the end we couldn't afford to pay him what he wanted."

As for the group's keenly-anticipated one-off gig at the Jazz Café, what can the audience expect to hear? "From the first record we've got 'Screams Of Passion,' 'Nothing Compares 2 U,' 'Desire,' 'High Fashion,' 'Mutiny' and then sometimes we put in 'River Run Dry.' The only songs from this new record we're not doing are 'Beautiful You' and 'The Vigil.'"

'Gaslight,' the new album by fDeluxe is out now via Art Of Groove/MIG Records. See fDeluxe at the Jazz Café on Thursday January 19th.

For more info go to: www.fdeluxe.com