[6] Paul Heard was a member of acid jazz band Ace of Clubs, and Shovell had previously been in the collective Natural Life.

The original plan had been to have a roster of different singers for different songs but having been spotted by Pickering and Heard, Heather Small became the distinctive vocalist of the group.

[6] She had been in the English soul band Hot House,[6] which had released a number of critically acclaimed records without scoring any major success.

Their first release came in the form of "Colour My Life", a limited white label pressing which got them some recognition, but it was the first official single "How Can I Love You More?"

The second single from the album was "Open Your Heart", which became their seventh consecutive Top Ten hit in two years and at the Brit Awards '95 they collaborated with Sting on his track "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free".

[7] In the United States, their biggest success was on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where they achieved five Top 5 singles, four of which hit number one.

The band achieved their third multi-platinum selling album and this time appeared on Jools Holland's BBC 2 show, performing album tracks "Never Mind Love", "Angel St" and Small also performed, solo, the million-selling charity single that she appeared on, "Perfect Day".

Fresco also bore the single, "Fantasy Island" (number 33) and went on a fifteen-date UK Tour supporting the album to rave reviews.

The final single lifted off the album was "Angel St" which got to number 8 and earned them their tenth Top 10 chart hit in March 1998, making the band one of the most consistent hit-makers of the 1990s on both sales and airplay.

During the middle of 1998, the band prepared for their fifth album, a compilation entitled The Best of M People which also contained three new tracks: "Testify", "Dreaming" and a cover of the Doobie Brothers classic: "What a Fool Believes".

However, a re-packaged greatest hits album entitled Ultimate Collection and released in 2005 led the band to embark on a short promotional tour of the UK.

In April 2013, it was announced that the band would undertake an extensive fourteen date Greatest Hits Tour in October to mark 20 years since the release of the Mercury Music Prize-winning album Elegant Slumming.

Also included was a book with notes from the band, rare photos and a handwritten copy of the lyrics to "Search for the Hero".