Maggie Bell Returns

The first decade of the 21st century seems to have been under the sign of comebacks of various accomplished musicians. One of the biggest sensations was certainly the return of Maggie Bell, who had dissappeared for the best part of 30 years, just occasionally popping up to appear in various concerts in her home Scotland. For the rest of the world she seemed unreachable, hiding out in Rotterdam, Holland with her family. Being a Maggie Bell fan since about 1972, I have always been unhappy that I have always for some reason missed her concerts, and of course I had given up hope of ever seeing her live a long time ago.

And then suddenly she reappears in 2007 and goes on tour through England, Germany and a few other european countries with the “British Blues Quintett“, throwing out a live album to go with it. The reason was her leaving her man in Holland after 20 years and going home to Scotland. “I couldn’t stand it any longer” she told me (after I had crept in to see her after the concert), apparently referring to the way of life on mainland Europe.

I have always considered Maggie Bell a somewhat tragic figure. Unforgotten is the tragedy with Stone the Crows, when Les Harvey was electrocuted on stage in Swansea when the band were on the verge of breaking through. Back luck too with the excellent Midnight Flyer, that broke up after the death of John Bonham as the bands executive producer Peter Grant just went to pieces. So what can we expect from Maggie? BBQ cant be the answer in my opinion, even though the band really has some pedigree and reads like a “who’s who” of British Blues - Miller Anderson, Zoot Money, Colin Hodgkinson, and ex-Crows drummer Colin Allen - at least, not with the present setup… it would seem to me that Maggie doesnt have the room to breathe that she needs within the band. Personally I would like to see a solo LP with accomplished studio musicians. But who knows what the future will bring… for the moment I’m just happy to have Maggie back
(scroll down below video for discography)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erYeaJZBk_c[/youtube]

Discography

	This discography does not necessarily include Samplers and “Best of..” compilations. Also missing from this list is “Crimes of the Heart”, Maggie Bell’s german production which was to the best of my knowledge only available in that country. I hope to be able to add a pic at a later date.

Maggie Bell website
British Blues Quintett website
Stone the Crows on myspace

See also

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