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Almost 30 years after she became an international star, singer Carmel McCourt is looking forward to going back on tour in the UK and Europe with a new six-piece support band.
Carmel were formed in Manchester 30 years ago. It was an interesting time, punk had lost steam and change was in the wind. Two students with music in their soul, Carmel McCourt and Jim Parris got together and with drummer Gerry Darby (Jim's cousin) began a long career of defeating definition.
The trio had immediate success after a few London shows and caused a stir with their first independent release on Red Flame records. Their first single "Storm" reached No 1 in the independent charts and Carmel was signed immediately to London Records. 
Europe's audiences took Carmel to their hearts when the band first toured, and the singer picked up the award for best Jazz vocalist of the year at Italy's Messina Jazz festival in 1985. Encouraged by Europe's response to their live sets the trio spent their time playing at key venues all over Europe, writing new material whilst on the road and recording new work in the studio.

Their first album The Drum is Everything (produced by Mike Thorne) drew praise for the fiery passion of all three members. Parris and Darby remarkably conjured the effect of a full ensemble backing to McCourt's powerful vocals and were able to alternate between soulful ballads, gospel, blues and stomping jazz. The singles "Bad Day" and "More More More" both went Top 20 in the UK.
More More More was Carmel's second top ten hit in England, and the video was directed by Lindsay Anderson ("If", "This Sporting Life"...). Filmed in the house the band shared in Manchester.
The following album, "The Falling" (produced by Brian Eno, Hugh Jones, David Motion) made Carmel one of the biggest names in France achieving Gold status as well as charting in Belgium, Germany and Holland. "Sally" the first single lifted from the album sold 500 000 copies in France alone. With the critical and commercial success awarded both "The Falling" and the next album "Everybody's Got A Little.Soul", producers were queuing up to work with Carmel.

1989 saw the release of the album, Set Me Free, where a collaboration of producers were used to cover the broad range of styles in the material. Mike Thorne (who had become a long standing producer for the band) completed the singles Je Suis Tombe Amorous and You Can Have Him (which was later used for the Hollywood film - Lives and Lusts of a She Devil). Brian Eno added his own touch of finesse to the more esoteric songs, God Put Your Hand On Me and Take It For Granted. Veteran R&B producer Pete Wingfield was hired for his experience on the emotional I'm Over You and Onward. Bassist Jimmy Parris had been involved in producing only a few b-sides in the past but his developing skills came to fruition on the remainder of the songs on this eclectic yet cohesive album.
Once again the album was lauded by critics from all over the media spectrum. Q magazine described Set Me Free as 'incendiary', heaping a rare five star seal of approval upon the band. At this time the band were involved in a separate musical project supplying the entire score for a German horror film entitled, Hannah Monster Darling. This was done by effectively cancelling Christmas and working right through at the Manchester studio Moonraker belonging to Mike Harding.

In late 1990 a retrospective collection of songs culled from Carmel's six year career was released. Called simply Collected it contained tracks such as the brooding Bad Day and the contemporary Take It For Granted. Collected put the band's career so far into perspective culling songs from all their albums and highlighting the breadth, depth and vitality of their sound, 
November 1991 saw Carmel once again in the studio, this time with just three additional musicians and Jim Parris at the helm as producer. The studio was the Bavaria Music Studio, a classical studio in Munich. The band worked completely live, shunning headphones for this recording with the vastly experienced recording engineer John Timperly who has recorded such artists as Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, The Beatles and Art Blakey to name but a few.
The album was laid down in five days and mixed the next month. Good News was released in the spring of '92 on east/west records. As always the album contained a mixture of styles from the ragga sound of Your'e on My Mind featuring a guest appearance by dub poet/toaster Crazy Joe, (who first appeared on Rue St Denis on The Drum Is Everything), to the Klesmic sound of Desdamona the angry chant of a woman wrongly accused of infidelity.

The New Morning in Paris was the venue chosen to showcase the new material and with the stripped down line up of vocals, bass, drums , keys, guitar and one backing singer. The gig was rapturously received and following a two day residency, the band set off on a highly successful tour of Europe
Worlds Gone Crazy, the bands 1995 album was the title of the last recording for east/west contains some of the bands most challenging material to date. The track Jaqueline was inspired by the book Cry Hard and Swim by Jacqueline Spring which examines the nightmarish scenario of a young girl being sexually abused by her father. The track is stark, haunting and chilling with its menacing arrangement. Jack Dodd, a duet with Pat McDonald of Timbuck Three fame, once again charted new territory with an examination of the holy conception through the story of a mother haunted by an illusionary lover.
If You Don't Come Back and If I Don't Have You are the two cover versions on the album. The first is a lover's lament penned by the Spanish singer/actor Miguel Bose and was put forward by Jim Parris who through living in Spain picked up on this beautiful ballad. Produced by Julian Mendlsohn this song should have gone straight into the charts but due to politics with the then record company, there was little promotion. The second is a Gregory Isaacs tune and was Gerry's idea, him being a long term reggae fan. This is a classic lover's track, ideally suited to Carmel's tender voice.
1997 saw Carmel released the album Live in Paris.  Live In Paris was recorded at a performance at New Morning Club in the French capital in 1990. Later that year Ronnie Scotts provided the venue to record their last album, 1998's Live at Ronnie Scotts, a collection of their songs from Carmel's back catalogue and previously unreleased material.

Het zijn de volgende Carmel-albums:

 Carmel - Everybody's got a little ... Soul
 Carmel - Good News
 Carmel - Live at Ronnie Scott's
 Carmel - Live in Paris
 Carmel - Set Me Free
 Carmel - The drum is everything
 Carmel - The Falling
 Carmel - World's Gone Crazy
 Mouse Best **

** Mouse Best is een persoonlijke Best Of van Motormuijs' beste Carmel-nummers!




Veel luisterplezier gewenst !

Uiteraard met dank aan Motormuijs ! (en m'n vingers blauw getikt!) ;-)