Category Archives: MAGGIE BELL

MAGGIE BELL

MAGGIE BELL Best Of

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The accompanying live DVD…is a must for Maggie Bell fans

Classic Rock (December 2008)


Albert Collins and Taj Mahal enhance what is already impressive

Mojo (November 2008)


…one of the best blues voices in the business

Classic Rock Society (December 2008)


Best Female Vocalist in the pre-Kate Bush era…any Melody Maker reader who cast his vote will find this a worthwhile memory jogger

Record Collector (December 2008)


The 70 minutes DVD…is by itself- worth the price of the set. The footage is one of the most exciting to have come out of the label yet – being spirited enough to keep up with the kindled performance and with both its audio and video in pristine condition, it allows to almost relive the event.

The band, which included Whitesnake and Foghat refugees amongst others, performs its boogie rock numbers with the chops of hard rock and the soul of the blues; the latter is portrayed in purer form on the closing tracks, featuring renowned bluesmen Taj Mahal and then Albert Collins jamming gracefully with the band.

http://maelstrom.nu/ezine/review_iss64_4956.php

This 2 disc set brings us the cream of her solo output…

Amplifier (January 2009)


If you haven’t seen or heard Maggie Bell then I don’t need to convince you that you need this album. If you haven’t, well, now’s the time to put that right…it’s not every day you can catch a living legend. Angel Air have delivered precisely that.

Jeff Perkins, www.blogcritics.org (January 2009)


…the ballsy, tough but cute stage persona never overshadowed the voice…it’s the live material with later band, Midnight Flyer, which sets the pulse and takes us to a real bonus in Disc 2′s thirteen-song DVD rendering of the band live in Montreux from 1981 where the goods are delivered bang on the nail…

Rock n Reel (March 2009)


This two disc set couples a CD anthology of this gritty Glaswegian’s finest recordings with a similarly robust live DVD…

Kevin Bryan, Stirling Advertiser (July 2009)

…a CD anthology of this gritty Glaswegian’s finest recordings with a similarly robust live DVD…

Kevin Bryan, Stirling Advertiser (July 2010)


She made a name for herself with the band Stone The Crows, releasing four albums with them. A solo career followed and some of her best recordings can be found on this compilation CD.
My favourite tracks include As The Years Go Passing By, We Had It All, Free’s Wishing Well and No Mean City (the theme to TV Cop series Taggart).

Bev Bevan

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MAGGIE BELL Live Montreux 1981

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…the highlight of the busy year came in mid-summer, as Flyer climbed onto the Montreux festival stage and ripped through one of the best shows of their all-too-brief career. Live Montreux July 1981 features the bulk of their show that day, as the band rips through its set, then is joined for two numbers by blues legend Taj Mahal and by the Telecaster master Albert Collins for a further pair.

It was a phenomenal show, the sound quality exceptional, and the band at its very, very best. Unforgettable.

All Music Guide (December 2007)


Talk about the unrealized potential yet, without this recording the history of modern British blues can’t be complete.

www.dmme.net (December 2007)


As live albums go, this is up there with the very best: listening to it, you really do feel that you’re at the gig.

Classic Rock Society (Dec 2007)


It’s a typically gritty and uncompromising affair…

Kevin Bryan, Stirling News (Dec 2007)


…rather raw and bautifully sounding live recording seems to do more justice to the band’s unrelenting blues-rock than its confined studio counterpart…

Anyone who appreciates early Led Zeppelin should give this album a listen, if only to hear the female equivalent of Plant rocking with the mostest. 8/10

Avi Shaked, www.maelstrom.nu

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MAGGIE BELL Suicide Sal

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…an album that in many ways is more rocky than the debut…Yet again Angel Air have done her proud.

Feedback (February 2006)


…a timely reminder of the power and quality of the former Stone The Crows vocalist

Classic Rock Society (March 2006)


Maggie Bell’s distinctive vocals, raw and lived in, are perfectly suited to this selection of songs.

Hartlepool Mail (March 2006)


While her debut was recorded with stellar session players, this album sees Bell’s touring band supporting her. Consequently, the album has a more liberated feel and more wholehearted contributions, including some delicate organ and guitar playing. It might lack consistency (in particular, leaving the Beatles cover out would have been a wise choice), but there is a good dose of soulful material here to please fans of mainstream 70′s rock. (7/10)

Maelstrom, Issue 43


This critically acclaimed set has now been released in CD form by Angel Air, giving a whole new lease of life to prime cuts such as ‘What You Got’, ‘In My Life’ and Free’s ‘Wishing Well’

Kevin Bryan, Stirling Advertiser (April 2006)


…a solid piece of work illustrating her raw power…

Record Collector (May 2006)


This critically acclaimed set has now been released in CD form in Angel Air, giving a whole new lease to prime cuts such as ‘What You Got’, ‘In My Life’ and Free’s ‘Wishing Well’

Kevin Bryan, Hartlepool Mail (May 2006)


…What she lacked was the songs. At her best, as on the best tracks here, this was something she overcame with inspired cover versions like the wonderfully breathy take on Free’s ‘Wishing Well’, and the ballsy role-reversal of ‘I Saw Him Standing There.’ All this topped off by the addition of Jimmy Page on a couple of tracks.

Classic Rock magazine

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MAGGIE BELL Queen of the Night

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…this collection displays a woman with an incredible voice who can switch between rock, soul, jazz and blues.

Evening Star (January 2006)


…an excellent effort..a nicely varied set.

Kevin Bryan (January 2006)


…an album that is full of many styles…with Maggie singing her heart out

Feedback (February 2006)


…this collection displays a woman with an incredible voice who can switch between rock, soul, jazz and blues.

Evening Star (January 2006)


..the recording is nothing short of precision…Queen of the Night is a careful, dedicated workout and a highly colourful release (7.25/10)

Maelstrom (March 2006)


Whether she’s singing upbeat or melancholy, Maggie Bell is always worth a listen.

Hartlepool Mail (March 2006)


It only takes a few lines of Bell’s singing to recognize why she is often referred to as the ‘British Janis Joplin’. Those bluesy, soulful and heartrending vocals are absolutely chilling

Prog-Nose (March 2006)

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MAGGIE BELL Live Boston USA – 1975

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…captures her in typically feisty form…her passionate performance of songs such as ‘Wishing Well’ and ‘Penicillin Blues’ will have devotees thirsting for more from this criminally undervalued performer

Kevin Bryan, Belfast Telegraph (June 2003)


It’s a great representation of what made Maggie Bell one of, if not THE best British female vocalists of any era wuth the sheer power of her gritty vocals being ideally suited to her blues-based material…

This is ballsy, no frills Blues Rock which really punches its weight.

Steve Ward, Classic Rock Society (July 2003)


…it does manage to convey a performer happily driving a band and raucous crowd through their paces…A valid release, capturing one of Scotland’s great singers…

Feedback (July 2003)


…To say this album was recorded back in 1975 seems like a misprint to me, I would be happy to go out tomorrow and listen to a concert like this…this is one great live album

Modern Dance (Issue 45)


…fills a long-yawning void in the Stone The Crows-and-beyond vault, an eight track set that highlights both the old band’s material plus material from her two solo albums-to-date…

Jo-Anne Greene, Goldmine(August 2003)

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MAGGIE BELL Live At the Rainbow

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Five times voted Uk Female Vocalist of the Year, her choice of material was impeccable. Coming On Strong, Free’s classic Wishing Well and a Soul Medley are just a few of the delights to revel in on this album. But standing head and shoulders above these tracks is her towering version of I Was In Chains…this release…gives the opportunity to relive a great talent

Colin Bell, On the Record


…the sound quality is surprisingly good for a live recording of this vintage.

The first eight tracks are a prime example of just how good and how powerful vocalist Maggie Bell was and still is…

Steve Ward, Wondrous Stories (Feb 2002)


…this concert catches her in her prime. A fabulous band powered by keyboardist Pete Wingfield, they clearly had a ball…lovers of the likes of Free’s ‘Wishing Well’ and The Sutherland Brothers ‘I Was In Chains’ make one pine for another of her ilk.

Classic Rock (March 2002)


Bell’s powerful yet soulful vocals suit the mix of blues, rock, R & B and pop in which she dabbled very well and this set encapsulates her rightful claim to be judged as one of the UK’s top female singers of the times…The closing number, ‘Shout’, is so fast and passionate that Maggie all but brings the house down. A fantastic archive package.

Record Collector (March 2002)


An extremely powerful singer with more than a hint of Janis Joplin about her, she manages to takes songs such as ‘Wishing Well’ and stretch the original, so much so that it sounds better than the original…

The encores show that the band is having a party and everyone is invited. Plain good rock and roll lunatic fun that has transferred well onto this compact disc. This is Angel Air’s 100th release, and they have made the ton in great style.

Feedback, (March 2002)


…another sterling Angel Air release…Built around her forthcoming Suicide Sal solo debut but with plenty of room to manoeuvre around that, Live…captures one of Britain’s finest ever blues-rock singers…

Goldmine (March 2002)


This is a fine album from a great performer. I just love it.

Frankie Mouse, Modern Dance, Issue 38 (June 2002)


…she aquits herself well with this feisty performance…

Hartlepool Mail, (November 2002)


…Maggie’s larger than life personality totally dominates the proceedings. The track listing boasts fine covers of Free’s ‘Wishing Well’…alongside a splendid Pete Wingfield inspired ‘Soul Medley’.

Kevin Bryan, Stirling News (February 2003)


Here’s one of the finest female voices to come out of the UK. Stone The Crows promised so much, but that’s another story in their cruelly too short existence. This set comes from the personal archive of band member Mo Foster [bass]…. There’s good bass lines in Wishing Well as Maggie gives the song her own treatment…the first half of this CD is worth the price alone.

Blues Matters (July 2003)

www.bluesmatters.com

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