It was our job to be in the studio ready to start at 10 AM, and we didn’t mess around. We had the stamina, and we would just do the job. How did you manage to do all these sessions? When I look through all the albums you’ve been involved in, it’s staggering. I mean you don’t get much better than that – to me they were second only to Lennon & McCartney. There were so many great musicians: Barry Morgan, Herbie Flowers, Alan Hawkshaw, and the prolific Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. I remember one session as the Rhythm Section, which was Blue Mink and a couple of other guys including Mike Moran, we went over to Munich, and in two days we recorded 75 60-second long tracks to use for library music. Yes, he was right! There’s still bits being used on television even today. So library music was like the session player’s pension plan? I remember we were recording for Blue Mink and Alan handed me a cassette and said “Write some lyrics to this.” I said “I don’t write lyrics Alan,” but he just kept handing me cassette tapes, saying “Write some lyrics, and in 30 years time this will be part of your pension!” Alan Parker (Blue Mink guitarist) and myself wrote lots of library music together through the ’60s and ’70s, you know, music for Prisoner Cell Block H and that kind of stuff. Oh yes, being in the studio was always great, whether with Blue Mink, or the Rhythm Section, or the Themes International Band. And I suppose the chemistry of you all playing together on a powerful song like that was a vibe you could transfer to other studio sessions, for the Voice Of Soul, for example? Yes, at least there was a bit more hope back then in the ’70s. If you ask me, things haven’t changed that much since then – if anything, they’ve gotten worse. “Take a pinch of white man, wrap him up in black skin.” But after Tony Blackburn played it, it took off. The lyrics for “Melting Pot” were pretty controversial back then, goodness, no one knew what to do with it. Well, they had written a few instrumental tracks and thought they could be spiced up with a singer, so we recorded some vocals and that was “Melting Pot.” After that they just asked if I wanted to be part of the group. That’s how we got to know everyone in the first place, because of working together in the studios, even before Blue Mink. It really started with Dusty Springfield, and singing backing vocals with Lesley Duncan, Kiki Dee, Kaye Garner and the Breakaways. So how did you get into the studio session world? Speaking from her Spanish home, she reveals the clandestine world of big studio sessions and nocturnal music makers that shaped the sound of the ’60s and ’70s, from politically-charged rock classics to space disco oddities and sought-after library rarities. From her early days touring with gospel tour de force the Alex Bradford Singers around the turn of the ’60s, to her own solo career and time with soulful rocking six-piece Blue Mink, to becoming one of the world’s most in-demand session singers, joining everyone from Scott Walker and John Paul Jones to Dusty Springfield, Asha Puthli and Adam F, she’s seen it all.Īt 70, Madeline is one of the few remaining figures of a bygone and somewhat magical musical age, and with stories for days and a memory as sharp as a tack, she gives us a behind-the-scenes peek into the studios of old, recalling some of the special sessions and characters that she worked with. Bell has left her distinctive harmonies and vocals on so many albums and sessions, that it’s hard to believe that she hadn’t already pioneered cloning five decades ago. The career of soul singer, pop starlet and library vocalist extraordinaire Madeline Bell has been a whirlwind of recordings documenting a life lived in front of the microphone, whether on the road or in the studio.
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