Maggie Reilly

Biography

From the jazz/funk of Cado Belle, performances with Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, her collaboration with Prog rocker Mike Oldfield, duets with Jack Bruce (Cream) and Dave Gilmour (Pink Floyd) through the Euro pop of the early nineties and her thoughtful solo albums of the last decade, Maggie Reilly has covered a lot of musical ground. Now with her new album, "Looking Back Moving Forward". She has re-visited some of her early hits and produced some stunning new tracks.

Those who are familiar with Maggie through hits such as "Moonlight Shadow" and "Everytime We Touch" will be delighted to hear her new versions on "Looking Back Moving Forward", alongside great new songs such as "It's A Lovely Day" and "Peggy".

Maggie's professional career began in 1970 when she recorded her first single "Imagine Me". Shortly after, she met keyboard player Stuart MacKillop and formed the band Joe Cool. Joe Cool swiftly transformed from an insider act into a Scottish pop phenomenon when In the mid-seventies they united with the not lesser-known, but more jazz-orientated formation Up, therewith forming the seminal Scottish funk-rock-band Cado Belle. However, in 1976 Punk rock swamped every other musical style in the UK, so the band split.

After a time living and working in Ireland, Maggie formed her much acclaimed partnership with Mike Oldfield in 1980, producing such great songs as "Moonlight Shadow", "To France" and the Hall & Oates hit "Family Man" for which she received an ASCAP award in 1984.

Awards came with increasing frequency when, after parting with Oldfield and taking time out to start a family, Maggie resumed her solo career. Joining forces with the major German publishing house Mambo, they produced the album "Echoes" in 1991 for which she wrote the massive worldwide hit "Everytime We Touch" alongside European hits "Wait" and "Tears In The Rain".

The album "Midnight Sun" sun followed soon after in 1992, contributing more hits - "Follow The Midnight Sun" and "What About Tomorrow's Children".

1996 saw the first of three albums for EMI, "Elena" was a move away from the breezy pop songs of the Mambo period towards a more insightful songwriting style as shown on the atmospheric title track which featured the Finnish folk band ‘Vaartina' chanting behind Maggie's soaring lead vocal.

"The Best Of Maggie Reilly: There And Back Again" (1998) gave Maggie a chance to re-record a selection of her best known songs to that date, Including "Everytime We Touch" & "Foreign Affair".

The release of "Starcrossed" (2000) picked up the threads from "Elena" and provided more evidence of her subtle songwriting skills, particularly on the stunning single "Adelena" (including an electrifying guitar solo by Chris Rea) and the beautiful "Half-light".

In 2003 Maggie took the opportunity to record an album of songs she'd long wanted to sing. "Save It For A Rainy Day" was the first album recorded by Maggie to provide a download hit with the achingly beautiful Cyndi Lauper song "True Colours" as well as other great classic songs by James Taylor, Chicago, Dusty Springfield, Neil Young and Heart.

2006 saw Maggie return to her Scottish roots with the release of "Rowan", an album of original songs mixed seamlessly with traditional Scottish and English folk songs given the Reilly twist in conjunction with her longstanding musical collaborator, Stuart Mackillop, now contributing to his eighth Maggie Reilly album since that first Cado Belle album in 1976.

P.S.: New album was released 31^st Jan 2009, titled "Looking Back Moving Forward". It contains a new recording of "Moonlight Shadow" to mark the 25^th anniversary of the original release, along with new recordings of "Everytime We Touch" and "Family Man" as well as new songs.

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