Madeline Bell
Madeline Bell on stage in 2008
Background information
Birth name	Madeline Bell
Born	(1942-07-23) July 23, 1942 (age 69) Newark, New Jersey, United States
Origin	Newark
Genres	Soul
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1965–present
Labels	RPM, RCA
Associated acts	Sandpebbles Dusty Springfield, Blue Mink, Ashman-Reynolds, Spike Edney's All Star Band (S.A.S.)
Website	Official website

Madeline Bell (born July 23, 1942, Newark, New Jersey) is an American soul singer, who became famous as a performer in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, having arrived from the US in the gospel show Black Nativity in 1962, with vocal group The Bradford Singers.

Career[link]

She worked as a session singer, most notably backing for Dusty Springfield, and can be found on early Donna Summer material as well.^{[citation needed]} Her first major solo hit was a cover version of Dee Dee Warwick's single "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", which performed better on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart than the original.

Madeline then joined contemporary pop combo Blue Mink, with whom she had a number of Top 20 hits with Philips Records in the UK, including "Melting Pot", "Our World", "Randy", "Banner Man", "Good Morning Freedom", "Sunday", "By The Devil I Was Tempted" and "Stay With Me".^[1] Before joining Blue Mink in late 1969 she sang solo, and her cover version of "Picture Me Gone" is still a Northern Soul favourite today, as is "What Am I Supposed To Do", from 1968, a two-minute B-side tune co-written with future Led Zeppelin member John Paul Jones, then working as one of London's most in-demand session bassists (Bell also sang backup on Joe Cocker's "Bye Bye Blackbird" in 1969, which featured a guitar solo from another Led Zeppelin member, Jimmy Page) Jones later arranged, produced and recorded Bell's 1973 RCA album Comin' Atcha.^[2] She sang backing vocals on Rod Stewart's 1971 song "Every Picture Tells A Story", and contributed to the soundtrack of the romance film A Touch of Class (1973).

Bell has also provided backing vocals on a number of other artists' recordings notably Tom Parker's neo-classical arrangements and in 1975 performed with Sunny and Sue (originally members of Brotherhood of Man) at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, Sweden, providing backing vocals for the German entry "Ein Lied Kann Eine Brücke Sein", performed by Joy Fleming. She worked with Kiki Dee and Lesley Duncan. In 1976 she sang backing vocals on We Can't Go on Meeting Like This, the second album by the band Hummingbird.

She also joined the French disco group Space providing lead vocals on two of their albums. One of the songs she provided lead vocals on was "Save Your Love For Me" from 1978 which charted high in many countries. She also provided backing vocals for another French artist; Cerrone. Madeline also appears on Giorgio Moroder's 1979 album, E=MC2.

Madeline Bell in 1968

Since the 1970s, Bell has continued singing solo and also performed in a number of stage shows. She continues to live in Spain since her husband, drummer Barry Reeves (once of The Ferris Wheel) died in February 2010 and regularly tours Europe singing jazz and popular songs.^[3] In 1982, she added background vocals to the fantasy film Alicja. She then again teamed up with John Paul Jones in 1985, contributing performances ("Take It or Leave It" and "Here I Am") to the soundtrack album Scream for Help.

Madeline was the voice behind the 1980s advertising campaign for Brooke Bond D, a brand of tea bag in the UK. The music was composed by Ronnie Bond. She also provided vocals on the jingles of another 1980s advertising campaign, British Gas' Wonderfuel Gas, which began in 1982.

Solo discography[link]

• Bell's a Poppin' (1967)
• Doin' Things (1968)
• I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (1968)
• Madeline Bell (1971)
• Comin' Atcha (1973)
• This Is One Girl (1976)
• Beat out That Rhythm on a Drum (1998)
• Blessed (2000)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Madeline Bell homepage
• Madeline Bell at Allmusic
• Madeline Bell at the Internet Movie Database

Eck Robertson
Background information
Birth name	Alexander Robertson
Born	November 20, 1887 Delaney, Arkansas, USA
Origin	Amarillo, Texas
Died	February 15, 1975(1975-02-15) (aged 87) Borger, Texas, USA
Genres	Country
Occupations	Musician, piano tuner
Instruments	Fiddle
Years active	1920s – 1960s
Labels	Victor, County

Alexander "Eck" Robertson (born November 20, 1887 in Delaney, Arkansas, died February 15, 1975 in Borger, Texas) was an American fiddle player, mostly known for commercially recording the first country music songs in 1922 with Henry Gilliland.

Early life[link]

Robertson was born in Arkansas and grew up on a farm in the Texas panhandle where his family moved when he was three years old. His father, grandfather and uncles were fiddlers who competed in local contests. His father, a veteran of the Civil War, was also a farmer, and later quit fiddling to become a preacher.^[1] At the age of five, Robertson began learning to play the fiddle, and later learned banjo and guitar. In 1904, at the age of sixteen, he decided to become a professional musician and left home to travel with a medicine show through Indian Territory. In 1906 he married and settled in Vernon, Texas and became a piano tuner for the Total Line Music Company.^[2]

Recordings[link]

Robertson and his wife Nettie performed at silent movie theaters and fiddling contests through the region. As the son of a Confederate veteran, Robertson was able to attend the annual Old Confederate Soldiers' Reunions across the South, and became a regular performer at these events. He met 74-year-old fiddler Henry C. Gilliland at one of these reunions, and the two began performing together. After the Richmond, Virginia reunion in June 1922, Gilliland and Robertson traveled to New York City, auditioned for and received a recording contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company.^[1] On Friday, June 30, 1922, Robertson and Gilliland recorded four fiddle duets for Victor. These probably represent the first commercial recordings of country music performers. Two of them, "Arkansaw Traveler" and "Turkey in the Straw", were released on Victor. Two others, "Forked Deer" and "Apple Blossom", were never issued. At the company's request, Robertson returned the next day, July 1, without Gilliland and recorded six additional sides. Four of them - "Sally Gooden", "Ragtime Annie", "Sally Johnson/Billy in the Low Ground" and "Done Gone" - were released on Victor over the next two years. The other two, "General Logan Reel/Dominion Hornpipe" and "Brilliancy and Cheatum", remain unissued.^[2] Robertson's rendition of "Sally Gooden" is now a classic since he played the traditional fiddle tune followed by 12 variations.

Robertson's first record, with his solo "Sally Gooden" on one side and duet "Arkansaw Traveler" on the other, was released on September 1, 1922, but was not widely circulated until the spring of 1923. Sales figures are not known, but Victor did not promote the record strongly.^[2] His next two records were released in 1923 and 1924, but only after the summer of 1923, when Fiddlin' John Carson's recordings on Okeh Records kicked off a boom in old-time country music record sales. In 1925, Victor started using a new electrical recording process, but Robertson's 1922 acoustically made recordings continued to be made available for several years, being listed in “The Catalog of Victor Records 1930”.^[2][3]

Robertson approached Victor about recording again, and in 1929 arranged to meet a Victor field recording engineer in Dallas, Texas. This time he included his wife Nettie on guitar, his daughter Daphne on tenor guitar and his son Dueron on tenor banjo. On August 12, 1929 the group recorded four fiddle tunes - "Texas Wagoner", "There's a Brown Skin Gal Down the Road", "Amarillo Waltz" and "Brown Kelly Waltz". On October 10, the Robertson family band returned to Dallas and recorded two fiddle duets with Texas fiddler J. B. Cranfill, "Great Big Taters" and "Run Boy Run". Two additional tunes were recorded that evening, "Apple Blossom" and "My Frog Ain't Got No Blues", but were not issued. The next day, October 11, the band recorded "Brilliancy Medley", released in September 1930, and the ballad "The Island Unknown", released in December 1929. That day the band also recorded three additional sides that were not released - "My Experience on the Ranch" and remakes of "Arkansaw Traveler" and "Sally Gooden".^[2]

The week of September 20, 1940, Robertson recorded 100 fiddle tunes at Jack Sellers Studios in Dallas, Texas. Unfortunately, there is no song listing from these sessions, and none of the tunes have ever surfaced.^[2]

Robertson continued to perform extensively at dances, theaters, fiddlers' conventions and on radio. In 1963, John Cohen, Mike Seeger and Tracy Schwarz visited Robertson at his home in Amarillo, Texas and taped some of his music, which was released on County Records as Eck Robertson, Famous Cowboy Fiddler. Robertson appeared at the UCLA Folk Festival in 1964, and at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, accompanied by the New Lost City Ramblers.^[1]

Robertson died in 1975 in Borger, Texas and was interred at the Westlawn Memorial Park Cemetery. His tombstone is engraved "World's Champion Fiddler."^[1]

Discography[link]

78 RPM[link]

^{[4] [5] [6]}

Albums[link]

Compilations and reissues[link]

See also[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Stars of Country Music, (University of Illinois Press, 1975)
• Tony Russell; Country Music Originals, (Oxford University Press, 2007)

External links[link]

• Eck Robertson in the Fiddler's Hall of Fame. (Includes MP3 of "Sally Gooden")
• MP3 of "Sally Johnson/Billy in the Low Ground"

Colin Chisholm (born February 25, 1963 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a former professional ice hockey defenceman. He was drafted in the third round, 60th overall, by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft. He played one game in the National Hockey League with the Minnesota North Stars in the 1986–87 season, going scoreless. However he was unable to continue playing hockey due to a medical condition.

External links[link]

• Colin Chisholm's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database

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