Looking Back Moving Forward

Maggie Reilly has covered vast musical ground. 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 early nineties Euro pop and her thoughtful solo albums of the last decade. 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”. In the mid-seventies Joe Cool swiftly transformed from an insider act into a Scottish pop phenomenon when they united with the equally well known, but more jazz-orientated formation "Up", 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. After parting with Oldfield and taking time out to start a family, Maggie resumed her solo career and awards came with increasing frequency. She joined forces with the major German publishing house Mambo, producing the Album ‘Echoes’ in 1991 for which she wrote the massive worldwide hit ‘Everytime we Touch’ alongside the European hits ‘Wait’ and ‘Tears in the Rain’. The Album ‘Midnight Sun’ followed in 1992, with the 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. 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. In 2006 Maggie returned to her Scottish roots with the release of ‘Rowan’. This is an album of original songs, mixed seamlessly with traditional Scottish and English folk songs with the Reilly twist. 2009 sees the release of Maggie's new Album 'Looking Back Moving Forward'. Maggie has had the opportunity of working with some fantastic musicians including her longstanding musical collaborator, Stuart Mackillop, who has now contributed to his ninth Maggie Reilly album since that first Cado Belle album in 1976.