Mari Wilson Announces New Studio Album
aaamusic | On 20, Mar 2012
Mari Wilson
Announces New Studio Album
PledgeMusic fans release – March 2012
Full retail release – April 2nd 2012
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/mariwilson
Mari Wilson returns with intriguing new album, funded by fans and an extremely glamorous “attic sale”.
“The Neasden Queen Of Soul” first broke through thirty years ago with the 1982 hit ‘Just What I Always Wanted’. Now entering her fourth decade as a recording artist Mari is reconciled with her past and excited about the future.
Teaming up with string-arranger, orchestrator, composer and pianist Simon Hale, Mari has recorded some of her favourite songs “I’ve never made an album of covers before and thought it was about time, especially as I perform some of these songs in my show and have often been asked if they are available on CD.”.
The album is a surprising and diverse mix of both classics and contemporary songs, from the likes of the Bee Gees and The Pretenders to Gillian Welch – they’ll all be given the Mari Wilson treatment…and finally, having played Dusty Springfield in Dusty The Musical, at last a Dusty song,
Recorded in Hale’s Oxfordshire studio and mixed by Haydn Bendall, Mari relished taking a production role in the record: “I co-produced this album with Simon, together with some wonderful musicians I’ve worked with over the years. We’ve tried to give the album a cinematic and melancholy atmosphere.”
The musicians are Simon Hale –piano, John Parricelli – guitars, Geoff Gascoyne – bass, Keith Fairbairn – percussion and Ben Hale – flugelhorn.
The end result is a more chilled affair and in many ways more of a concept album than Mari’s previous releases. Her lightness of touch, notably on ‘They Don’t Know’ originally by her friend Kirsty McColl, is to be applauded and when Big Audio Dynamite’s Mick Jones and Don Letts heard that Mari was recording a version of ‘Everybody Needs A Holiday’ they said “Really glad it’s gonna get a second time out with a new feel by a great singer….”
In order to fund the recording and promotion of the album Mari has teamed up with PledgeMusic. Fans wanting to relive the glamorous days of the beehive have been able to purchase exclusive items such as a 1983 Royal Variety Performance programme, Mari’ silver lurex stage dress (an original 1960’s dress which belonged to a friend’s mum and which Mari wore for her first beehive gig back in ’81), a Liberty of London-print dress (made for Mari by Liberty for a TV appearance), handwritten lyric sheets and posters including a large Dusty The Musical and various tour posters.
“I realised I had an attic full of memorabilia that was valuable. Obviously many of the items have great emotional connections for me, but the making of this album and my work as an artist now was more important than keeping hold of things from my past.”
The tracklisting is:
1. Don’t Get Me Wrong (Chrissie Hynde)
2. Disney Girls (Bruce Johnstone)
3. Be My Baby (Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich)
4. Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying (Gerry Marsden)
5. I Only Want to Be With You (Mike Hawker/Ivor Raymonde)
6. First Of May (Bee Gees)
7. Own Side (Caitlin Rose)
8. Right About Now (Ron Sexmith)
9. Dear Someone (Gillian Welch)
10. They Don’t Know (Kirsty McColl)
11. Everybody Needs A Holiday (Mick Jones, Don Letts)
Track By Track
1 Don’t Get Me Wrong (Chrissie Hynde)
This is one of my favourite records, everything about The Pretenders version of this song is perfect, the drumming is sublime, the pace and attitude, the guitars, everything, with a brilliant ending. I’ve been performing this song live just recently and wanted to find a way to show off the beautiful lyric so we’ve slowed it down and given it a completely different groove with percussion and organ and some great bass.
2 Disney Girls (Bruce Johnstone)
This is another song I’ve been performing in my live show and it’s always really popular so it had to be on this album. When you’ve been performing a song for some time you feel you can really get inside it and tell the story, plus it has this kind of 1950’s American Dream type atmosphere. This is about being British and growing up watching American TV shows where everything seemed way ahead of us here, where people’s lives were bathed in sunshine, with surfing and the beach, modern and futuristic, with huge refrigerators that’s what it makes me think of, the 50’s/60’s British view of life in the USA.
3 Be My Baby (Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich)
I’ve been performing this song live for the past couple of years and it’s always very emotional because I do it in such a different way from the original (obviously!). Everyone knows it and the audience always sings along the backing vocals and it’s almost church-like it’s so deeply etched in people’s memories.
4 Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying (Gerry Marsden)
This is one of those timeless songs with a gorgeous melody and a great theme. I remember Ricky Lee Jones’ version which was fabulous and I thought it was time to bring it out again.
5 I Only Want to Be With You (Mike Hawker/Ivor Raymonde)
I played Dusty Springfield in Dusty the Musical in 2000, singing 23 songs a night for 7 months! I always have a Dusty song in my live show and in the recording of this we put a completely different take on it, slowing it down to the point where it is full of melancholy.
6 First of May (Bee Gees)
When I was 11 I was planning to marry Barry Gibb and would practice harmonies with the The Bee Gees. I recorded How Can You Mend a Broken Heart on my Dolled Up album and recently downloaded all of their early work which is now getting the attention it deserves. This song was a challenge because it has such a range but we kept it simple and sweet.
7 Own Side (Caitlin Rose)
I saw Caitlin Rose supporting Ron Sexmith in LA in April and was knocked out by her songs, her voice and her personality – she ticked every box. Only 23 and sounding like Loretta Lynn/Iris DeMent – she’s definitely going places. I bought both her cd’s and this song was the one that got really me and I thought it would be interesting to cover a song written and recorded by someone half my age and to put a different perspective on the lyric – I hope I’ve managed to do that.
8 Right About Now (Ron Sexmith)
This is the second time I’ve covered one of Ron’s songs – I could just record a whole album of his songs, he has a gift, like a Canadian Nick Lowe. The lyric and the melody seem to be so right, they’re so meant for each other.
9 Dear Someone (Gillian Welch)
I absolutely adore Gillian Welch and her voice. I’ve known and loved this song for a long time. It sounds like it was written about 150 years ago, a bit like Peggy Lee’s “I Don’t’ Wanna Play in Your Yard” which I covered on my Dolled Up album in 2005. So I’ve tried to put my own stamp on it by giving it an unusual atmosphere with different sound textures.
10 They Don’t Know (Kirsty McColl)
I knew Kirsty back in the early 80’s – she sang back-up on a couple of my demos and later on I demoed a couple of her other songs which I have on cassette somewhere. Anyway, she was a gem and I always wanted to do a bare, minimal, stripped-down version of this song, Once we’d recorded it with just piano bass and voice, we knew it didn’t need any more.
11 Everybody Needs A Holiday (Mick Jones, Don Letts)
I spent some time with B.A.D. in LA in the summer and went to their show at The Nokia Club which was brilliant. When they did this song, even though they do it with a heavy reggae-type feel, I could see something else, a kind of lullaby – a tender song underneath the groove. So that’s what I’ve done with it – I’ll be curious to find out what Mick and Don think of it …
Biography
Mari Wilson (The Neasden Queen of Soul) first arrived on the scene in the early eighties with her skyscraper beehive hairdo, bizarre sense of fashion and fully choreographed twelve piece band The Wilsations! Mari’s live shows were spoken about as an event – pure entertainment. In 1982 Mari’s records began entering the charts and she soon had six hit singles, the biggest being ‘Just What I’ve Always Wanted’ and ‘Cry Me A River’, both taken from her album ‘Showpeople’
In the mid-eighties after constant touring of the UK, Europe and the United States, Mari reduced the size of her band (and her hairdo!), changing direction with a more intimate show. With regular appearances at venues such as Ronnie Scotts, The South Bank and festivals alongside legends such as BB King and Ray Charles, Mari has continued to build her reputation as a great live performer. Mari has also appeared in musical theatre, playing Nickie Pignatelli in Phil Willmott’s production of Sweet Charity, Annabel in the black comedy, The Chainsaw Manicure and Dusty Springfield in Dusty The Musical which toured number one venues throughout the UK for seven months in 2000.
Other work includes BBC London as a presenter and singing the theme tune to various TV shows, including the highly successful ‘Coupling” performing the song ‘Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps’. After appearing with Boy George in the West End musical, TABOO, Mari wrote, produced and recorded her album, Dolled Up, which was released in 2005. In September 2007, marking the 25th Anniversary of Just What I Always Wanted being in the top ten, Warner Bros. released ‘Mari Wilson – The Platinum Collection’ and Mari toured the UK. There is also the collaboration with Barb Jungr in the outrageously camp show, Girl Talk. Their album is available on Linn Records. Barb and Mari teamed up with Gwyneth Herbert and relaunched Girl Talk in February 2011.
Mari has spent the past three years performing with her Threesome, featuring her anecdotal meanderings on everything from beehives to Botox and singing songs that span her career so far. Recently playing a sell-out show at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, California, fans flew in from all over the U.S. where she was spoken of as “The British Bette Midler”.
Mari has also written a one-woman musical – The Love Thing. It was writing the songs for this musical that led to Mari’s 2008 album Emotional Glamour – featuring ten original songs, this album marked a return to the retro-pop she is the true queen of. In November 2010, The Love Thing debuted in London selling out for five nights to standing ovations at The Leicester Square Theatre. 2011 will see The Love Thing being developed further for a longer run and a national tour.
Early 2011 saw Mari team up with song-writing and production team, Boisounds to release pop-dance extravaganza O.I.C., “an infections, groovy-to-the-bone single that lifts you from its first beat”. The album, Boisounds Presents is available now and features a second track by Mari, a stunning ballad, Superman.
Mari has always been known for her live shows – hits old and new, unusual and unexpected covers and of course, a myriad of glamorous costume changes. Combined with Mari’s storytelling and wit she still stands as one of the best live performers in the country.
