Carmel McCourt (born 24 November 1958) is an English singer, best known as the lead vocalist for her eponymous band Carmel, with bassist Jim Paris and drummer Gerry Darby.

Early life

Born in

Wrawby Wrawby is a village in North Lincolnshire, England. It lies east of Brigg and close to Humberside Airport, on the A18 road (England), A18. The United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census recorded a village population of 1,293, in around 600 homes, ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England, Carmel McCourt attended St Bede's Catholic School on Collum Avenue in Ashby,

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...

, and Brigg Girls' High School.

Career

Carmel McCourt first came into the public eye as vocalist on the 1982 single "Rain Rain Rain" by

Soundtracks A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

and

Head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

. She was credited as C. T. McCourt. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, Carmel achieved success in the UK and Europe with albums and singles charting on both the

UK Albums The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official ...

and UK Singles Charts, respectively. At the start of the new millennium, Darby left the band and in 2002, Paris and McCourt toured with a nine-piece band performing old material. A 2004 live DVD titled ''More, More, More'' was released featuring full band performances and an interview with McCourt and Paris. In December 2011, McCourt and Paris, still working under the name Carmel, released the album ''Strictly Piaf'', which consisted of 10 cover versions of songs by

Edith Piaf Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning '' strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian lang ...

. As of October 2012, McCourt was set to return to live work with a new band formation, performing Carmel classics as well as material from the ''Strictly Piaf'' album. Dates included those at London's

Islington Town Hall Islington Town Hall is a municipal facility in Upper Street, Islington, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters for Islington London Borough Council, is a Listed building#England and Wales, Grade II listed building. History The buildi ...

, Stockton Georgian Theatre, and Manchester Band on The Wall. Of the shows, she said: "It will be wonderful to work with the new musicians. They are all great in their own right and it will be so sweet to hear the many songs that Gerry Darby, Jim Paris and I wrote together in the years spanning the 1980s and the 1990s." McCourt took the band on a European tour of Germany and Switzerland towards the end of May 2013 and began to start playing some of the new songs she had been writing. On 25 September 2015, McCourt released her first new single with her new band, the double A-side "Sad Situation"/"Second Wife Blues", on new independent label Kultura Recordings. Both tracks were recorded at Limefield Studio in Middleton and mixed and mastered by Kevin O'Toole. On 2 June 2018, McCourt played her first live date in four years, playing St. Agnes' Church,

Longsight Longsight is an inner city area of Manchester, England, south of the Manchester City Centre, city centre, bounded by Ardwick and Gorton, West Gorton to the north and east; Levenshulme to the south; and Chorlton-on-Medlock, Victoria Park, Man ...

, Manchester, followed by summer dates across the North of England including some festivals.

Discography

Albums

;with Carmel *''Carmel'' (1982, Red Flame) – UK #94 (6-track mini-album) *''The Drum Is Everything'' (1984,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) – UK #19 *''The Falling'' (1986, London) – UK #88 *''Everybody's Got a Little...Soul'' (1987, London) *''Set Me Free'' (1989, London) *''Good News'' (1993, East West) *''World's Gone Crazy'' (1995, East West) *''Live in Paris'' (1997, East West) December 1990 performance *''Live at Ronnie Scott's'' (1998, Indigo Delux) December 1997 performance *''More More More'' (2010,

Secret Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controver ...

) live in London October 2003 *''Strictly Piaf'' (2011, Secret) *''Brave New Waves: session'' (2018, Artifact Records) live in Montreal 1988 *''Wild Country'' (2022, Secret)

Singles

;Solo *"You're on My Mind" (with Rossana Casale) (1991), London Records *"La Complainte Pour Sainte Catherine" (with

Jo Lemaire Jo Lemaire (born 5 January 1956) is a Belgian singer and songwriter born in Gembloux, Namur. Beyond her native country, she is also popular in France, Switzerland, Canada, and the Netherlands. Career Jo Lemaire debuted musically in the late 19 ...

) (1994), Play That Beat!

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCourt, Carmel 1958 births Living people English women singers English jazz singers British women jazz singers English soul singers People from Scunthorpe Musicians from Lincolnshire