When the ravages of Alzheimer’s leave an elderly woman marooned in painful memories of October 1950, her grandchild comes up with a creative strategy.
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Happy birthday, Madeline
STEVE JOHNSON is mesmerised by one of the greats
Madeline Bell
[Dick Smit/Flickr/CC]
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Madeline Bell and the English Chamber Orchestra: 80th Birthday Concert
Cadogan Hall, London SW1
★★★★★
FOR those of us who grew up in watching Top of the Pops in the early 1970s, it seems hard to believe that Madeline Bell can now be 80. Until we remind ourselves that we are now over 60 and still wondering how the hell that could have happened.
Remembered for a string of hits as part of the pop duo Blue Mink with Roger Cook, her career is in fact much wider-ranging than this encompassing soul, blues, gospel and jazz.
Arriving in Europe from Newark, New Jersey, in 1962 as part of a gospel show Black Nativity, she has stayed ever since, initially working as a session singer accompanying a range of artists including Dusty Springfield, Joe Cocker and the Rolling Stones.
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