Following bio are taken from defunkt <http://www.carmel.u-net.com>:
THE CARMEL TRIO ARE:
Carmel McCourt - Vocals and Keyboard
Gerry Darby - Drums and Percussion
Jim Parris - Electric and Acoustic Bass
Carmel T McCourt
Carmel was born in a small village called Wrawby near the steel
town of Scunthorpe. She is one of five sisters, her mother is
English and her father Irish. She was brought up in the traditional
Irish Catholic manner and from an early age sang in the church
choir and performed at local festivals. Carmel left home at seventeen
and moved to Manchester to study painting at the Manchester School
of Art. She currently lives in Stockport with her husband and
their son Oliver.
Gerry Darby Gerry was born in East Finchley, North London. He has two brothers and two sisters, his father is Jamaican and his mother English. Gerry started drumming at an early age teaching himself by listening and playing to records and has played with a number of bands covering styles as diverse as Punk Rock, Reggae, Soul and Afro Rock.
Gerry's most memorable gig (that he didn't play at himself!) was when the late great Bob Marley appeared at the Rainbow Theatre in London. Gerry was lucky enough to be working as 'Artist Security' and personally escorted 'Mr Marley' to the stage! Gerry lives in Manchester with his wife and two young sons Keita and Shaquille.
Jim Parris Jim was also born in East Finchley, North London and he has one sister and two brothers. His mother is English and his father Guyanese. The guys like to keep it in the family - Jim and Gerry are cousins!
Jim studied Psychology at Manchester Polytechnic where he also founded the group `Bee Vamp` which attracted a lot of publicity after its debut shows in London. The band had a policy of inviting guest musicians to improvise freely with the group. Carmel guested as a singer and Gerry guested on percussion. The three then went on to form the band CARMEL. Jim currently lives in Barcelona with his wife and two children, Java and Zahir.
IN THE BEGINNING.......
The Carmel trio started in earnest after the break up of Bee-vamp. The trio had immediate success after a few London shows and caused a stir with their first independent release on Red Flame records. They also gained critical acclaim for the single Storm which was released from the album. Storm went onto reach No.1 in the Independent chart and brought the attention of a major record company, London Records, with whom the band signed in 1983.
Their first album for London Records was The Drum Is Everything which reached No.19 in the UK charts. Two top twenty singles, Bad Day and More, More, More were also released from the album.
Europe's audiences took Carmel to their hearts when the band first toured, and this culminated in an award for best Jazz vocalist of the year at Italy's Messina Jazz festival in 1985. Encouraged by Europe's response to their live sets the trio spent their time playing at key venues all over Europe, writing new material whilst on the road and recording new work in the studio.
Their second album for London, The Falling was released in 1986 and saw the trio joined by a brass section, two backing singers, a keyboard player and African percussionists. They took the show on a 40 date sell out tour of Europe. Their constant live work had paid off.
The single Sally sold in excess of 500,000 records, reaching No.5 in the French charts. The Falling went Gold and charted all over Europe, whilst a duet with French superstar Johnny Halliday shot into France's top ten in one week.
The third album on London Records, Everybody Got A Little Soul, followed the success of The Falling and went on to become the second Gold album. Suddenly Carmel were famous. They were known for their wide musical vocabulary, and, for taking risks by improvising during their live performances.
Carmel's albums are as diverse as her voice and cover musical dimentions as varied as Blues, Soul, Gospel, R&B, Hi-life, African and Reggae. The band do not regard this as flirting with these styles, rather as a natural progression of their work.
1989 saw the release of the album, Set Me Free, where a collaboration of producers were used to cover the broad range of styles in the material. Mike Thorne (who had become a long standing producer for the band) completed the singles Je Suis Tombe Amorous and You Can Have Him (which was later used for the Hollywood film - Lives and Lusts of a She Devil). Brian Eno added his own touch of finesse to the more esoteric songs, God Put Your Hand On Me and Take It For Granted. Veteran R&B producer Pete Wingfield was hired for his experience on the emotional I'm Over You and Onward. Bassist Jimmy Parris had been involved in producing only a few b-sides in the past but his developing skills came to fruition on the remainder of the songs on this eclectic yet cohesive album.
Once again the album was lauded by critics
from all over the media spectrum. Q magazine described Set Me
Free as 'incendiary', heaping a rare five star seal of approval
upon the band. At this time the band were involved in a separate
musical project supplying the entire score for a German horror
film entitled, Hannah Monster Darling. This was done by effectively
cancelling Christmas and working right through at the Manchester
studio Moonra
ker belonging to
Mike Harding.
In late 1990 a retrospective collection of songs culled from Carmel's six year career was released. Called simply Collected it contained tracks such as the brooding Bad Day and the contemporary Take It For Granted. It also showcased Carmel's unique voice through a cross section of musical styles.
November 1991 saw Carmel once again in the studio, this time with just three additional musicians and Jim Parris at the helm as producer. The studio was the Bavaria Music Studio, a classical studio in Munich. The band worked completely live, shunning headphones for this recording with the vastly experienced recording engineer John Timperly who has recorded such artists as Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, The Beatles and Art Blakey to name but a few.
The album was laid down in five days and mixed the next month. It was released in the spring of '92 on east/west records and was called Good News. As always the album contained a mixture of styles from the ragga sound of Your'e on My Mind featuring a guest appearance by dub poet/toaster Crazy Joe, (who first appeared on Rue St Denis, The Drum Is Everything), to the Klesmic sound of Desdamona the angry chant of a woman wrongly accused of infidelity.
The New Morning in Paris was the venue chosen to showcase the new material and with the stripped down line up of vocals, bass, drums ,keys, guitar and one backing singer. The gig was rapturously received and following a two day residency, the band set off on a highly successful tour of Europe.
Worlds Gon Crazy the title of the last recording for east/west contains some of the bands most challenging material to date with such tracks as Jacqueline. This track was inspired by the book Cry Hard and Swim by Jacqueline Spring which examines the nightmarish scenario of a young girl being sexually abused by her father. The track is stark, haunting and chilling with its menacing arrangement.
Jack Dodd, a duet with Pat McDonald of Timbuck Three fame, once again charted new territory with an examination of the holy conception through the story of a mother haunted by an illusionary lover.
If You Don't Come Back and If I Don't Have You are the two cover versions on the album. The first is a lovers lament penned by the Spanish singer/actor Miguel Bose and was put forward by Jim Parris who through living in Spain picked up on this beautiful ballad. Produced by Julian Mendlsohn this song should have gone straight into the charts but due to politics with the then record company, there was little promotion. The second is a Gregory Isaacs tune and was Gerry's idea, him being a long term reggae fan. This is a classic lovers track, ideally suited to Carmel's tender voice.
1997 and the band once again look to the live arena with a new totally live album released on the Music Disk label. This is a collection of classic songs such as Sally, Bad Day and More, More, More along with four previously unreleased tracks.
A second live album Entitled,"live at Ronnie Scotts" Is in the shops now. Recorded in December 1997 at the world famous Ronnie Scott club, this album contains many new tracks and is released on the Indigo label.