Maxine Nightingale

It’s no secret that any recording artists or bands worth their salt are far more interesting than what most people will have heard of them for. This is doubly relevant for bands and artists unfairly considered “one hit wonders”, and it’s exactly the case with Maxine Nightingale. After a top ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic with Right Back Where We Started From produced only a couple of other minor hit singles and failed to produce a hit album for the Wembley born R&B singer, she’s spent her career since the 1980’s doing exactly what she wants to do, and what that’s been has been fascinating to watch, and truly wonderful to experience. Eschewing her early brand of R&B and disco, turning to a more jazz inflected sound that suits her voice to a T, she’s controlled, dignified and yet absurdly powerful all at the same time. She’s also not afraid to dip her toes back into her seventies heyday, delivering versions of Lead Me On and Right Back Where We Started From that rival any performance of hers from the seventies and eighties. They’re tied together with stories and anecdotes dating back from her time in the cast of the West End musical Hair in the late sixties to the trials and tribulations of her craft all the way to the present day. It’s an inspiring thing to watch and a discovery worth seeking out for any student of pop history. Highly recommended.