A decade after her last album of original material was released, and celebrating 45 years of recording and touring, 1980s pop icon Mari Wilson – the “Neasden Queen of Soul” – still remembered for her biggest hit “Just What I’ve Always Wanted”, is back with a brand new album and the first of three singles taken from it.
“Good News” is a retro-inspired feel-good pop song steeped in the warmth of 60s soul; richly melodic and out now; a return to form ahead of the September 4th release of the album “Girl About Town” on Mari’s own label Beehive Records, a reference to her trade-mark beehive hair style in the 80s.
Mari says the idea for the new single came from watching the documentary “Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story”, about Kate’s husband’s long-term complications of Covid and how she couldn’t visit him at the hospital for a very long time, and the challenges of being a full-time carer when he came home.
“That idea, coupled with all the terrible things happening in the world, made me think of how we are just not getting any good news and we all need it, especially right now”, Mari explains.
Its infectious blend of retro soul and pop hooks should introduce her to a whole new generation of listeners. “I had such a wonderful time writing and recording this album, and I’m really proud of it,” says Mari. “From the very beginning, I wanted to have a good time, and I think that shines through – it’s very much ‘me’. My fans have been eagerly waiting for new music, and I think it’s been worth the wait. I’m really excited to be releasing new music at this stage in my life.”
Mari Wilson first exploded onto the British pop scene in the early 1980s with her skyscraper beehive, a fully choreographed twelve-piece band The Wilsations and a string of irresistible hit singles.
She notched up six chart hits including the classics “Just What I’ve Always Wanted” and “Cry Me A River”, both taken from her debut album “Showpeople”. In the mid-eighties, after extensive touring across the UK, Europe and the United States, Mari made a bold and deliberate artistic turn.
Reducing the band, stripping back the spectacle, she immersed herself in jazz, going on to perform regularly at Ronnie Scott’s and the South Bank, whilst sharing stages with legends like BB King and Ray Charles. “This is what really gave me my vocal chops,” she says.
That vocal authority has since carried her through an extraordinary and wide-ranging career; acclaimed jazz-pop albums, sold-out musical theatre runs (including playing Dusty Springfield in ‘Dusty The Musical’ and appearing alongside Boy George in ‘Taboo’), a Daytime Emmy nomination for Best Original Song, a beloved annual Christmas show at Islington Assembly Hall, and a 2023 anthology celebrating her iconic 80s catalogue.
She has opened for Level 42, guested with Marc Almond and Heaven 17’s British Electric Foundation, and performed her BBC hit version of “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” for the globally successful series “Coupling”.
She has released seven studio albums, starting with her debut in 1983 “Showpeople” and the last one “Pop Deluxe” in May 2016. Plus five compilations, from 1990 to 2007, six EPs and a slew of singles between 1980 and 2017. Her biggest hit single, “Just What I’ve Always Wanted” peaked at number eight in the UK chart in 1982. “Cry Me A River” made the Top 30 (# 27) a year later, both hits taken from the debut album.
Now 71, Mari has lived in London’s Crouch End for 40 years and is married to TV Executive mal Young. But if anyone calls this a “comeback”, Mari’s will respond:”I haven’t been away!”
“It is a return for what I am known for, but as for a come-back, I haven’t been away. Up until 2016, I was putting out albums every three years. We released “Pop Deluxe, which is the songs of Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark, because I played Dusty Springfield in a musical. I was touring that album then Covid happened, and it was really slow to get things back together again.
“Then Adrian York who I’ve made a couple of albums with, emailed me and I had not seen him for ages and said, why don’t you come round and we’ll write some songs just for a bit of fun. I said yeah, let’s do that. There was no kind of pressure, I didn’t think of making an album, but then it turned into an album. We wrote all the songs on the album together and we co-produced it, and he mixed it.
“It is very similar to what people know me for and I think that’s why I have had such a good reaction to the first single, “Good News” and to the album to those that have heard it. They say it is a return to form. In my career it has been pop, jazz and soul and this album is a mixture of all of that. Not that much jazz on it, but there is a little bit of jazz influence.
“Although I’ve made lots of other albums, they weren’t like this, this is more like when I started I suppose”. Asked if there any influences to these songs, Mari says, ” probably without realising it, Motown and Hall and Oates maybe”.
- Mari’s next live concerts are scheduled for 4th October, Cadogan Hall, London (with her eight-piece band), 7th November, Music Room, Liverpool and 8th November, Otley Courthouse, Otley, West Yorkshire. Then a spring 2027 tour is likely.
Mari’s “Track Record”
1. First song you can recall hearing as a child?
“Zamebeze” by Lou Busch and his Orchestra . There’s a picture of me in my pram outside and I was maybe eight or 10 months and mum could see me from the kitchen window, and every time this song came on the radio the pram would start shaking as I would start moving to this fantastic song. I listened to it the other day.
2. First single you owned?
“Love Me Do” by The Beatles. They’d been on TV on “Tuesday Rendezvous” (1961 series) with Muriel Young, and I remember John Lennon playing harmonica and I went out and bought that record. I was about nine or 10.
3. First LP/album you owned?
Led Zeppelin’s first album. I went to see them at the Royal Albert Hall when I was about 13. But also I do remember going to Neasden record shop and buying the Bee Gees album “Idea”, because I was kind of obsessed with The Bee Gees.
Also “Cucumber Castle”, their really early stuff. My brother is six years older than me and also a musician, and we were obsessed with music and The Beatles and The Bee Gees. I bought two Led Zeppelin albums and I have still got them.
4. First CD you owned?
Stephen Bishop, the one with “Little Italy” on it and Chaka Khan sings on that track. “Careless” (his debut album released in 1976). I can remember going into the record shop and buying it and the guy behind the counter looked at me like I was mad, because I think he thought why would you want to listen to Stephen Bishop.
5. Last music you bought and in what format (CD/vinyl/digital download)?
Bruno Mars new album “The Romantic” on vinyl and last week I bought “The Best of The Stylistics” in a charity shop. I’ve been playing that quite a lot and there’s a song on there called “Betcha By Golly, Wow” which I just love and I’ve always wanted to sing it.
6. Which album would you be happy to receive as a gift?
An album by Laura Nyro, and Rae’s new album.
7. Favourite album? (Choose more than one if need be…)
“The Colour Of Spring” by Talk Talk. An absolute genius album that is. “Stone Gon’ ” by Barry White”; I was 18 and living in New York and I heard “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” and thought, what the hell is this, it’s amazing. “Tapestry” by Carole King.
8. One of the best [or the best] records ever made (can be single/album/EP – and choose more than one if need be)?
“Clifford Brown with Strings”, a jazz album (1955 by US jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown). When I started doing jazz I had a new agent called Brian Theobold and he was the manager of Ronnie Scott and some big jazz names. He took me on and we became really good friends, and he gave me a cassette of this album and said, listen to this if you want to really learn how to sing jazz. There’s no singing on it, it’s all trumpet, but that’s how you learn phrasing and things like that. It is the most beautiful album and it’s very moving.
9. Anything unusual or perhaps unexpected in your music collection?
I’ve got a Barry Manilow picture disc album that I bought when I lived in New York, because I fell in love with his song “Mandy”. I went to see him at the Palladium a few years ago and he was amazing.
10. What does music mean to you and how does it make you feel?
Blimey, getting deep now! Without it life would be absolutely awful wouldn’t it? It makes me feel alive, and what it means to me; it’s my life. I can’t do anything else – I’m quite good at tidying up, but I don’t think people pay me for that! It makes me feel happy, joyous, emotional. It’s my life…
11. Which song or album is a guaranteed mood booster?
The song would be “You’re The First, My Last, My Everything” by Barry White. It’s a perfect pop song, the playing on it is superb. The drummer is a guy called Ed Green and I had a Facebook conversation with him a few years ago. I’ve got a thing about drummers; it has to be the right drummer for me. I now do that song when I am playing live and my drummer sounds exactly like Ed Green; he is so good. When I first did it a couple of years ago, everyone got up dancing, it’s just one of those songs. An album would be “Off The Wall” by Michael Jackson.
12. Which song or album would be the soundtrack to a film about your life?
“The Folks Who Live On The Hill” by Peggy Lee. I took my mum to see her at The Royal Albert Hall about 1990, it was only half full. She sat down for the whole thing, but her voice was still there. She had a very quiet voice and when she started out singing she saw Sarah Vaughan in this supper club, and she thought, ‘oh my God, I can’t sing like that’, so she decided she would just sing quietly so the people who were eating had to put their cutlery down and lean in and listen to her.
13. Your favourite driving track – or music to exercise to?
I like to drive to Bruce Springsteen’s album “Western Stars”, specially after a gig, and that Talk Talk album “The Colour Of Spring” too. To do exercise to, maybe Gloria Estefan.
14. Best song or album for a romantic moment?
“Songs For Swinging Lovers” by Frank Sinatra. Or any Peggy Lee album.
15. Which song was played for the “First Dance” at your wedding (if you are married) or which song would you choose if you did get married?
We got married in 2014, been together since 2002, and got married in a hotel in LA. I don’t think we had a first dance. But if we did it again, we’d have “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” by Edison Lighthouse.
16. Your choice of song to sing at karaoke [or which song would you choose if you have yet to do karaoke?]
Maybe “Groove Is In The Heart” by Deee-Light.
17. Which song takes you back to your childhood – and to which specific memory/memories?
“If I Fell” by The Beatles. My brother John and I would sing that song and it has that amazing harmony, and I’d say I want to do the harmony, and he’d say ok, let’s do it twice; I’ll do the harmony first and we’ll do it again and you can do the harmony. Also “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor, because I used to sing that with my mum and I’d do the harmony.
18. Favourite band (or bands)?
The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Mott The Hoople. I knew the Mott The Hoople guys, they were mates when I was about 16, 17. I saw Mick Ralphs a few years ago. He was doing a gig in LA, he emailed me and said do you want to come, and my husband (TV producer Mal Young) was a mad Mott The Hoople fan and he was thrilled. They played at Hammersmith Odeon as it was called, not sure what it is called now, and I hadn’t seen them for years and it was just amazing as they were a big part of my life. They were such nice guys, not into drugs at all.
19. Favourite singer (or singers)?
Julie London, Lady Gaga, Rae, Daryl Hall (always wanted to sing with him).
20. Which song would you like played at your funeral?
“Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith and his Orchestra.
Interview by Simon Redley
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