Best known for her lengthy collaboration with famed electronic composer
Mike Oldfield, singer
Maggie Reilly was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1956. She began her performing career during the early 1970s as a member of the local blues band Joe Cool; later renamed
Cado Belle, the group's self-titled debut LP was issued in 1976. An EP followed a year later, but
Cado Belle dissolved soon after, with
Reilly turning to session work before signing on with the trio Riotous Assembly. She met
Oldfield in 1979, and a year later contributed vocals to his album QE2; they collaborated on three more projects -- Five Miles Out,
Crises and
Discovery -- before
Reilly made her solo debut in 1984 with a cover of the classic "As Tears Go By." She spent the latter half of the decade focusing on raising a family, returning to music only intermittently, including a 1989 reunion with
Oldfield on his album Earth Moving; finally, in 1992
Reilly issued her debut solo LP Echoes, followed a year later by Midnight Sun. Elena appeared in 1996. ~ Jason Ankeny