Melanie Harrold

Melanie Harrold
Melanie on-stage 1980
Background information
Born	5th May 1951, Cornwall, England
Genres	Folk, country
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar,
Years active	1968–present
Labels	DJM
Associated acts	The Hank Wangford Band, Gerry Rafferty
Website	MelanieHarrold.com

Melanie Harrold is a British singer/songwriter, best known for her 1970s albums for DJM (Fancy That and Blue Angel) plus recording with Gerry Rafferty, and singing with Hank Wangford. In her early career, and even for her first album (Fancy That), Melanie went under the name Joanna Carlin so as not to be confused with the other singer Melanie.

Melanie worked the folk clubs where she met Jasper Carrott. When Carrott got a recording contract with DJM Records, it led to Melanie also being signed up by the company.

The Fancy That LP was released in 1977, with Blue Angel released the following year (under her real name). As she was singing backing vocals on Gerry Rafferty's albums, she was able to use his backing band and producer Hugh Murphy to work on her albums.

In the 1980s she fronted the comedy country The Hank Wangford Band. She went under the name Irma Cetas ("the Vera Lynn of the North Sea Oilfields").

She also recorded the song Holy Horses on the Lovely In The Dances (Songs of Sydney Carter) album, originally released in 1981 (and re-released on CD in 2009). The album featured artists such as Maddy Prior (whom Melanie toured with), Shusha and John Kirkpatrick.

In the 1990s she released two albums (The Last Leviathan and Instinctive Behaviour) with double-bass player Olly Blanchflower.

She was also involved with the album Daphne’s Flight, a 1996 collaboration between five highly regarded female vocalists, instrumentalist and songwriters in the British folk and root music scene: Christine Collister, Melanie Harrold, Julie Matthews, Helen Watson and Chris While. The collaboration resulted in a sell out tour. On the album, Melanie sang lead on the opening track Over And Over (her own composition from the Instinctive Behaviour album) and The Letter.