@lorna-bannon
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Born in Dundee, Lorna paid her dues as a teenager with top Jazz/funk band SHAKATAK and has a gold and silver disc for her vocals on the NIGHTBIRDS album.
She then went on to become Scotland’s foremost female session singer, singing jingles at RADIO FORTH and RADIO TAY and then working with top Scottish acts like SIMPLE MINDS, FISH, RUNRIG, BILLY CONNOLLY and FINLAY QUAYE (for whom she provided backing vocals on 4 hit singles). Lorna then moved south to work with the likes of DARRYL HALL, MICA PARIS, and PRETENDERS.
In her spare time Lorna appears all over Europe fronting 70’s Chart toppers MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.
As ‘Dance-Diva’ LORNA B she was constantly flying to Milan to record for top Italian record companies and had several dance hits in the late 90’s topping both the Dance and Club charts as featured vocalist with D.J SCOTT, ZERO V.U. and SHARADA HOUSE GANG, twice making the top 4O with tracks produced by Stock and Aitkin. She also spent 2 weeks at No 1 in the Dance Charts with her version of SWEET DREAMS.
As well as studio work for top songwriters like Jeff Wayne, Les Reed, Barry Mason, Geoff Stevens, Richard Kerr, Roger Cook, and Elton John, Lorna has sung on dozens of jingles and television signature tunes. Those of you with children might remember hearing her on kid’s T.V. themes like TRAPDOOR, FUNHOUSE and LITTLE MONSTERS.
Lorna has appeared at The Montreux Jazz Festival and London’s Albert Hall as well as on T.V. shows like Top of The Pops and Wogan, but her most memorable gig before Middle of the
Road was appearing with Runrig on the banks of Loch Lomond in front of a crowd of 42,000 but has topped that by appearing in Germany in front of 45,000 eager Middle of the Road fans.
She is also an accomplished songwriter and came 6th out of 600 songwriters (and was the only female in the final) in the competition on Sky Tv called Tin Pan Alley hosted by Mike Read. This landed her a publishing deal and a nice award that sits on the mantelpiece alongside her husbands Ivor Novello Award.
Soul and Jazz music are her absolute favourite genres to perform and She has had the pleasure of singing with Lianne Carroll (The Uk's Queen of Jazz) on a few occasions which was a dream for Lorna.
Lorna's voice is somewhere between Aretha and Chaka , jazz soul is where her heart is and her vocal range is stunning.
She says that having dinner with Quincy Jones the night after he was presented with his Ivor Novello Award was one of the highlights in recent years but singing live is the best of all.
Chris Farlowe & Lorna B. - Feel The Power Of Love
Duration: 00:03:13
Description:
It was the year I met my future wife at a party, and the Four Tops were singing "Reach Out I'll Be There. By the time it hit the number one spot on November 2 we had begun to refer to it as "our song". While earlier that year I had already regarded the uptempo numbers like "Keep on Running" by the Spencer Davis Group", The Rolling Stones "Paint It Black" and Ike & Tuna Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" as THE songs of the year, I would subsequently add items with a stronger romantic element, like Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" and "All I See Is You"; my wife's favourite group, The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", and Alma Cogan's final single "Now That I Found You".
There was, however, another classic 1966 hit that topped the charts in the summer, and was enjoying continued popularity at all the Saturday night parties we attended every week without exception throughout the autumn and winter into 1967. That record was Chris Farlowe's "Out Of Time". Just to hear it reminds us of all the gatherings we attended all over London.
When I learned only this week that back in 2001 Chris had recorded a number by Britain's premier songwriter Les Reed, it was a given that I'd add it to my collection of the Maestro's songs. Sharing vocals with Chris is Lorna B aka Lorna Bannon. Together they do justice to "Feel The Power Of Love", which Les wrote in collaboration with Geoff Stephens. It's a beautiful song and a worthy addition to the Reed-Stephens catalogue.
Lorna B is married to singer-songwriter (lyricist) Gary Osborne, the son of celebrated British trumpet player, pianist, composer, arranger and conductor Tony Osborne. It is as Lorna Osborne that she is the present lead vocalist of the successful Scottish group Middle of the Road.
