Born in London, Carol Grimes didn’t begin her career until she was 19. Her early influence included Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald. She began to sing regularly in the streets of London throughout the sixties. Through this she formed a band The Race, a Blues and Folk based outfit worked mainly in the London area with one or two visits to the Continent to play at Blues Festivals.
In the nineties she met composer Orlando Gough and was invited to sing in his opera, Hotel, libretto by Caryl Churchill, followed a piece called ‘Shouting Fence’ which begat THE SHOUT, a16 and sometimes more strong vocal group formed by Orlando and the singer, composer Richard Chew. Grimes worked with that company for over 10 years alongside gigsof her own music
In 2003 after many years of not recording,she did an album, ‘Mother’, produced by her friend Ian Shaw; featuring among others, Annie Whitehead, Jose Cupido, Harry Becket, Stan Adler, Steve Watts, Elton Dean, Mark Fletcher, and Greg Wain, another Shout singer, playing Guitars.
In the last few years Carol Grimes has been working with the pianist Dorian Ford, doing live work and composing. The line up, together with Carol and Dorian, is Winston Clifford, drums, Neville Malcolm, double bass and Annie Whitehead, trombone.