ONCE I'm connected, the voice answering the phone is warm, bubbly and full of life.

And that's a lot of life she's had, as Maggie Bell has gone through many different phases of her career.

Now she's at the 'happy in her own skin' stage, where she books her own gigs, plans her own schedule and has no problem saying 'no' to people.

As it says on her website, which she maintains herself, 'Maggie is definitely the boss!'

The Scottish singer, dubbed Britain's answer to Janis Joplin, is speaking to me from her Fulham home, where she feels comfortably content with her cats.

Maggie became known as the singer with the husky yet powerhouse voice from late 1960s rock group Stone the Crows.

She even teamed up with another well known husky warbler Rod Stewart - singing backing vocals on Every Picture Tells a Story, his third album.

Blues rock band Stone the Crows enjoyed early success and even the rock 'n' roll notoriety of having their lyrics banned by the BBC.

Everything was going well until guitarist Les Harvey was tragically electrocuted and killed on stage in May 1972.

He was just 27-years-old and was Maggie's boyfriend.

She said: "Words can't really describe what it's like when you lose a member of the band like Leslie.

"We were all experiencing the industry for the first time.

"We all wrote songs together and built up this great big following.

"After he went we didn't want to write songs any more.

"It was as though the air had been pushed out of us."

Stone the Crows staggered on as a band until June 1973 then reached a natural end. Meanwhile Maggie was told she had potential as a solo artist.

She said: "The whole time after Les's death was a strange experience.

"I went into the studio and made my first solo album with Jerry Wexler. He produced Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

"I was very overwhelmed. I thought 'I have to do my homework with this guy'.

"I went to New York and I went to his house in the Hamptons.

"He was a lovely man and I'm still in touch with him. I kept in touch with him until the day he died."

And Maggie will never forgot the support Jerry offered as she grieved for Les and for the band.

"It was a real healing process. I was able to take walks on the beach, got plenty of fresh air and started to think about what I was going to do and what I was going to make.

"I recorded my album Queen of the Night and went on tour to promote it.

"It was Jerry who made the difference. He had dealt with all these famous people but he had so much time for me.

"He was a miracle man at the end of the day."

In 1981 Maggie had her biggest hit in the UK, a duet with B.A Robertson on a cover version of Hold Me, which reached number 11 in the charts.

Maggie took time out of the industry to live in Holland for 20 years. And she did it for love, she tells me.

"I met a Dutch man who was very tall, very sweet and very nice.

"While I was there I did a bit of writing, a bit of painting but that was it.

"I got to the point where I was 60-years-old and I didn't want to end my days in Holland.

"I left him and I came back to the UK aged 60, it would have been 10 years ago this August.

"A lot of my friends said 'what are you doing, leaving him when you're 60?'

"I'm the type of person who has always worked in my life from the age of 16 when I was singing at night.

"The appetite was still there and I had to come back to the singing."

And Maggie is delighted to now be gigging at venues of her choice.

This summer will see her play to crowds in destinations as diverse as Canada, Hungary and Germany.

"I'll carry on until people stop coming to see me.

"My career seems to have been resurrected in Germany, I hadn't sung there for 32 years.

"It's fabulous to be performing again. It gives me a real lift-up."

For the Lyme Regis Jazz Festival Maggie will be singing alongside Dave Kelly.

She said: "I'm really looking forward to coming to Dorset.

"I've got friends near Bournemouth and I'm looking forward to seeing them.

"My god daughter is growing up in Dorset, it's a lovely place.

"It'll be great singing with Dave. I think our voices are a match made in heaven together, they really compliment each other. Not many people can harmonise together like we can and it's quite a special thing to have."

Maggie says the secret to her longevity has been not drinking alcohol, but her one vice has been cigarettes.

She said: "There's no manager to tell me what to do.

"It's taken me 50 years to take control and now I'm just loving my life."

Maggie Bell and Dave Kelly are at Lyme Regis Jazz Festival at the Marine Theatre on Saturday May 30 at 7.30pm.

They will be supported by Dorset-based blues rock band 1/2 Jack.

See lymeregisjazzfestival.co.uk for ticket details.