Love and affection for music

“I’m at my happiest when I’m writing,” says Joan Armatrading, who throughout her 42-year career has graced the world’s most prestigious stages, rubbed shoulders with the finest musicians and performed for Nelson Mandela, stirring the then frail old man to break into dance.

In spite of all the fame and awards, the deeply private singer is happiest sitting at a piano or playing guitar, bringing to life the arrangements already fully formed in her mind.

“Writing is the best part of it,” she says. “And people tell me how much the songs meant to them.

“They play them at weddings and at funerals. Some people write to me to tell me they’ve named their daughters Willow or Rosie, after a song. I’ll never retire and I’ll never stop writing.”

Of course performing comes a close second for the 63-year-old, who will play at the Wyvern Theatre on her first solo world tour on Tuesday, November 18.

“One of the highlights for me is meeting different people, people that have taken the time out of their life to see me, paid some money, paid a babysitter, taken a train, bus or plane or whatever. It’s seeing them enjoying the show. That’s a flattering thing for somebody to come and see one of my concerts.

“That’s what I’m here for, to make people happy, write songs and present them to people.”

This will be Armatrading’s final big tour. Continuing to travel the globe for months on end at the same hectic pace – Armatrading is not one to allow herself a moment’s peace while on tour – would simply be “silly”.

“It’s my last major tour but I’m not retiring. Tours tend to be a year or 18 months and I tend to work four or five days and then take a day off and I’m 63 now, I’ll be 64 at the end of the year and by the time the tour finishes I will be 65. It’s silly.

“That’s why I decided to do a solo tour. It’s just me on acoustic and electric guitar and a piano.

“I want these concerts to be a special, lively interactive one-to-one experience.

“I have absolutely enjoyed the last 42 years of performances but now, with my final major tour, I want to capture a unique memory for both myself and the audience.”

In 1973, Joan was named the outstanding new artist of the year in a critics’ poll in the trade magazine Music Week.

She soon became one of the first UK female singer-songwriters to gain international success and now has 20 albums to her credit and multiple awards.

She was just a teenager when her mother bought a piano, heralding the start of her musical craftsmanship.

“I used to write limericks, stories and jokes when I was younger,” she said.

“My mother bought a piano when I was about 14 and I immediately started to write songs.

“I taught myself to play the piano and the guitar. When I write I can hear arrangements in my head.

“Sometimes I feel bad saying this but my musical influence is just music. I didn’t start thinking, ‘there’s this particular artist I want to be like’. I was not trying to learn other people’s songs. I did my own thing straight away.”

Yet this by no way means she does not admire myriad artists, among them Amy Winehouse, The Killers and Muse. Or at least those are the names which immediately pop into her head when asked.

“I don’t listen to a lot of people and I’ve not got lots of records – I never have had,” she says. “But music is everywhere and there are a lot of things that I really like, whether it’s rock, country, jazz, blues. It’s all music so I love it all.”

 Joan Armatrading’s show on Tuesday, November 18 at the Wyvern Theatre is sold out. To check out future tour dates visit joanarmatrading.
com