Lady Sings The Blues

Joan Armatrading tells Michael Heatley about her new album

Prolific to a fault in the 70s and 80s, Joan Armatrading has released just three studio albums, including her new release Into The Blues, since her last Record Collector appearance in 1992. She’s used the time to pursue other interests, including flying helicopters, breeding horses, singing for Nelson Mandela and being awarded the MBE. She studied for and obtained an Open University degree in history, sitting her finals a day after her 2000 UK tour ended, while the universities of Birmingham, Northampton and Liverpool have all seen fit to award her honorary fellowships.

Her passion for music is clearly as strong as ever it was, though: she even quizzes RC about the assertion that maybe music doesn’t mean as much to the middle-aged as it did in our youth (she clearly does not agree). Now in her mid-50s, she feels there’s a lot of life in her yet. The Ivor Novello Award that marked her career achievements in 1996 could turn out to be just a little premature.

Joan’s hoping Into The Blues will enjoy better luck than Lovers Speak, her first studio effort for eight years, which was highly acclaimed on its March 2003 release. Record label Telstar, to whom she’d recently signed, disappeared not long after, leaving the recording far less publicised than it …

by Michael Heatley
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