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Joan Armatrading  

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Joan Armatrading MBE (born December 9, 1950) is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist born on the island of St. Kitts, and moved to Birmingham, UK when she was six.

Armatrading began writing songs when she was 14 where she would play the piano and sing her own limericks over the top, she followed this by teaching herself how to play guitar. Two years later Armatrading performed a concert at Birmingham University with her brother where the two played Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence”.

The singer then went on to contribute to a repertory production of the musical “Hair”, through which she met the lyricist Pam Nestor who subsequently wrote 11 of the 14 songs on Armatrading’s debut album “Whatever’s for Us” released by Cube Records in 1972.

Armatrading’s 1975’s album “Back to the Night” without Pam Nester this time was supported with a UK tour with six-piece jazz group The Movies. The album’s self-titled follow-up would prove to be the singer’s most successful album due to an increase in major publicity and the contribution of producer Glyn Johns. “Joan Armatrading” reached the Top 20 in the UK Albums chart and single “Love and Affection” was a Top 10 Hit. Due to the album's success Armatrading retained much of the same jazz-influenced pop sound on her 1977 release “Show Some Emotion”.

The singer’s popularity in the UK and cult following in the U.S. allowed Armatrading to release a string of albums throughout the eighties in which she saw her greatest chart successes, from the pop-heavy “Me Myself I” in 1980 and synth-inspired “Walk Under Ladders” in 1981 to “The Key” in 1983 and “Secret Secrets” in 1985.

Her subsequent albums “Sleight of Hand” (1986), “The Shouting Stage” (1988), “Hearts and Flowers” (1990), “Square The Circle” (1992) “What’s Inside” (1995) and “Lovers Speak” (2003) failed to perform as well as her earlier works, although did allow the singer to tour and record into the millennium and beyond.

2007’s Grammy nominated “Into the Blues” represented a genre shift from Armatrading towards the blues and the same year appeared on Later… with Jools Holland where she performed “Woman in Love” and “My Baby’s Gone” from the album. Since then Armatrading has released “This Charming Life” in 2010 a folk inspired album followed by an international tour and “Starlight” in 2012.

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A Fantastic Feminine Feel for the Frets – Jane Armatrading Jams Royal Albert Hall.

Who says only the boys can play good guitar? Joan Armatrading bent the strings on her gold ax producing the most exquisite sounding chords to rival any of the legendary leading ax men of guitar fame. The forty four year old female British singer, songwriter mystified the audience at Royal Albert Hall with hard driving blues rock & roll instrumentals, perfectly blended with her classic jazzy blues vocals. Dressed in a sleek black jumpsuit, her hair slicked perfectly straight as she peered engaging under her straightened bangs, engaging the crowd with her artful entertaining style. A trio of talented backup musicians accompanied Jane including an electronic keyboard, full classical style bass, and an invigorating drummer.

She enthralled the audience to a fever pitch with her solo finish to “Something’s Gotta blow”, flowing gently into her classic mellow bluesy arrangement “All the Way From America”. From her first appearance in the early 1970’s on BBC Radio, Armatrading exudes the true essence of pop rock, interwoven with a jazzy blues accent that many have tried unsuccessfully to imitate.

Royal Albert Hall was rocking one minute, then led through a magical weave of light jazz music the next. Jane Armatrading gave the audience a concert of delightful favorites to take home with them - her songs still dancing in their heads.

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Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, MBE to give her the full title is one of the UK's most unusual performers and although her career is now well into its fifth decade, the singer continues to tour around the world as the demand to see her live is very much still there.

She is a wonderfully warm performer with a clear adoration for her music and her fanbase as she engages them in some very down to earth onstage chatter between the blues rock stylings of her setlist. Joan was never known for hit singles or major radio play so that gives her freedom to pick and choose the music performed with absolute ease this evening and the loud cheers from the crowd are confirmation that Armatrading picked well. The likes of 'Me, Myself and I' and 'All the Way From America' sound particularly rousing as Joan appears to be maintaining that wonderfully unique vocal ability. The crowds are on their feet for the encore of 'Willow' and Joan is beaming from ear to ear at the fantastic reaction from the excitable crowd.

I've known that Joan can wield that axe like nobody's business for decades now, but to watch her virtuoso guitar playing in person was nothing short of fantasmagorical! Her voice hasn't lost a hint of that unique sweet yet melancholy quality she brings to her well-crafted and extensive library of songs. She's alternative, jazz, blues, pop, even punk! What can't she do is the question, and I couldn't find an answer.

I was a little concerned at first about her not having s band, and next because we were informed there would be some pre-recorded bits. Those concerns went away immediately when I realized she had only laid down some rhythm guitar for the most part. She was all voice and guitar, and she was in full command of both!

Joan Armatrading was fantastic. The venue ... the Octagon Theatre, Yeovil is quite small so the evening felt very intimate. Her voice range is incredible and she plays both the guitar and piano magnificently. She is also a great entertainer, interspersing her songs with anecdotes and funny little comments. It was a really fabulous evening ... I went straight home and fished out my JA CDs!

Iconic artist, solo in an excellent small venue. Joan Armatrading was wonderful! Her warmth & generosity of spirit shone through the entire evening. Being solo gave us the chance to experience her rockin' guitar skills too. I would see her again in a heartbeat, very moved by her songs.

It's the first time I've seen Joan as only really got into her music when l brought her new album. She was fantastic and sounded just as Beauiful meaning you wouldn't like she was live. Was a pity we couldn't take photos as this is the theatre I been that you couldn't.

She cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled she cancelled

She was phenomenal. Such poise and good humour in her stage presence as well as being fabulous songwriter. She handled a few tech glitches with complete calm and good humour- it was a highlight actually.

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The Eternal Cool of Joan Armatrading

By Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield

Joan Armatrading has always been a pioneer — but the world is finally catching up to her. She made her name in the early 1970s — a Black woman with a rock guitar, at a time when the radio couldn’t imagine such a thing. Over the past 50 years, she’s built her hardcore cult following by always going her own way, a fiercely independent voice who never sounds like anyone else. And with a whole new generation of female singer-songwriters rising up, from pop to indie rock, it makes sense that now is the moment for the world to rediscover and reappreciate a 70-year-old legend who still sounds way ahead of her time.

Armatrading never fit into the mainstream — but she doesn’t seem to care much. “As long as they get to it before I’m dead,” she tells Rolling Stone , with a hearty laugh. “Because I’d actually like to see a lot of people enjoy my music before I’m dead.”

And even though she’s been making records for almost 50 years, her new album is one of her toughest ever. Her excellent Consequences finds her at the peak of her game, playing every instrument and even engineering it herself . Back in her early folkie days, she was famously shy, wary of interviews, so it’s a little daunting how gracious, mirthful, and funny she is in conversation. She’s Zooming from the U.K. with her screen blank — as she explains, “I’m staying incognito!” No fan would be surprised at that.

Joan Armatrading’s music was always something that traveled by word of mouth, passed from friend to friend, often on homemade mix tapes. If you were a fan, it probably started with a friend who said “You need to hear this,” then put on Show Some Emotion or To the Limit or Walk Under Ladders . Or you might have discovered her via MTV, which spun her videos for “Drop the Pilot” and “When I Get It Right. ” In your typical Seventies or Eighties college dorm, her records were always playing somewhere. At a time when people were starved for female rock stars, she was a Black trailblazer and charismatic guitar hero, dressed down in a t-shirt and jeans, building a unique songbook album by album.

But she always felt like an outsider. “The way I played the acoustic was very strong,” she says. “So that made people think, ‘Oh, that’s a bit unusual for a girl.’ ” For most fans, the first Armatrading song they flip for is “Love and Affection,” a 1976 U.K. Top Ten folk-rock hit and deservedly her most famous tune, with one of the all-time great opening lines: “I am not in love…but I’m open to persuasion.” “Me Myself I,” from 1980, is her ode to the joys of being a loner. “I wanna have a boyfriend and a girl for laughs,” she sings. “But only on Saturday / Six days to be alone.” (For some of us, it was a pandemic anthem.)

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She was one of Rolling Stone’s favorite artists in the Seventies and Eighties. The magazine championed her music year after year, despite the total indifference of the radio. In 1976 — a year with no shortage of classic LPs — Rolling Stone named Joan Armatrading one of the six Albums of the Year. The others were by Jackson Browne, Steve Miller, Bob Seger, Boz Scaggs, and Rod Stewart — five white guys from the Sixties, plus a twenty-something woman of color with a guitar. Five of these six albums were huge hits on U.S. rock radio. Can you guess which one wasn’t?

“I was never massively played on the radio,” she recalls now. “There was a point in the early Seventies when I was playing on the — what would those stations be? If I could remember what they’d call those stations… college  stations, that’s it. They would play me. But certainly with mainstream radio, I wouldn’t get much of a look in.”

She was born on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts. When she was three years old, her family emigrated from the West Indies to England — leaving her behind. Four years later, she got on a plane (alone) to join them in Birmingham. Although she began playing the family piano, she was lured to her father’s guitar, which he wouldn’t allow her to touch. She taught herself to play on a pawn-shop guitar of her own, and made a splash with her folkie 1972 debut Whatever’s For Us .

In America, the music business didn’t know what to do with a Black woman playing guitar. “That was worldwide,” she says. “When I started, there wasn’t anyone, not in America, not in Europe — there wasn’t a female, not even just Black. But there wasn’t a female playing the way I played, or singing the songs that I sang, and there certainly wasn’t a Black person doing it. So there was nothing for anybody to have a reference to. When you have an advert, they say you need to see the advert at least seven times before it clicks. The first time, you don’t really take notice. The second time, you think, ‘Oh, did I see that?’ Then the third time, you think, ‘I remember seeing that before.’ When you get to the seventh time, you think, ‘Yeah, I want one of those!’ That’s how it goes.

“So I think that’s what it was with me. They hadn’t seen it before. They didn’t know it. They weren’t up on it. So it was like, ‘We’ll get to that later on.’ ”

She lets out a laugh. “The ‘later on’ is quite a lot later on!”

When she started out, the record company gave her some advice. “They said I need to change my name, because nobody would remember ‘Armatrading.’ You see, that’s not gonna happen. And they said, ‘Um, maybe you should try and dress in a slightly different way.’ Again, that’s not gonna happen. I’m very comfortable with how I dress and who I am.”

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Armatrading made sure the question never came up again. “We never had conversations like that, because once I’ve said ‘no, that’s my name,’ and ‘no, this is how I dress,’ that’s the end of that conversation. It’s not in a horrible way — I’m not an idiot, where if somebody is giving me good advice I’m not going to take it. But I also know what I want and what I don’t want.” She was a virtuoso at saying no. In a memorable 1979 Rolling Stone profile, she shows up for a Chicago TV performance and shoots down every one of the producer’s ideas.

“I’m a very definite person,” she says now. “So when I say things, people don’t think, ‘Oh, she said yes, but does she really mean no? Was there a maybe in there? I wonder if I could change her mind, because I don’t think she was sure?’ I make it VERY sure.”

Armatrading didn’t fit into any of the standard categories. As she sang in “How Cruel” back in 1979, “I heard somebody say once I was way too Black / And someone answers she’s not Black enough for me.” Her loner mystique was summed up by the fact that her best-known fashion statement was wearing her own house key around her neck.

Her self-titled 1976 album was her breakthrough — a singer-songwriter tour de force on the level of Carole King’s Tapestry , Van Morrison’s St. Dominic’s Preview , Al Green’s Livin’ for You , or Joni Mitchell’s For the Roses . The music was infused with heartache, loss, pain, but with a clear-eyed emotional uplift. In the Eighties, she went for a more aggressive rock sound, in the New Wave snap of Me Myself I or Walk Under Ladders . In recent years, she’s devoted entire albums to blues ( Into The Blues ), pop ( This Charming Life ), and jazz ( Starlight ). But she’s always sounded like herself.

Even at 70, Armtrading says solitude remains the key to her art. “I think part of the reason that I write the way I write, or I am the way I am, is because I’m quite a solitary person. I’m not a mixer. I’m not writing with lots of other artists; I’m not jamming with lots of other people. So I’m not being persuaded to go the way that everybody’s going. That’s part of the reason that I am the way I am—I tend to be alone most of the time. You wouldn’t open my address book and find a great big list of famous people, but that’s fine. That’s good. That works for me.”

Consequences is a defiantly upbeat album that celebrates life despite a sharp sense of human frailty, especially the final song, “To Anyone Who Will Listen.” “I don’t know whether the audience will like it,” she admits. “Will they think, ‘Go back into the studio, Joan?’ Or will they say, ‘This is the song! I must name my child after this!’ ” She’s not joking about the last part. As she says, “I’ve met many a Willow or Rosie or Simon.”

But she’s still got the brash confidence of the Joan Armatrading who sang “I’m Lucky” 40 years ago, boasting, “I can walk under ladders!” (“I’m Lucky” remains one of the only songs she’s ever claimed as a self-portrait.) Her influence shows up in the weirdest places. Just to cite the most obvious example, there’s Fiona Apple, who once told Rolling Stone that To the Limit was her favorite album cover of all time, adding, “I’ve listened to the record a lot, also.” She’s always a model for independent-minded artists. It’s no coincidence Morrissey kicked off his solo career with an Armatrading quote. As a devout fan, he began his solo debut “Suedehead” with the hook from her classic “The Weakness In Me”: “Why do  you come here?”

But despite her long history, she won’t rest on her past. “Everybody loves ‘Love and Affection,’ but I’ve written ‘Love and Affection.’ I don’t need to write ‘Love and Affection’ again. So what I’m trying to do all the time is to write that definitive song — the song that makes me say, ‘OK, that’s it. I can’t do any better than that. Just put your pen down, step away from the typewriter.’ I’m sure Paul McCartney and John Lennon, when they wrote, or Bob Dylan — we’re all trying to write that definitive song. We want to see if we can write this  song better than the last song.”

That’s why she can’t stop writing. “The thing that I really like about the audience that comes to my shows — they know they’re always going to hear new songs. And I sometimes hear people say, when they go to bands, ‘I only want them to play the hits.’ The old songs, I’ll always play them, but I can’t just play that. I need to play new things. People have to remember there was a first time they heard [Led Zeppelin’s] ‘Stairway to Heaven’ — which is an absolute classic, I love it, but people had to hear it for the first time! So you have to allow new things to become your ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ Or your ‘Weakness In Me,’ or whatever it is. You need the artists to make new music, so you can fall in love with that.”

How does she keep finding inspiration as a songwriter? “My theme has been, ever since I started, love. But you look around the world, there’s lots of new people coming all the time, and new people don’t know what love is. So they’re going to have their own version of it. They’re going to do something different from what their parents did, or their parents’ parents did. So there’s going to be new things to talk about all the time.”

And even as she heads into the future, she’s optimistic about the next generation. “I was watching the television just now,” she says. “There was a young football team — 10, 11 year olds, but they’re all girls. They were playing girls in their tournament, beating them by 20 or 30 points a go, and the trainer thought she needed to give them a challenge. So they started to play matches against boys. They interviewed the girls and said, ‘Well, what was it like?’ And they said, ‘Well, the boys would come and they think, oh, we’re playing girls. It’ll be easy.’ But when the girls would beat them, the boys would cry.”

Armatrading laughs at that — as if she knows exactly how those tears sound. “But what I loved about those young girls was they knew what they wanted. They knew that they wanted to be really good players. And they knew that if some of them wanted to be professional footballers, this was the way to do it. That’s the important thing—to know what you want. If you know what you want, you can go off and get there.”

Find out more about Joan Armatrading’s Livestream concert here.

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Joan Armatrading on Farewell Tour: ‘I Wanted to Give Myself a Memory’

As Joan Armatrading nears the end of her farewell world tour, the 64-year-old U.K.-based singer/songwriter wants to make something clear: She is not retiring from music, just the road.

By Fred Bronson

Fred Bronson

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As Joan Armatrading nears the end of her farewell world tour, the 64-year-old U.K.-based singer/songwriter wants to make something clear: She is not retiring from music, just the road.  

“I feel very lucky to know exactly why I’m here,” she tells Billboard . “I’m here to write songs. It’s a gift and I have to do it to the best of my abilities. ‘Til I’m not here it’s my job and my favorite thing. I love writing. I’m inspired all the time, like looking out my window when I’m in Chicago, seeing the beautiful blossoms on the trees and naked branches and people walking. Who knows what I’ll see that will inspire a song.”

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U.K. Honors Armatrading

The West Indies-born artist, raised in a suburb of Birmingham, England, has been touring since Sept. 20, 2014, when she began a three-month sweep of the U.K. She also toured Australia and New Zealand in December 2014. And after a recent U.S. leg that ended in Los Angeles, she returned to the U.K. for eight more dates. The tour resumes July 3 in Cape Town, South Africa. 

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“My tours tend to be like that all the time, very long and intense,” she said. “At the end of the year I’ll be 65. I don’t want to be on the road for a year after I’m 65.” But that doesn’t preclude doing live shows. “I’m just not going to tour as extensively as I’ve done,” she explains.

The farewell world tour is a solo show with Armatrading as the only person on stage, playing her own guitar or piano. “If I did a last major tour with a band, I would still want to do a world tour on my own,” she said.

Displaying her playful sense of humor on stage, Armatrading teased her audience at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles on May 9, explaining that she has been singing her 1976 hit “Love and Affection” for 40 years — which is why, she said jokingly, “I’m not going to do it tonight.”

Armatrading Decides To ‘Speak’ After 8 Years

In reality, as she told Billboard before her show, “It’s the only song in my repertoire that I’ve sung at every single concert. I love that song. Wherever I go, people know ‘Love and Affection,’ all over Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. People seem to love it even more than when it came out.”

Despite its popularity (it’s her biggest U.K. single, peaking at No. 10), “Love and Affection” never made an appearance on The Billboard Hot 100. Her only single to register on this chart was “Drop the Pilot,” No. 78 in 1983.

On previous tours, Armatrading had three different set lists to choose from. Not this time. “When I’m on my own, I don’t get to rest,” she said. “I didn’t want to give myself any more pressure that I need to. On this tour I just wanted one set list.”

After more shows this summer in the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Finland and Norway, Armatrading will return to the U.S. in September for additional dates. Asked how audiences here compare to other countries, she replied, “It doesn’t matter which country I’m in, I always answer, America is my favorite place to play. On television in the U.K., I answer America. I love the enthusiasm of an American audience. They show it if they like something, or if they don’t like it. It’s great for an artist.”

Armatrading has been enjoying the farewell world tour and how audiences have been reacting. “It’s a bit of a selfish thing,” she confesses. “I wanted to give myself a memory. That’s happening. What’s been real nice is people have been writing me that it’s given them a strong memory as well.”

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Joan Armatrading: 'I want to make a heavy metal album – with lots of guitar shredding'

At the age of seven, she flew to Birmingham from Antigua on her own – and became the first globally successful British female singer-songwriter. As she wins the award she once gave to Margaret Thatcher, Joan Armatrading looks back

‘I t’s very nice to be honoured,” says Joan Armatrading, down the phone from her home in Surrey. The 69-year-old is talking about receiving this year’s Women of the Year lifetime achievement award, which sees her honoured alongside the likes of child burns survivor Sylvia Mac and Adwoa Dickson, who set up a community choir for young women who survived trafficking . “Whether I measure up is another question.”

She’s joking, of course, but what does the continued existence of the award tell us about where the struggle for equality is in 2020? “It’s maybe not as relevant as it was in 1955,” she says, “when Tony Lothian set it up after being denied admission to a men-only meeting. But women are still doing incredible things in this society, so reward them.”

Armatrading is similarly philosophical about her recent CBE, an upgrade from her MBE, insisting that becoming a Commander of the British Empire isn’t too uncomfortable for someone born in Saint Kitts – a former British colony built on slavery. “There is no British empire any more,” she explains. “I know the connotations, and they should probably change the name, but these things don’t have the same meaning as they did. They’re just rewards. It’s 2020, not 1715.”

It’s hard, though, to think of anyone more deserving. The three-times-Grammy, twice-Brit-awards nominee has made 19 albums, with 2018’s Not Too Far Away returning her to the charts, and she remains a global inspiration. Biographies call her “the first black British female singer-songwriter to achieve international success”, but she’d like to correct this.

“I’m actually the first woman, not just the first black woman,” she says, her cheery, chatty Brummie tone taking on a hint of steel. “It’s important because ‘black’ implies someone did it before me. Of course, there had been very successful female artists, but they didn’t write their songs.” Which she did, aged 14, “when there weren’t any role models for me. People ask, ‘Weren’t you influenced by Joni Mitchell ?’ But when I started writing, there was no Joni Mitchell. That is, she hadn’t started making records.”

The former office worker at the Rabone Chesterman factory didn’t feel like a pioneer back then though. When Armatrading made her first record in 1972, someone told her: “In five years, your career will be over.” She says: “But back then, nobody thought people would be talking about the Beatles in 200 years, like they do with Bach or Beethoven. I don’t know if they’ll be talking about me.” She’s laughing. “I like to think they will.”

Armatrading was doing extraordinary things from the beginning. The daughter of a carpenter and a housewife who emigrated to Birmingham, she flew to join them four years later when she was seven, taking the flight from the Caribbean alone. “The 1950s were more innocent times,” explains the singer, who also took the bus from Birmingham airport to the city centre by herself – at an age when most of us weren’t allowed to walk to school unaccompanied. “It didn’t feel weird to me. I was excited to see my mum.”

One day, her mother bought a piano as a piece of furniture. “I started writing songs,” she says, “and that was it, really.” Her chief inspiration was, and still is, human behaviour. “I’ve always been an observer. I was fascinated by how kids played at school. There were groups and cliques, and if there was any trouble everyone would gather round. I’ve always been fascinated by watching how people treat each other and the communication between them.”

There were fewer platforms for a black female singer-songwriter back then. An early break – in a 1970 touring production of hippy rock musical Hair – came about by accident. She’d met two friends who were going to the audition, tagged along and auditioned as well. “I didn’t know what I was getting into,” she laughs, referring to the show’s profanity, drug-taking, radical politics, bisexuality and nudity. “But I loved it. I got to sing and play the guitar. It was wild.” More laughter. “But I didn’t take my clothes off.”

She’s eternally grateful to the BBC DJs – John Peel, “Whispering” Bob Harris and Johnnie Walker – who heard something in her crafted, determined songs and helped propel her to national attention. In 1974, she appeared on the cover of iconic women’s lib magazine Spare Rib and declared: “Black women don’t sing pretty, because they haven’t been brainwashed into being weak. They have to be strong and just get on with it.” She hoots at being reminded of her youthful fire, but hasn’t changed her view. “Would you say Beyoncé sang pretty? I wouldn’t. No, there’s always a kind of strength.”

Was it hard making it in such a male-dominated industry? “I didn’t feel I had a struggle as such. Maybe I did, but I didn’t notice it.” She suspects it would have been harder if she’d needed someone else to write her songs. Pam Nestor, who she’d met in Hair, wrote words for her 1972 debut album, Whatever’s For Us, a beautifully dreamy but stirring collection of largely piano-led, lushly produced songs. “But even when I met Pam, I was already writing music and lyrics.”

She credits Gus Dudgeon and Glyn Johns (“two of the best producers ever”) for enabling her to achieve the sounds she wanted. “They didn’t do The Big I Am – ‘You think you know but I know better.’” Did others? She hoots again. “They tried!”

Armatrading initially played all the instruments on 1981’s Walk Under Ladders herself, but eventually relented, hiring musicians. However, after starting to self-produce and engineer, she set up Bumpkin, her own studio. The result is that she has played most, and often all, of the instruments on each of her albums since 2003’s Lovers Speak. Her achievements are made all the more impressive by the fact that she’s made blues albums, jazz albums and even – with 1983’s The Key, which includes Drop the Pilot – a hard rock album. “I love hard rock!” she explodes. “I always tell myself, ‘One day I’ll make a heavy metal album.’ With lots of guitar shredding! And I will.”

Hits such as Love and Affection and Me Myself I made her a household name, but other songs have become cultural landmarks. She reveals that the shocking imagery in How Cruel , her 1979 Grammy-nominated song about racism, is real. “The neighbours didn’t move out because we moved into a house,” she says. “But I know of that happening. My dog was stolen, though, and I have had people say, ‘She’s too black’ or ‘She’s not black enough.’”

Similarly, Barefoot and Pregnant, now a feminist anthem, was inspired by a friend-of-a-friend who was caught in an abusive, controlling relationship. And in Rosie , also from 1979, Armatrading sings about a transgender character with sensitivity and concern. A taxi driver, she recalls, was showing her New York: “And walking up 42nd Street were all these Rosies with high heels and lipstick and the whole get-up. I’d never seen that before.” Nowadays, the song is a live favourite and the word “trans” almost mainstream. “Have I helped that process? I just wrote a song, but that’s how it works. When George Orwell wrote 1984, do you think he seriously thought all those things would happen?”

As for Taking My Baby Up Town, about a couple who are shouted at in the street but keep walking arm in arm, the song has become a gay pride anthem. But Armatrading is keen to qualify its success: “My songs are for everybody: black, white, male, female, gay, straight, bi. They’re about people. We’re not here to gaze at pretty trees or nice buildings.”

Armatrading guards her own private life ferociously. In 2011, she entered a civil partnership with the artist Maggie Butler at a ceremony in the Shetland Islands, which is about 100 miles off the already remote northern tip of Scotland. Someone saw the statutory public notice, informed the local paper and thus the world, triggering many “love and affection” headlines. Is it harder to keep anything private now?

“I try my best,” she laughs. “Everybody needs something for themself.” She refuses to correct internet rumours because “if you do one, you’re in that game”. In 2005, as Women of the Year president herself, she gave the award to Margaret Thatcher – “because whatever people say about her, she was the first woman prime minister”. But, she says, people shouldn’t assume, as they do, that she votes Tory. “No matter what you read, it’s never come from me.”

She’s forever seeking new challenges. At the age of 57, she ran the New York marathon. “I felt like Superman,” she says, then corrects herself. “Superwoman! Although running down hills, I was more gangly, like Phoebe and Rachel running in Friends .”

Despite her phenomenal musical success, Armatrading says her proudest achievement is her BA in History from the Open University, which she studied for while touring. “Wherever I was in the world – Australia, Canada or wherever – I had to post in my essays. Now they let you do it online.” She’d yearned to study since she’d started work at 15, and the subject still interests her. “The year 2020 makes me think of the Industrial Revolution,” she says. “We’ve had climate change, droughts, floods, Brexit, Trump and the pandemic. We’ll never go back to what we were. It’s a defining period.”

And she has spent it writing songs during lockdown. Next year’s new album will be her 20th. Apart from the heavy metal opus, is there anything left to do? “Oh loads,” she laughs. “But I never say, ‘I’m going to do this.’ When I’ve done it, I’ll tell you.”

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Joan Armatrading is a British singer-songwriter with a 50 year career that includes classic songs like Drop The Pilot and Love and Affection.

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The first black female singer-songwriter to enjoy major commercial success in her native Britain, Joan Armatrading’s career has so far spanned more than four decades. A dedicated artist who values her privacy offstage, she’s released 18 studio albums, obtained a litany of industry awards (including an Ivor Novello and three Grammy nominations), received an MBE in 2001 and still commands a devoted fanbase.

Birmingham proudly claims Armatrading as one of its own, though she was actually born (as Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading) in Basseterre, on the Caribbean Island of Saint Kitts, in 1950. Her parents relocated to the UK with her five siblings when she was just three, but Joan stayed on with her grandmother in Antigua until she was seven, when she joined her parents in the Birmingham district of Brookfields. Much of this area has now been absorbed into Handsworth, the part of the city later immortalised by much-loved reggae act Steel Pulse on their landmark Handsworth Revolution LP.

Music assumed an increased significance in Joan Armatrading’s life in her early teens. She initially set her self-penned poems and limericks to compositions she made on the old piano in her family home but made greater strides when her mother acquired her an acoustic guitar from a local pawn shop – reputedly in exchange for two prams.

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Working up her own material, but keen to help support her family, Joan left school at 15 and began working a series of local jobs. Yet she wasn’t to be discouraged from performing. She first set foot on stage at Birmingham University, playing her own songs (and a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’) at the age of 16, before paying her dues the hard way: gigging locally in pubs and taverns and becoming accomplished on both guitar and bass.

Armatrading’s first important break came in 1970 when she joined a local repertory theatre production of the counterculture-related stage musical Hair. While involved in this performance, she met a talented local lyricist Pam Nestor, and the two began working up songs together as a duo.

Nestor and Armatrading had built up a repertoire of around 100 songs by 1972 when their early demos came to the attention of music publisher David Platz. Previously the co-founder of the Fly imprint, Platz had already made a mark in the industry, with Fly has been responsible for releasing hit 45s from The Move and John Kongos (the latter’s ‘He’s Gonna Step On You Again’, later famously reworked as ‘Step On’ by Happy Mondays), in addition to T.Rex ’s breakthrough No.1 LP, Electric Warrior .

At this point, Nestor and Armatrading had thought of themselves as a duo, though it was primarily Armatrading’s highly expressive contralto vocal that attracted Platz and his new label, Cube. As a result, while Platz was keen to bankroll their first LP, 1972’s Whatever’s For Us ,  he released and marketed the album as Joan Armatrading’s   solo debut , even though Nestor co-wrote all but three of the LP’s 14 songs.

Cube spared no expense with Whatever’s For Us . Overseen by Gus Dudgeon (producer of David Bowie ’s ‘Space Oddity’), the tracks were laid down at the rural French studio Château d’Hérouville, using session aces such as guitarist Davey Johnstone, Elton John percussionist Ray Cooper and Fairport Convention /Fotheringay drummer Gerry Conway. Broadly an accomplished folk-rock LP, the record featured tracks such as ‘City Girl’ and ‘It Could Have Been Better’, which later appeared on Armatrading’s anthology collections, and it received positive press on release in November 1972, with Mark Plummer’s review in Melody Maker even comparing Armatrading’s voice to Nina Simone ’s. The LP failed to chart, however, and while Armatrading sang and played the guitar on all the tracks, Pam Nestor was conspicuous by her absence, despite co-writing 11 of the 14 songs. This led to tensions which resulted in Armatrading and Nestor dissolving their writing partnership.

Armatrading thus made her first appearance as a solo artist in late 1972, at London’s renowned Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. This was followed by a residency at the same venue, a solo tour of US folk clubs, and a two-week tour supporting José Feliciano in 1973. Armatrading was, however, keen to free herself from her Cube contract after Whatever’s For Us ’ uncomfortable pregnancy, and she signed to A&M for 1975’s Back To The Night . Though it again missed the Top 40, the record featured a far stronger collection of songs, with highlights including the sensitive, Moog- and piano-driven ballad ‘Dry Land’, and two fine, jazz-inflected numbers, ‘Cool Blue Stole My Heart’ and ‘Come When You Need Me’.

The LP was promoted by a well-received tour featuring Armatrading backed up by a jazz-pop sextet, The Movies (who also recorded for A&M and CBS), but her commercial breakthrough came with the following year’s Joan Armatrading . Featuring a clutch of Armatrading’s most resonant vocal performances, the LP had a more mainstream rock/pop sound and it benefitted from a crisp, punchy production from highly regarded studio wizard Glyn Johns ( The Who ; The Rolling Stones ). The glorious ‘Save Me’ and the country-flavoured ‘Down To Zero’ were among its many highlights, but, for most, the album’s touchstone was the feisty, string-kissed ballad ‘Love & Affection’, which provided Armatrading with her lone UK Top 10 hit. The critically acclaimed parent album also charted highly, rising to No.12 in the UK Top 40 and earning Armatrading a gold disc in the process.

The success of her eponymously titled third elevated Joan Armatrading to the ranks of rock’s leading female artists and she released a string of big-selling discs in its wake. Again produced by Glyn Johns and charting in the UK Top 10, 1977’s gold-certified Show Some Emotion once more spawned a pair of memorable, radio-friendly singles in ‘Willow’ and the popular titular song, while 1978’s To The Limit (UK No.13) included a couple of glorious ballads (‘Baby I’; ‘Your Letter’) and the playful, reggae-tinged ‘Bottom To The Top’.

The release of 1979’s 9-track live LP, Steppin’ Out , meanwhile, showcased Armatrading at the peak of her powers onstage. Positively received by the critics on release, Steppin’ Out garnered further critical reappraisal when it was granted an expanded DVD reissue in 2004, featuring two complete concerts, filmed and recorded in Cologne and Essen, for German TV channel WDR, in 1979 and 1980, respectively.

Armatrading scaled her commercial pinnacle, however, with 1980’s Me Myself I . Helmed by former Blondie producer Richard Gottehrer, the album featured contributions from guitarist Chris Spedding and saxophonist Clarence Clemons, the latter on loan from Bruce Springsteen ’s E Street Band, and the results were notably rockier than anything Armatrading had previously released. The LP’s title cut (which provided her second UK Top 30 hit) was a riff-heavy, new wave-style number, while the album also included a clutch of polished pop-rock numbers, including ‘Ma Me O Beach’ and the infectious ‘Is It Tomorrow Yet?’, as well as the yearning ballad ‘All The Way From America’, which harked back to her folksy early days. The record’s upbeat, radio-friendly approach did the trick on both sides of the Atlantic, with Me Myself I reaching No.5 in the UK (going gold in the process), but also climbing to an impressive No.28 on the US Billboard 200.

A similar cycle of critical acceptance and commercial success greeted Armatrading’s next two LPs, 1981’s Walk Under Ladders and ’83’s The Key . Again buffed up to a radio-friendly sheen by Steve Lillywhite’s bright, no-nonsense production, the former consolidated on the ground gained by Me Myself I and yielded two minor UK hits, ‘No Love’ and the optimistic ‘I’m Lucky’. It also won a fifth gold disc for Armatrading, charting at No.6 in the UK Top 40. The Key , though, was a smidgen more adventurous, taking in Stax-style horn arrangements, R&B and even the aggressively punky anthem ‘(I Love It When You) Call Me Names’, featuring a wild, squealing guitar solo from David Bowie/Talking Heads alumnus Adrian Belew. On the strength of the brash, catchy UK Top 20 hit ‘Drop The Pilot’, the album gained another gold certification and went to No.10 on the UK Top 40.

Though The Key would be Joan Armatrading’s last gold-selling album until A&M’s self-explanatory greatest hits set, The Very Best Of Joan Armatrading (1991), she subsequently recorded a string of critically acclaimed LPs, all of which charted in the UK Top 30 and gained silver certifications. Produced by Mike Howlett ( OMD ; The Comsat Angels), 1985’s Secret Secrets was an eclectic outing, veering from the crunchy, anthemic title cut to the jazz-inflected ‘Talking To The Wall’ and ‘Persona Grata’: a sweeping, arena-sized rock epic with swooning strings. 1986’s Sleight Of Hand , meanwhile, was a well-crafted, self-produced affair (and the first LP recorded at Armatrading’s own Bumpkin Studio) and ’88’s stripped-back The Shouting Stage included cameos from Dire Straits’ frontman Mark Knopfler and Big Country drummer Mark Brzezicki.

Despite a slightly lower profile in the marketplace, Armatrading also released a bunch of highly commendable LPs during the 90s. While the UK Top 40 was inundated with indie-dance remixes, 1990s Hearts & Flowers was a solid, but largely unsung set that charted at No.29, while ’92’s Square The Circle (UK No.34) proved to be her final release through her long-standing label, A&M. Co-produced by David Tickle (Blondie/Department S), 1995’s What’s Inside was Armatrading’s only LP for her next label, RCA, and – to date – is her final major-label release.

An elegant and mature collection featuring string arrangements from the London Metropolitan Orchestra, What’s Inside included tempting, jazz-flavoured tracks such as ‘In Your Eyes’, along with two blues numbers (‘Back On The Road’ and ‘Lost The Love’) prefiguring Armatrading’s 2007 LP, Into The Blues . Yet, despite this dynamic, beautifully realised material and shoulda-been hit single ‘Can’t Stop Loving You’, What’s Inside mystifyingly stalled at No.48 on the UK Top 75.

Armatrading stayed out of the public eye for a while, but she re-emerged in the new millennium and has since delighted her substantial fanbase with new releases and regular touring. She played most of the instruments herself on 2003’s poignant, assured Lover’s Speak (released through the Denon imprint), which was hailed by the critics as her best album for years. It was followed in style by 2007’s Into The Blues : an accomplished modern blues LP that debuted at No.1 on the Billboard’s Blues Chart.

Nominated for a Grammy Award in 2008, Into The Blues attracted a slew of enthusiastic critical notices, with Record Collector moved to describe it as “the most complete portrait yet of an often underrated singer-songwriter”. With her profile at its highest since her 80s heyday, Armatrading was much in demand once again; turning in a critically hailed performance on Later… With Jools Holland and sharing the stage with Cyndi Lauper on the latter’s True Colors tour of 2008.

Armatrading has since released two further critically lauded studio sets. Promoted with an extensive international tour, including a rapturously received date at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall, 2010’s folk-rock-inspired This Charming Life peaked at No.4 on the US Billboard Folk Albums chart, while, for 2012’s jazzy Starlight , Armatrading undertook a 56-date UK tour wherein she invited 56 local singer-songwriters to open for her in their respective home towns before the tour’s main support, English folk musician Chris Wood, took to the stage.

Though she has confessed on her own website that she will “never retire”, Joan Armatrading announced in October 2013 that the solo tour she was about to embark on would comprise her last ever major bout of gigging. Though her devoted fanbase was understandably saddened, the dates have since morphed into a remarkable trek which has continued for almost two years, with Armatrading gigging in territories as far-flung as South Africa, Oceania, Scandinavia and North America, as well as several lengthy trawls around the UK.

Delving deep into one of pop’s most remarkable songbooks, Joan Armatrading has performed these dates with just piano, guitar and her instantly recognisable voice, thrilling audiences and playing in front of packed houses virtually every night. She has already succeeded in her quest “to capture a unique memory for both myself and audience” by undertaking this astonishing run of shows, and if it does prove to be her final lap of honour, Armatrading leaves the building with applause ringing in her ears, and her singular reputation very much intact.

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Joan Armatrading

Joan Armatrading's rich, distinctive voice and passionate yet tender blend of Pop Jazz, Folk and Blues music has earned her a place in British music more...

Joan Armatrading image © Joelanderson.com

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Capitol Theatre Clearwater Review

A rare solo performance by the vet British singer-songwriter on her final world tour For what she's billed as her last-ever world tour, Joan Armatrading  decided to live up to the title of one of her most popular songs, "My Myself I," and hit the road completely alone. For the first time in her 40-year career, the revered  64-year-old British-raised singer-songwriter was delivering her heartfelt, poignant blend of songs to audiences around the world on the strength of her own stage presence and with only guitar and piano. Luckily, the extensive and rigorous touring schedule she's embarked on included a stop at downtown Clearwater's lush and intimate Capitol Theatre on Friday night. For an artist who rarely comes to America and hasn't ever really achieved the popularity here that she holds throughout Europe, she has enough loyal followers base that people still came out in droves to see her, and the jam-packed theater sang along and cheered wildly throughout her 90-minute performance.  Taking the stage in simple, casual black slacks, top and sandals, Joan seemed downright appreciative and humbled by the first of many standing ovations she'd receive. A sparse stage with an array of guitars on one side, a small electric piano on the other and a modest video screen at the rear was what Armatrading had to work with. But the real treat was not only the charm and down-to-earth attitude she projected, but the witty and downright comical repartee she offered through the night. While she might come across as meek and withdrawn in the soul-bearing, brutally honest emotion she evokes through her songwriting, nothing could be further from the truth. When the applause subsided and she finally had a chance to speak, she greeted her adoring audience: "I though it might be a good idea to play a song from every album I've done ... but that's not gonna happen." She was met with more applause and some laughter, which would be repeated several times over the course of the evening. She did, however, open her set with a nugget from her very first album, 1972's Whatever's For Us:   "City Girl" instantly thrilled and elated an already engaged audience comprised mostly of female fans. As a single spotlight shone on Joan and the video screen displayed different images of city skylines and landscapes, she instantly reminded concertgoers of what it is that really makes her so special: her confessional, personal lyrics and that voice, that rich, husky, emotive vocal range that has been her trademark throughout her long career. And it hasn't lost a single drop of its resonance. Armatrading sounded fresh and inspired as she delivered her impressive career overview of songs and plucked out some pretty impressive guitar work along the way. "Since this is a long tour, this is my 137th or 138th gig...," she recalled, "I'm going have to cut this show short so, this will be my last song ... but thank you!" she joked after completing her second selection. Again, the crowd chuckled before settling in for more of her stunning artistry.  Of her many gifts, dabbling in so many different genres successfully might be one of her most impressive. Her solemn solo piano delivery of "More Than One Kind of Love" took on a gospel feel. And she tackled folk, pop, jazz, blues and rock n' roll over the course of the night, too. Not an easy feat to accomplish.  Sporting an almost invisible headset microphone, Joan commanded the rapt audience for the duration of the program. With some prerecorded accompaniment at times (as a disclaimer on the video screen warned at the onset of the show), Joan's commanding delivery of "All The Way From America" was augmented by a piped in string section. But, in all honesty, she didn't need the added track. She stood and held her own the whole night, proving her worth as a solo performer. A short break came when Armatrading flashed a series of snapshots documenting her career on the screen and added some colorful, insightful and hilarious commentary throughout. Career highlights, clothing styles and anecdotes were shared with sharp wit and engaging banter. Career-defining tune "Love and Affection" (which she'd jokingly said earlier in the program she would not play) was met with plenty of applause and elation. If Joan Armatrading's style, approach and flair had to be described in one single song, it'd have to be this one. From the 1976 self-titled album that put her on the musical map, the song is still as powerful and stirring as ever. And for those who sang along to every lyric and passionately swayed to the beat, it surely hasn't lost any of its meaning. She wrapped up with the reggae lilt of "Rosie" and the infectious pop of "Drop the Pilot" and the anthemic "Me Myself I," which featured some mean, distorted, screaming electric guitar work that would've made Jimi Hendrix proud. But she didn't depart before getting a few more laughs, this time about how traditional encores usually play out at rock shows: "You've all been to concerts before, right?" she chided. Joan walked us through the scenario of the artist leaving the stage, being bombarded by cheers and applause, and then returning to the stage to play another song. "I'm going to do that, but instead, I'm just going to stand here" she said as she stayed planted at the lip of the stage and soaked in all the love and affection the crowd had left to bestow. Ending with tender ballad "Willow" (from 1977's  Show Some Emotion ), Armatrading encouraged those who knew the words to sing along with the chorus. As many took her up on her request, an almost somber tone filled the room, most of us realizing this might be the last time we'd get to enjoy hearing such a truly original and inimitable artist perform live. Set List: CIty Girl Promise Land More Than One Kind of Love All The Way From America In These Times Mama Mercy My Baby's Gone Down to Zero Steppin Out Kissin and a Huggin The Weakness in Me Empty Highway Woncha Come On Home Love and Affection Rosie  Drop the Pilot My Myself I Encore: Willow

Additional Info

• Author / Writer Writer Gabe Echazabal
• Date Friday, 01 May 2015

Cape Town Review

It is not often that we have the privilege of seeing one of the world’s greatest musicians performing live on stage. Thanks to Real Concerts, Cape Town had the honour last night, when Joan Armatrading played at the CTICC. Her entrance on stage was greeted by a standing ovation, before she even opened her mouth.

Before she came on stage though, the audience was treated to the fresh-faced Jesse Clegg, who enthralled us with a rousing version of Sinnerman (first made famous by Nina Simone). He then introduced his newest single, released two days ago, Use Me . It’s good. Watch this space.

Not for nothing has Joan Armatrading had a career spanning over 40 years, 18 albums and a list of hits as long as your arm. From the first song to the last, her iconic voice brought goose bumps to the flesh and tears to the eyes.

The concert, billed ‘A Very Special Solo Evening with Joan Armatrading’ was a musical trip through her career as she moved between guitars and piano, playing a mix of much beloved hits and her less well-known ones. Armatrading caresses each instrument like a lover, and they respond accordingly, eliciting standing ovations from the audience numerous times.

Between songs, Armatrading was personable and funny. Mid-concert we were treated to a slide show of pictures of her career – the people she’s met, the places she’s been, the awards she’s won. She talked the audience through it, making funny, wry comments throughout, allowing a glimpse into her stardom.

Through an incredible, electric rendition of Me, Myself, I , we were reminded that, despite her 64 years, Joan Armatrading is the kind of rock star who never gets old. She is a musical genius. What an honour to witness her in an intimate venue like the CTICC.

My favourite moment? When, during the slide show during In These Times , a picture of Nelson Mandela showed and the audience erupted. Now that’s goose bump material.

Joan Amatrading performed at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 4 & 5 July 2015.

• Author / Writer Nwabisa Mbana
• Date Tuesday, 07 July 2015

The Concert Hall New York

Joan armatrading delights in career retrospective.

She isn't calling it a farewell tour, but after more than forty years performing all over the world, Joan Armatrading had previously announced that her current marathon trek will be her final global jaunt. The operative word here isn't so much "final" as "major." The British singer-songwriter has firmly stated in press releases that she will never retire. It's just that this 2014-2015 stretch through Australia, New Zealand, Europe, South Africa, the UK, and, now, this spring, North America, is to be her last such venture. From now on, it's all about packing lighter for shorter touring bouts.

For an artist who is largely thought of as a folk singer-songwriter, this is Armatrading's first solo tour and the first she's done without a backing band. Folk wasn't an obvious trait at her concert at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan on April 17, especially as her main instrument was an electric guitar.

Armatrading's songs stand up well without embellishment, though the introduction of keys and string samples towards the end of the evening cluttered up the songs. In fact, one tune, the Eighties pop number "More Than One Kind of Love," had far more emotional and sonic power in a stripped-down setting that seemed tailor-made for Armatrading's catalog.

Her grasp of British Sarcasm, irony, and dry-dry wit is strong. She began the evening winding her audience up: "I thought I'd play a song from every album I've made," she said. Cue: deafening cheers. "But that's not going to happen." She picked up an electric guitar and went straight into the soulful "City Girl" from her 1972 debut Whatever's For Us . Before a monumental "All the Way From America" she said, "If you know it, join in. If you don't , then don't, because you'll spoil it," she joked with an impish grin.

Armatrading's main instrument is her earthy, throaty voice, which rose to a sparkling falsetto and fell in a melodious rumble. Sometimes it has a little yodel to it. "Promise Land" showed off its opulence and Joni Mitchell seemed a close musical compatriot. Like Mitchell, she tenderly tucks her voice into a song. "My Baby's Gone" had chunky Hendrix-y riffs and recalled Sixties psychedelic blues rock. "Me Myself I" was delivered with punk rock militant insistence, and "Rosie" pulsed with jaunty reggae.

In addition to the songs, which document her four-decade career, the screen at the back of the stage displayed a slide show of photos collected from Armatrading's life in music. She proudly narrated as the images flipped: there was Joan from the early Seventies, a tender tête-à-tête with the late Nelson Mandela in the Nineties, and then Armatrading anointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Aughts. Her life in music is all Armatrading is willing to part with publicly: she was born on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts in 1950, but her life growing up working class in industrial Birmingham, a blue-collar city in the Midlands of the United Kingdom, didn't work its way into the evening's program.

Armatrading made her fans wait for the encore for the soul ballad "Willow," a huge touchstone for this and every audience. It's a "Let It Go"-type song about weathering life's ups and downs that champions both tenderness and strength. "Love And Affection" also conveyed similar duality: it was gentle and forceful, thoughtful and soaring, and not just through its lyrics, but in Armatrading's keen rhythmic sense. As with her ease with delivering a punch line, she knows how to softly and deftly strike a song's emotional core.

It was a different kind of "encore," dispensed without Joan leaving the stage, as per usual concerts. At the end of the main set, she said, "This is the end of the show. You've been to concerts before, you know what happens. I leave the stage, you cheer and shout, then I come back to do the encore. Instead I'm going to stay here." Folks cheered like she'd left the stage anyway, on and on they went. But then, at the beginning of the concert, they cheered the bejeezus out of the room before she played a note. Heaven forbid she ever retires. 

• Author / Writer Linda Laban
• Date Saturday, 18 April 2015

Holmfirth Picturedrome

Heralded as one of the uk’s most inspiring singer-songwriters, joan armatrading made a triumphant return to holmfirth to highlight her status and very respectable back catalogue.

With a career spanning over five decades, the Caribbean-born and Birmingham-raised singer-songwriter walked out to yet another sell-out audience on her extensive list of intimate shows. Show number 110 of her remarkable first solo and sadly final world tour, she opened with 1972 favourite ‘City Girl’ from her debut album, Whatever’s For Us.

Armatrading spent the next 90 minutes alone with simply a guitar and keyboard, reciting a set which aimed to include a least one song from each of her 20 albums. Among the more popular songs from a stunning back catalogue were ‘All the Way from America’, ‘Down to Zero’, ‘Drop the Pilot’, ‘Me, Myself and I’ and the breath-taking ‘The Weakness in Me’, which left the capacity crowd in admiration. Armatrading displayed her diversity by delving into reggae territory favourite, ‘Rosie’ and blues-esque ‘My Baby’s Gone’.

Through it all it was evident how empowering Armatrading has become and how captivating she is on stage.

She drew on her influences and set out the path for all who have followed in her footsteps. The distinctive and irrepressible voice remains as did her relaxed sense of humour. Reminiscing on stage with a pre-built photographic slideshow, Armatrading talked the audience through her upbringing and career highlights.

This showcased her many accolades, including the 1978 Bob Dylan concert at Blackbushe Aerodrome near Camberley, which still holds the record for largest single day-crowd. She also relived the 20th anniversary of democracy celebration in South Africa where she was invited as the only non-South African artist and went on to meet the late Nelson Mandela.

The anthemic ‘Love and Affection’ drew an extended applause and was among the more welcomed songs on the night. Armatrading opted for a more unconventional encore by remaining on stage, soaking up the admiration and love in the room. She ushered the crowd into the set closing ‘Willow’ which was echoed by the choir voices in the Yorkshire audience.

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

• Author / Writer Chloe Glover

Birmingham Town Hall Concert Review

Joan armatrading birmingham town hall.

THE Brummie singer-songwriter quite possibly played her last concert in Birmingham on Wednesday night and there was a distinct end-of-an-era feel to it. At 65, the former schoolgirl from the Brookfields district of the city has made it clear that this will be her “last major tour” and, wandering on stage, she joked: “I came on here for something, but I can’t remember what.” Then, three songs in, she announced that, because this was the 119th date of the tour and she was tired, she had decided to cut the concert short and this was to be her last song. Appearing solo, without her customary band and with just a small selection of guitars and a piano, she then went on to captivate the audience for an hour-and-a-half. Sparkling throughout with typically Brummie self-deprecating wit, she filled the Town Hall stage with the force of her personality, the power of her playing and, of course, that voice in a million on songs such as City Girl, from her first album way back in 1972. alfway through, she introduced a slideshow of highlights from her four-decade career with a shot of the fresh-faced singer outside Ronnie Scott’s back in 1973. There followed pictures of her with Paul McCartney, Elton John and Nelson Mandela, with her MBE and in the pages of the Beano. To finish, she launched into a memorable rendition of Love And Affection, following it with other fan favourites Rosie, Drop The Pilot, Me Myself I and, as an encore, Willow – the crowd singing back to her the chorus raising the hairs on the back of the neck.

• Author / Writer Michael Wood
• Date Friday, 27 March 2015

Sage Gateshead Hall 1

This will be Joan Armatrading's last full world tour and it was lovely to see Hall 1 packed to the rafters for the occasion.

After a brief opening set by a Cornish band called The Sea Kings, Joan took to the stage, looking smart in a black ensemble. Her sense of humour was instantly apparent as she thanked us for being in a lovely venue.."I came out here to do something...I can't remember what..do you ever find that you go into a room,come out and still can't remember why you went in? So, what are your plans for this evening?" Laughter was juxtaposed with music for the whole evening, as Joan peppered her set with one liners and wise cracks, ripples of laughter filling the room. "I'm making my way over to the piano now....I've arrived!" And teasing the audience three songs in that she was rather tired and thought she'd end the show there, are just two examples. I warmed to her instantly.

Most refreshing was that Joan didn't make us wait until the end for 'those songs,' instead she dropped them in throughout the set.  Every few minutes, it was like unwrapping another surprise as we were treated to another we'd been waiting for.

Throughout the set she accompanied herself, alternating between an assortment of guitars and piano. Also, behind her, was a screen projecting images and clips from her music videos, which gave many of the songs an additional layer of meaning.  The richness of her vocals completely belied her sixty four years. 

Hard as it was to choose, standout songs for me included All The Way From America, These Are The Times, Drop The Pilot, Love and Affection, Right on Target and Rosie. 

An unexpected, rather special, moment, came in the form of her talking us through a slideshow of images from her life in music. She is as good a storyteller as comedian and I could have listened to her all night. Most touching was the gratitude she exhibits for the experiences she has had and people she has met. As she talked about her day with Nelson Mandela, tears filled her eyes. I felt honoured that she shared the story with me and I'm sure I was not alone.

All too soon, the night was over and joking with us again she announced "I'm sure we all know what happens here, the artist leaves the stage, the audience claps and cheers and the artist comes back.  I'm just going to stand here while you do all that." She did, with a beaming smile of appreciation on her face which was a joy to see. Ending the night with Willow, she asked us all to sing with her, then to sing a chorus for her. How often do you get to sing someone's song to them?

Suffice it to say it was a wonderful night and I hope I also speak for everyone in Hall 1 when I say thank you Joan and Me Myself and I hope to see you back here very soon.

• Author / Writer Joan Armatrading Concert Review Sage Newcastle

Philharmonic Liverpool

Joan armatrading, gig review..

When a musician of the legendary status decides to announce the last days of major touring, the polite thing to do is to go and watch a marvel say their goodbyes somewhere, anywhere, on tour. For someone of the quality and assurance of Joan Armatrading, the decent and respectable thing to do is to turn up and be quiet apart from the large spontaneous applause at the end of each song. To generally bask in an absolute legend and trail blazer who came through the ranks and became a much admired figure, even with the still dreadful race relations that haunted 70s Britain.

Joan Armatrading has graced the Liverpool stage many times, but none perhaps as important as this, her final ever major world tour, some announcements just don’t seem right, some don’t sit well in the stomach of the fan. However, as Joan Armatrading played out her evening, the applause getting longer between songs, the humour and the smile getting broader, for those in the Philharmonic Hall, the music of the night would at least carry them home in good spirits.

For 40 years Ms. Armatrading has thrilled audiences to the point of jubilation and utter delight. Her voice has carried many over the threshold of insecurity and delivered them into soft, warm arms, ready to embrace and be kept safe. Yet perhaps for many in the aisles and in the boxes, this was the true moment of a distinguished career. The acid test and the defining section all rolled into one musical ball, whether the humour would hold up, the voice would play its part, after all she had already pointed out that this tour was well over the hundred mark, and whether the crowd could cope with not seeing her as often as they would like.

The set itself was long, beautifully so. The stage almost minimalistic, a token aspect to the important figure of the musician and the only instruments on stage were three guitars, one piano and the tool of her trade, her sublime voice. With just this in mind, tracks such as the opener City Girl , the sensational More Than One Kind of Love , the beating, pulsating, All the Way From America , In These Times , Down To Zero, The Weakness in Me , the eagerly awaited Love and Affection , Drop the Pilot and Willow were given the respect, the due deference, that songs that have withstood fashion and changing times, dictates.

For Joan Armatrading, the emotions of the night would have arguably caught up with her the moment she left the Philharmonic stage, they would have been understandable, for its not everywhere that gives a musician such a respectfully charged standing ovation when the night is over.

If this is goodbye for some fans who would not be able to make the evenings ahead then Joan Armatrading could not have asked for anymore from her audience on the night and they certainly could have asked no more of her.

A fantastic night filled with images of the past, music that lives in the ever constant present and all delivered by a woman for all seasons. This is not goodbye, not by a long chalk, it is more of celebration of what has been so far. Tremendous!

• Author / Writer Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
• Date Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Manchester Concert Review 2015

Joan Armatrading walks on to thunderous applause, a huge grin stretching right across her face. “I actually came out here to do something, but I’ve forgotten what it is,” she frets, gazing around the stage. “Somebody told me that’s what old people do.”

It’s the first of many jokes from a performer who, at 64 and with nothing left to prove, can enjoy a chuckle at her own expense. The Caribbean-born, Birmingham-raised singer-songwriter is on the 106th show of her “final major world tour”, and after three numbers claims that she is already so tired that “this is the last song”. The audience roars, because when she sings, her voice is ageless: she can still reach the high notes of her youth and is clearly bowing out of intensive touring with her famous powers undiminished.

Alone with a guitar and keyboard – with occasional pre-recorded enhancements - the well-chosen set list reflects a remarkable career. She flits from folk to rock to raw blues to even quasi-heavy metal, proud songs with themes of dignity, empathy and “a sense of self”. The protest song In These Times – accompanied by images of the Ku Klux Klan – is a particularly powerful moment.

The banter returns as she introduces old photographs of herself: getting her MBE, meeting Mandela and – not least – being immortalised in the Beano . Love and Affection receives a standing ovation, 1983 hit Drop the Pilot is slightly messy, but is soon forgotten as the audience form an impromptu choir for an ethereal, lovely Willow .

Armatrading eschews the encore ritual and instead remains on stage, savouring the moment as the crowd holler for more. Still, after 42 years and a magical 90 minutes, she’s more than earned it. The Guardian Manchester

Cardiff St David's Hall Review

Yet again St David’s Hall is delivering to a packed auditorium the shows people want to see, the excitement and anticipation for Joan Armatrading tonight flowed up from the front to the top of the hall as people found their seats and made themselves comfortable as they knew they were going to be entertained.

Before Joan we were entertained by an Electro-acoustic guitar duo Rich Lown and Robin Hirschfeld, who were back supporting Joan Armatrading in Cardiff with a mix of electric taking the lead and acoustic guitars and self-penned numbers, this was an act that entertained warmed the acoustics in the hall ready for the main act. The audience was pleased with what they heard and they certainly musically entertained

There was an eager anticipation and the low rumble of chatter as everyone waited for the house lights at St David’s Hall to dim and Joan Armatrading step on the stage and entertain Cardiff once again the performance including elements of pre-recorded material which Joan had prepared in advance and according to the statement would add colour and shape to the performance. Tonight is part of Joan’s final world tour and the first as a solo act. The stage was set and Joan stepped onto the stage to tumultuous applause. It was a happy, chatty Joan who introduced herself, joked with the audience and raised the excitement even further before a first note was struck. She told us it would be good to do a track from every album, but not tonight with that she delivered a number from 1972 City Girl, with a video backdrop of city lights, this was going to be an evening of pure unadulterated joyous entertainment. The repartee between her and the audience continued as before the third song and she sat behind her piano said you have been the best audience, I am feeling tired so More Than One Kind Of Love, will be my final number, the confidence to play with the audience was as harmonious as the music being played. She used her voice as another instrument in perfect synchronization with the piano keys and then she soared above the piano notes like the pipes of an organ being opened up.

he next track we heard the melodious 12-string guitar that was full of glorious chords and augmented her contralto voice on All The Way From America; the audience were happy it felt as if an old friend had popped round for a chat and played some of your favourite tunes to you.

Every track she played worked in the solo format and the added backing really gave the performance texture, but the reality was all that really was required was Joan’s bubbly personality, perfect stage craft combined with strong vocals and her ever underrated guitar playing that mixes rock, blues and jazz using the tempo that suits the track being played. In the solo format these skills shine and Joan met the challenge and more and the interlude of backing photo’s as a scrap-book from her life as she picked out highlights provided an insight into this talented and popular entertainer.

s we paused she picked up the guitar and delivered an array of hits from 1972 to the present day with many albums being showcased as her dexterous fingers drove the guitar to bend the sound to her command as on Kissin’ and Huggin’ with some perfect jazz and then a contrasting bluesy number Empty Highway from her Grammy nominated album Into The blues with its mix of simplicity and deep and meaningful playing and the story unfolded in a perfect video backdrop. All too soon the show had to end Joan stayed on stage to enjoy the spontaneous rousing standing ovation and then one of the highlights of the evening Willow with a meaningful solo interpretation of this classic number.

This is the third show since Joan had to take a short break in her final world tour and there was no doubt that she was on fine form; and let’s hope we have some more solo outings to enjoy despite this being a world tour.

Set List City Girl (Album: Whatever’s for Us 1972) Promise Land (Album: Hearts and Flowers 1990) More Than one kind of love (Album: Hearts and Flowers 1990) All the way from America (Album: Me myself and I 1980) In these times (Album: Lovers Speak 2003) Mama Mercy (Album: Show Some Emotion 1977) My baby’s gone (Album: Into The Blues 2007) Down to zero (Album: Joan Armatrading 1976) Steppin’ out (Album: Steppin’ Out 1979) Kissin’ and a huggin’ (Album: Show Some Emotion 1977) The weakness in me (Album: Walk Under Ladders 1981) Empty highway (Album Into The Blues 2007) Woncha come on home (Album: Show Some Emotion 1977) Love and affection (Album: Joan Armatrading 1976) Rosie (Album: All the Way From America 2004) Me myself and I (Album: Me myself and I 1980) Drop the pilot (Album: The Key 1983) Encore Willow (Album: Show Some Emotion 1977)

• Date Tuesday, 03 March 2015

Bristol Colston Hall Review

Joan Armatrading

PHOTO albums are special no matter who you are. They hold such precious memories, snapshots of loved ones and cherished places. But then there's another league of photo album and that's Joan Armatrading's incredible snapshots from across her lengthy career. With quiet pride she stood centre stage as huge images from her high flying photo album showed just quite what high regard she's held in. Dancing with Paul McCartney, singing alongside Elton John, sharing a joke with Nelson Mandela, as well as her delighted smile at accepting her MBE, her picture in the National Portrait Gallery and an iconic African-inspired snap taken by none other than Lord Snowdon were just some of the gems.

This is a woman whose extraordinary talent has taken her to some high-up places and who shows no sign of slowing down. She's adored by her fans who cheered her on stage, clapped loudly as she introduced songs before even singing a note and who gave her a standing ovation to leave the stage. The warmth of the crowd is mirrored by her own good natured lively, dry humour. Throwing jokes into the mix between songs she seemed almost ageless as she grabbed her guitars for frenzied riffs, followed by laments on her keyboard, wandering around the stage as easily as if it were her own living room, she was completely at ease.

She's recently been ill and had to reschedule some shows, her Bristol performance was her third gig back after recovering but other than a perhaps more throaty voice than usual, she seemed totally in her stride. A varied set list mixed up some of her earlier pieces from back in 1972, kicking off with City Girl for a relaxed comfortable beginning, showing off her unique, strong voice, rich in experience with a hint of gravel and at times with almost a gospel feel to it. She got toes tapping to All The Way From America and pulled at the heartstrings with a deeply powerful song in In These Times. Mamma Mercy offered an uptempo piece, performed with attack and peppered with higher pitch offerings of just what her varied vocal can do. There was a hint of rock to My Baby's Gone which was full of musical variety with twists and turns. She played Down To Zero, while Kissin' and a Huggin' had a jazz, rock and blues feel all thrown in. The Weakness In Me earned her enormous applause with a heartfelt song with a strong storytelling element and her much-loved favourite Love and Affection couldn't have been better received.

She's a gutsy performer with soul who exudes a down-to-earth charm that has endured across more than 40 years. Her fans adore her and with such a fantastic solo show, it's easy to see why she's still selling out venues after all this time.

• Author / Writer By The Bristol Post
• Date Sunday, 06 March 2016

Aukland Concert Review

The clue, really, was on the ticket — Joan Armatrading. Not Joan Armatrading and band; no, just Joan Armatrading. And so that was the show — 90 minutes of one woman, three guitars and an electric piano.

And it was a bloody good show. “What I thought I would do is play a song from every album,” Armatrading told a delighted full house at Auckland’s Town Hall. “Yeah, but that’s not going to happen.” Instead she played an 18-song set that spanned her 36-year career.

She opened with City Girl , from her 1972 debut album Whatever ’s For Us , followed by Promised Land , from 1990’s Hearts And Flowers . She played alone, one woman with an electric guitar, on a stage with nothing but a projector screen displaying images to accompany the songs. That’s all she needed. On Promised Land her guitar chimed and her voice soared. On the outstanding Mercy Mama , she switched to a black Ovation 12-string acoustic which she thrashed soundly it might need armour-plating, playing it almost as much as a percussion as a stringed instrument, the power and the energy in her right hand quite remarkable.

The electric guitar returned for My Baby ’s Gone , pleasingly dirty slide-guitar blues which served to remind that Armatrading, while usually pigeonholed in the largely-meaningless “singer-songwriter” category, is in fact a quite accomplished musician. She played, as has been noted, acoustic guitar with such raw fire and passion that a guitar tech appeared from the wings at the end of each song to disappear stage right with whichever instrument Armatrading had just played, presumably to re-tune it. But her playing had depth and detail as well as force; 1975’s Steppin ’ Out featured both power and detail to remarkable effect. Kissin ’ And A-Huggin ’ , from the 1977 album Show Some Emotion , remained a jazzy number, but, shoehorned slightly into the middle was another exceptional bit of blues picking. It didn’t quite entirely fit into the context of the song, but it sounded good enough that, really, nobody cared.

Armatrading revisited her recent Into The Blues album for Empty Highway , a simple but highly effective blues wail. There was too much reverb on her electric guitar, and her voice could have stood to be higher in the mix, but it didn’t matter. On songs like this, everything came together — her rich, powerful voice, with a range and a depth that other singers would cheerfully kill for, cut through the guitar line and drove the song with clarity and richness, a thing of beauty.  There were moments, such as Woncha Come On Home , when Armatrading’s voice started to show — very slightly, now, but the signs were there — a little bit of weakness in some of the higher registers, but the delicate, beautiful electric-guitar fingerpicking that accompanied more than compensated.

The show was a solo performance, but we were told at the beginning that “elements of tonight’s concert have been pre-recorded by Joan especially for this evening to bring added colour and depth to the performance.” This translated to string accompaniments in All The Way From America , or electric piano on Mercy Mama , but for the most part, this was Joan Armatrading, solo, no backing, and it was good.

This show was billed as Joan Armatrading’s farewell tour, and a message projected on the screen behind the stage before the show told us that this would be her “last major world tour.” The slideshow she presented, then, half-way through the concert, could have been read as self-indulgent and pretentious, but Armatrading, a wonderfully charming stage presence with just a hint of shyness, managed to make it a quite delightful moment that told the story of her career in five minutes. Not that the audience particularly needed reminding of her career; most of the crowd, largely middle-aged, middle-class and white, clearly had the greatest affection for Armatrading, and Love And Affection , her first big hit from 1976, was met with huge cheers and some slightly embarrassing middle-aged white-man chair-dancing and air guitar, and a standing ovation at the end — the first time since Armatrading had walked onto the stage that the audience were on their feet.

The show ended with a brisk trot through Armatrading’s hits. Rosie , all chopped electric guitar and threatening-to-become-reggae joy, was followed by the big, crunching power chords of Drop The Pilot and dancing in the aisles. My Myself I featured a technically superb, but ultimately somewhat gratuitous and unnecessary, overdriven electric guitar break. And then, as the audience cheered, Armatrading announced the end of the show. “You’ve all been to concerts before,” she said, you know what’s coming. “But I’m just going to stand here and enjoy what I’d be listening to over there in the wings.” And she did just that, smiling as her audience — at this stage they were, quite unmistakably, hers — cheered and applauded. One last song for an encore, she sat at her keyboard for Willow , a crowd-pleaser since it first appeared on Show Some Emotion in 1977. She told the audience she’d be taking a break for the last couple of verses, and the thousand-strong crowd sang the song for her.

New Zealand will likely never see Joan Armatrading play live again. This was, after all, her Farewell Tour, and she’s 64 years old already. On the strength of tonight’s show, it’s definitely Auckland’s loss.

• Author / Writer Steve McCabe
• Date Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Adelaide Concert Review

Governor Hindmarsh Hotel

Ladies & Gentlemen… The Gracious, Witty And Extraordinarily Talented Ms Joan Armatrading – Live Music Review

Joan Armatrading burst on to the music scene in the mid seventies as a black woman who didn’t sound like a typical black singer. She had a unique sense of melody and phrasing that was all her own. Born in the West Indies, she moved to Birmingham in the UK at the age of 7. I, like millions of others, was smitten by her self-titled breakthrough album in 1976, and after her performance at The Gov here in Adelaide, I’m still smitten.

Her music crosses an extraordinary range of styles – folk, pop, rock, blues, jazz – and while she is equally at home in all of them, she doesn’t actually belong in any of them. Joan Armatrading is one of those rare artists who simply sounds like herself. Whatever style she is experimenting with, she dances on the edges of it. So you get her interpretation of blues; her interpretation of jazz. Except perhaps for rock; when she veers down the rock path she, surprisingly, is a classic rocker. A couple of guitar solos sounded quite Hendrix-esque. And then she’s just as likely to follow that up with a soft melodic ballad on piano. 

Armatrading took us through a representative sample of a musical canon that spans four decades. There were plenty of her best known numbers – Me Myself I, Drop The Pilot, Love And Affection, All The Way From America  and a selection of songs from her more recent forays into jazz and blues influenced offerings.

From the outset she was gracious and witty. I loved the way she paused at the conclusion of each song long enough to allow us to show our appreciation, and for us to see her smile warmly in enjoyment of the moment. Quite endearing.

Midway through her performance we were treated to a slide show of her career highlights – musical and personal. It felt like we were in her lounge room at home sharing precious memories. It was a nice touch.

Several songs featured pre-recorded parts to fill out the sound. At times this worked really well. It allowed her to play nifty jazz lead parts on songs like Stepping Out , and have us enjoy the brass embellishment on the classic Love And Affection . She told us she’s played this song in every concert she’s ever played, and you can see why; it is indeed a classic. (“Sing me another love song but this time with a little dedication.”) On other songs like the reggae influenced Rosie I found the extra overlay intrusive.

Drop The Pilot was very funky, and Me Myself I once again revealed Joan the rocker. She finished with the gentle Willow , and invited the audience to join in. We all sent ourselves home singing in unison as Joan sat, smiling again, at the keyboard.

It was a privilege to finally see Joan Armatrading in person. She’s still pushing boundaries and her voice still sounds as rich and mellifluous as it ever did. Like ‘massage for the brain’ someone commented. Swapping seamlessly between electric guitar, piano and her trademark 12-string Ovation, she generously shared forty years of original music and few were disappointed. Most in fact were rapt.

• Author / Writer Michael Coghlan
• Date Sunday, 07 December 2014

Wolverhampton 2014 Concert Review

Joan Armatrading's music is like an old and trusted friend. Her contralto voice contributed greatly to the soundtrack of my student days of the mid 1970s as I battled to get to grips with organic chemistry synthetic pathways, listening to BRMB legend Robin Volk playing her early albums through my tiny transistor radio. Since then, as is often the way, I've often lost track of her but she would always eventually pop back into my consciousness and we would 'catch up', as old friends do. With the announcement recently of her final tour it was only right that I, and quite a few more 'old friends' should go along to Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre on Sunday evening to say goodbye and thanks for the memories. And what a way to say goodbye to touring! Playing completely solo for the first time, Joan treated her adoring fans to wonderful versions of some of her most popular and endearing songs, such as Drop The Pilot, Me Myself I, Love And Affection, and All The Way From America. Accompanying herself on either guitar or piano, Joan showed what an accomplished musician she is as well as possessing a truly original voice and wonderful songwriting skills. Her guitar playing has always, it seems, been underrated but Joan clearly demonstrated that she can hold her own in comparison to many of the more recognised rock and blues guitarists. The intimate nature of the evening was further enhanced when, midway through her set, Joan paused to share some stories of her long career illustrated by old photographs. Just as friends do. The climax of the set was a beautiful rendition of Willow with the audience gently singing along. An emotional moment for everyone. Joan has no plans to retire from music but is unlikely to tour again so this was one of her very last appearance on stage here in the West Midlands. There is one further opportunity to see her in March next year at Birmingham Town Hall. My advice would be to make sure you are there. It would be a pity to miss it.

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Joan Armatrading

By Jenn Pelly

May 2, 2021

Joan Armatrading will render interior mysteries with such forthright clarity, attuned so sensitively to the rhythms of feeling, that she makes the most terrible depths of heartbreak seem, to start, bearable. And then she’ll make you smile. “I am not in love,” Armatrading began her exalted 1976 hit, “Love and Affection,” “But I’m open to persuasion.” Where in pop do openings get better? Armatrading spent the 1970s affirming her status as one of the finest singer-songwriters of her generation: a woman of fierce intelligence and self-effacing wit who never stopped reading your mind or keeping you guessing.

In an industry inhospitable to opinionated women, Armatrading mastered the art of saying no. Speaking with the UK women’s liberation magazine Spare Rib in 1974, the singer-songwriter made this irrefutably clear. She had said no to men who suggested she change her androgynous look, no to men who told her to be nicer on stage, no to male producers who tried to control her sound. She said no to critics who argued that her lyrics must be drawn from personal experience (they were composites) and no to the male-prescribed dictum that women ought to “sing pretty.” With every “no,” Armatrading went with herself, and invited others to do the same. “I think it is possible to be yourself and get on in pop music,” she told The Guardian in 1976. “I intend to go on trying.”

Born on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts, Armatrading was 7 years old when she boarded a plane alone from the West Indies to Birmingham, England, to reunite with her parents and two older brothers, from whom she’d been separated for four years. As one of six kids being raised in a small flat, she spent much of her time in the Midlands of England seeking solitude. She would hide at the library, reading Shakespeare and Dickens. “I was on my own a lot… I had a weird childhood,” she told Melody Maker , “and that’s probably been the strongest influence on my character.” Learning young that to be a loner does not necessarily mean being lonely, that in some cases being separate from a crowd brings you closer to yourself and then to everything, Armatrading became a keen observer of others.

She had started writing songs on a pawn shop acoustic guitar and the neglected household piano in her mid-teens. Her inquisitive vision of folk-rock was tinged with the music she grew up around—jazz and soul, gospel and rock’n’roll, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding —especially in the depth of her smoky alto, which voiced the highest heavenly feeling of love as well as its lowest void. Like her idol, Van Morrison —still one of the few influences she’ll point to—her songs have unconventional structures, whether raving up into fiery epiphanies or floating on daydreams. Armatrading didn’t so much bring a Black British identity to the ’70s singer-songwriter tradition as offer proof that a Black British woman played an active role in its creation.

In 1970, after playing out in Birmingham folk clubs, Armatrading met a songwriting partner, the Guyana-born poet Pam Nestor, as stage actors in a traveling production of the hippie rock musical Hair . The cross between Armatrading’s shy introspection and Nestor’s outgoing drive was pivotal. While touring UK theaters, Armatrading set Nestor’s words to music, becoming a dramatist in song, too. “City girl, make life what it should be,” Armatrading sang on a soaring early song she wrote for and about Nestor, a beacon of camaraderie and resilience. In 1974, Armatrading told Spare Rib : “Black women don’t sing sweet because they haven’t been brainwashed so much into thinking they’ve got to be weak. The opposite, they’ve got to be strong. So they just get on with it.”

After their stint in Hair , Nestor and Armatrading headed for London. When Nestor attended the 1971 Glastonbury Festival—where she recalled seeing exactly one other Black person—a fellow festivalgoer encouraged her to take their demos to the publisher Essex Music, which then represented the likes of T. Rex and Black Sabbath. They signed with Essex, and then to Cube Records for Armatrading’s 1972 debut Whatever’s for Us —recorded with Elton John’s producer, Gus Dudgeon—but it soon became clear that the label wanted to market Armatrading as a solo artist, pressuring the partners to go separate ways. Their breakup casts their raw collaborations, like “Whatever’s for Us, for Us” and “Spend a Little Time,” as extraordinarily bittersweet. During the process of recording and promoting her follow-up, 1975’s Back to the Night —Armatrading’s first album for the easy listening establishment at A&M—she was so disillusioned by the process of navigating male egos in the studio that she basically checked out.

But Armatrading would find her footing yet. A year later, the grounded, self-contained energy of Joan Armatrading was hard-earned. It was the first album where Armatrading penned every song, her best by far, entirely alone. The immaculate Joan Armatrading was like her Tapestry : not a debut, but where her confidence caught up to her brilliance, where her nuanced singing and dextrous musicianship—baroque balladeering, burning blues guitar riffs, touches of funk—came alive, dissolving genre lines. In a bid to make her more commercial, A&M enlisted the rock producer Glyn Johns, who’d worked with the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Eagles, and most recently the folk-rock greats Fairport Convention, various members of which back Armatrading on the record. By Johns’ account, he simply stayed out of her way. She knew what she wanted.

Joan Armatrading contained biting personal revelations that you just don’t usually hear in pop songs. On “Somebody Who Loves You,” she punctuates her plaintive should-I-stay-or-go dilemma with a blunt reality check: “So tired of one night stands/Left with longing from misspent passion/With one more human to despise.” Clarifying the titular sentiment of “Tall in the Saddle,” she seethes: “One of these days you’re gonna have to dismount.” And Armatrading’s shining conviction that “I’ve got all the friends that I need” on “Love and Affection” could not be more delightfully transparent—she is not playing. More often, Armatrading’s shyness registered as romantic trepidation: people failing to connect, not having the words, misunderstandings. On three different Joan Armatrading tunes, she sings of “Love, love, love,” “Fun, fun, fun,” “People, people, people,” sounding like she is very much still trying to figure out how to relate to others, which is itself, of course, hugely relatable.

Her songs could be breathtakingly vulnerable. But what she left out said a lot. Few songs on Joan Armatrading are addressed from “I” to a gendered lover, leaving room for queer identity. (She didn’t come out for decades, though a 1978 Melody Maker profile did note that she had a copy of lesbian classic 1973 novel Rubyfruit Jungle on her bookshelf. ) On “Down to Zero,” Armatrading lays bare a breakup that’s left brutally unexplained. She sings of a “brand new dandy” who “takes your man,” and later we hear a woman singing about another woman, who “took the worry from your head” and “put trouble in your heart instead.” Armatrading offers sage-like consolation not just in her lyrics, but in her resolute singing, in her hard strums, in the elegant steel guitar, the sound like Laurel Canyon folk-rock more syncopated. In the face of longing and lack that make no sense, it’s all a kind of armor.

Armatrading was constantly compared to Joni Mitchell , which, for 1976, made some sense. To borrow a phrase from Mitchell, they were “ women of heart and mind ,” writing the highest caliber of hypersensitive song, and both fought to manifest their musical identities. The comparison still wasn’t wholly accurate. Armatrading’s lyrics were broader in scope, while Mitchell tended toward the granular. If Mitchell’s brilliance was in her details, then Armatrading’s was in her angle, at a smart remove, like a caring friend watching on with the clarity of distance. It gives Armatrading’s writing a useful sweep. Two years prior, Mitchell sang, on her biggest single, “Help me.” Armatrading had another idea for floundering, inadequate, unthinking lovers: “It would help me more if you helped yourself.”

No wonder Armatrading was beloved by feminists: “Help Yourself” is the sound of a woman who will not have her time wasted, who will not be fooled. She calls out cowards who’d rather wait until the morning to tell the truth, who put convenience over compassion. There’s a comic perfection in how she uses her words to casually rebuke her subject, pitching her voice high to underscore that this person has got to get their shit together. Armatrading perfectly communicates the way that people—typically men—so often refuse to communicate. Anyone who has been on the receiving end of such emotional withholding from a supposedly addled person will hear the dry sarcasm that saturates her halting delivery: “Hold up, hold up, hold up/You’re trying to sort out your mind!” A breakdown makes way for a hollered breakthrough—“I’m going out to help myself!”—and it’s positively life-giving.

Armatrading was 25 when she opened “Love and Affection” with those 10 beguiling words about imagining a way out of loneliness. “Love and Affection” begins like a mystic English folk ballad and ends with a proclamation of “Love, love, love”—13 loves, all of them persuasive—that reaches gospel-sized grandeur. She said it was like two songs put together, which makes sense, because it’s about holding two conflicting truths: a desire for love and an inability to feel it. “If I can feel the sun in my eyes/And the rain on my face/Why can’t I feel love?” she sings. It’s tempting to read into the potential confusion underpinning such a lyric. But in 1976, it was a question with no answer. If Armatrading’s writing did share something with Mitchell, maybe it was her very willingness to look straight in the eye of the unresolvable, to hold uncertainty at the heart of her biggest song. Armatrading knew that the purpose of love was to feel changed as it took shape, and the song shape-shifts throughout, transforming like the moment of infatuation. The soulful bass vocal and sax affirm as much. It’s triumphant.

“Love and Affection” was a Top 10 hit in the UK. But in a 2019 BBC Four documentary, Armatrading spoke candidly about her label’s failure to successfully market her music. They didn’t know what to do with a Black woman wielding an acoustic Ovation guitar and singing songs that didn’t fit neatly into any single Black genre. Her music was tinged with flourishes of blues, jazz, funk, soul, but her approach, like many of her singer-songwriter contemporaries, was utterly personal. The Los Angeles label that successfully pushed the milquetoast Carpenters through the ’70s, it turns out, was not up to the task of selling a Black British original. A&M knew how to market music that slotted neatly onto the radio. Armatrading did not slot neatly onto the radio.

Joan Armatrading was still adoringly received: It went gold within a year, remained on the U.S. charts for 27 weeks, and the UK music paper Sounds named it the album of the year over Bob Dylan’s Desire and Joni Mitchell’s Hejira . That fall, when she sold out her first massive headlining date at the Hammersmith Odeon, an NME critic wrote that the audience included “more women than I've ever seen at a comparable gig anywhere.” But in the U.S., even by the time of her next great album, ’78’s To the Limit , Armatrading remained “ vastly unknown ” to young American listeners. An intensely private person, she never sought fame, even as she continued to record prolifically. As the decades progressed—no thanks to the star-making machinery—she gained increasingly greater control over her visionary pop music, turning towards new wave and reggae, producing her own albums, writing ever more daring songs, and eventually creating a recording studio in a barn where she works on her self-determined music independently. Already on Joan Armatrading , that agency resounded.

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