BEVERLEY Knight is the undisputed queen of soul in the UK, with one of the most famous voices in British Music.

Having taken five years off to conquer the West End with leading roles in musicals such as The Bodyguard, the songstress is now back with her eighth studio album.

Last year she marked 20 years since the release of her debut B Funk and will now be embarking on her first tour in half a decade to celebrate the release of Soulsville out on June 10.

Ahead of her performance at the Brighton Dome, Henry Holloway talks to the singer about life in the West End, visiting Memphis, and her storied career.

This is your first tour in five years, are you excited to be back out on the road?

It is mad. I am very excited, it’s been a long long time. I would never have had such a gap but I have been so busy doing all these West End shows, but it is nice to be back doing what I do.

What sort of things have you been doing to prepare for the tour?

The set list has been the trickiest part because I am trying to cover 20 years’ worth of material, plus the new album, plus having a nod to what I have been doing in the West End, so there is a lot of ground together. But it has been great and we are all ready to go.

Comparing touring concert shows to working in the West End, what different skills do you use?

I am a musician first so that is always what i’ll love and what is the purest expression for me. But also doing the musicals it’s a different kind of high, it’s more of a team high. When you are on stage as yourself, its you, everyone is chanting your name and it is all about you. But when you are doing the musicals on stage with everyone else its kind of the feeling you get it when you are in a club and absolutely banger hits and you all have the same feeling at the same time, its more that kind of group experience, group euphoria, and that is a wonderful feeling. But I am first and foremost a musician, and that will always be my first love.

You do a bit of musical theatre when you were younger, so is it something you had always wanted to go back and do?

It wasn’t my intention you know. I hadn’t intended to do this, its just life is funny in the way stuff turns out. I was happily writing songs thinking it was going to be the foundation for album number eight back in the end of 2012, approaching my 40th, and I was thinking ‘yep here comes another album’. Then boom in comes a script for this musical called Memphis and I saw it and the producers wanted me to do it and I agreed to, and then during that time The Bodyguard wanted to do a cast change and something inside said ‘Bev you should go for this, it would be good for you’. So I made enquiries about how to do the audition, and the next thing you know I got the role. I had not set out to do but it just rolled and I rolled with it.

Did you have any trepidations about going from soul singer to stage show star?

I wanted people to understand I was doing this with sincerity. A role like The Bodyguard is not the easiest to cast because you have to have someone who can sing the songs, but considerately sing the songs, more than Whitney ever sang them actually. But from the producers point of view they had made the right musical choice but the question wrong was can I act, so I thought all I can do is give an honest portrayal of who I think Rachel Marron is, and I know enough Rachel Marrons, I have got enough in common with Rachel Marron and happily for me and the show it worked out and set me on this course to where I am now. So I am grateful.

Between the shows you have been writing album number eight, how did you find the time?

I have been finding any spare minute I have had to try and fit it in. It is been no mean feat trying to get this album written while on stage six nights a week, not straightforward. But really wanted to do it and the thing which set the album off and really made me think I have impetus and drive to get things done was when I went to Memphis to research for the role of Felicia Farrell. Going to Memphis was a pilgrimage and visiting the home of rock and roll was insane to me, when I came back I felt like a different person and I was like ‘right I know exactly what I want to write about and where I want to go musically with this record’. I just set about doing it in any time or little window I had to do it.

What sort of things did you do in Memphis?

You have to go, trust me. I went to Sun Studio where Elvis famously recorded, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkin, all these guys, people like Howlin’ Wolf and Ike Turner. I played a little on Jerry Lee LEwis’s piano, I only wish I could sound like him on the piano. I went to the National Civil Rights Museums which as you can imagine was harrowing but also kind of journey in how far American politics and American social rights have come. It also explained actually where all the music comes from and why. All this racial tension on the surface and then you have the white and black people getting together making music together. Then I went to Graceland and had a good old time looking at Elvis’s shag pile carpets and stuff. But the thing that smashed it for me was going to Royal Studios were Al Green recorded and other people like that, and walking in that place which has not changed a lick since 1970 and it is still an operational studio. In fact Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars did Uptown Funk there. I thought ‘I need to record in this place, in this exact vocal booth, this is where I need to be standing recording my album’. When I went back home it was all as clear as day. And happily that is exactly what I did do.

20 years, 7 albums, 28 singles, an MBE, it is quite an incredible career, upon reflection did you really ever think you would come this far?

I always hoped that I would sing forever, until there was no more breath in me. But if you would have had asked me if I would have the kind career I have got I would have had no idea. I never thought I would have had a career where I could see so many things, be in so many great places, sing with some of my heroes and be still relevant after 20 years. I am so glad and so grateful I have the career I have got. It means everything to me that people still care.

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