SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2017JERSEY EVENING POST36

The Weekend The Big Read

‘‘BARRY Gibb. Jimi Hendrix. Mick Jagger.Tina Turner. Eric Clapton. The list ofmusicians with whom PP Arnold hasworked throughout her career reads likea Who’s Who of rock and roll royalty.But then, there are many music fans –this writer included – who would arguethat Patricia Ann Cole herself deserves tobe ranked as a bona fide music legend.Now in her eighth decade, the LosAngeles-born soul singer first found famein the 1960s, when The First Cut is theDeepest and Angel of the Morning landedher in the UK Top 20 and made her one ofthe most recognisable faces of London inthe Swinging Sixties.Since then, she has recorded alongsidesome of the biggest names in the business,from Peter Gabriel and The KLF toPrimal Scream. Those glorious femalevocals that light up The Small Faces’Itchycoo Park (‘It’s all too beautiful’)? Yep,that’s her, too.Today, Patricia is enjoying the latestof several career resurgences, with anautobiography on the horizon and anational tour in full swing.‘We did our first gig in Skegness lastweek at the Northern Soul Weekenderfestival,’ says the 70-year-old, chattingover the phone from her UK home.‘[Ocean Colour Scene guitarist] SteveCradock has been kind enough to lend mehis band for the tour and they’re reallygreat musicians. We spent a whole weekputting the set together before the festivaland it went down a storm. We’re reallylooking forward to coming to Jersey.’The concert will be held at the OperaHouse on Friday and will see Patricia

singing all of her best-known songs. Moreexciting still, she and the band will alsobe performing tracks from her legendary‘lost’ album, Turning Tide, which isfinally due an official release in October –almost five decades after it was recorded.‘We’re doing six tunes from TurningTide in the show,’ she says. ‘I’m reallypleased that the album is finally beingreleased because I’ve believed in itforever. I’ve never given up on it and I’ve

kept fighting for many years for it to comeout.’Produced by Barry Gibb, TurningTide was intended to cement Patricia’sreputation as one of the most daring andexciting female soul singers of the 1960s,but instead it was unceremoniouslyshelved as a result of – as she puts it – ‘awhole lot of politics’.‘As an artist, I have always tended towork with producers who are artiststhemselves,’ she says, ‘but this meansthat if they have things going on in theircamp, then it affects whatever I’m doingwith them.‘At the time that Barry Gibb and I wereworking on Turning Tide – that periodfrom ’68 to ’69 – the Bee Gees weren’trecording together as a band, but Barrywanted to keep working.’The pair had met through Patricia’s ex-husband, JimMorris, who worked withRobert Stigwood, the late RSO recordlabel founder and long-time manager andproducer of the Bee Gees (he would laterprove instrumental in catapulting the BeeGees to global fame).‘Barry had wanted to meet mebecause he liked my version of To LoveSomebody,’ says Patricia. ‘We wereboth at a crossroads at the time. I didn’thave a record label – my previous label,Immediate Records, had folded – and Ididn’t know where I was going. And asthey say in this business: you’re onlyas good as your last record. So I wassearching to find myself a newmusicalhome.’It was at this uncertain time that Barryand Patricia began working together on

Turning Tide.‘To be honest, Robert Stigwood wasn’tas excited about Barry working withme as Barry was,’ laughs Patricia.‘Understandably, he just wanted Barry toget back together with his brothers. Buthe also wanted to keep Barry happy andso he signed me up.’Together, Barry and Patricia beganlaying down tracks for the album, thebulk of which were written by Gibb.But then Stigwood – fearful that RSORecords was heading for the same fate asImmediate – insisted that the Bee Geesreunite and, as a result, Patricia’s albumwas postponed indefinitely.The Turning Tide saga didn’t quiteend there, however. Although initiallyit seemed that Gibb’s departure hadsounded the death knell for the album,it soon transpired that another musiclegend was interested in working withPatricia: step forward, Mr Eric Clapton.‘At that time, Eric was getting readyto go on the road to do the Delaney &Bonnie & Friends tour, along with GeorgeHarrison and Billy Preston,’ says Patricia.‘Stigwood landed me the opening slot onthe tour and it went really well.’After the tour, Eric and Patricia enteredthe studio to resume work on TurningTide and recorded a number of grittycover versions of songs that were popularat the time.‘We did Medicated Goo and Brand NewDay and the Stones’ You Can’t Always GetWhat YouWant,’ she says. ‘These trackswere really important for me becausethey connected me to my gospel r ’n’ broots. Pop singer PP Arnold was just pop,

Soul survivor fromthe Swinging SixtiesSoul singer PP Arnold is performing at the Jersey Opera House onFriday to celebrate both 50 years in the music business and thebelated release of her legendary ‘lost’ album, Turning Tide. She speaksto Tom Ogg about her poor upbringing, auditioning for Ike andTina Turner and hanging out in London with Jimi Hendrix

nPP Arnold at the height of her success in the 1960s Picture: GERED MANKOWITZ PP Arnold today Picture: GERED MANKOWITZ

I’m an Americansoul singer who wasproduced by Britishproducers and in aBritish way, and somy sound is totallydifferent to Motown orany of the Americanstuff. I think thatreally makes mymusic quite unique