Joan Armatrading

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.