Biography
Beverley Knight: Back and giving it 100%.
100% soul. 100% talent. 100% commitment. These are the things we’ve come to expect from the reigning UK queen of soul, who over the course of 15 years of has amassed over one million album sales, performed countless sell out shows and made scene-stealing collaborations with everyone from Take That to Prince, taking in Carlos Santana, Chris Martin and Stevie Wonder along the way.
And this time – with the forthcoming release of her sixth studio album ‘100%’ – on her very own label, Hurricane Records, you can add 100% control too, on an album that proves the full range of Miss Knight’s vocal and songwriting ability - from anthemic modern R&B and explosive rock-edged funk to intense orchestral soul balladry and beyond.
“In lots of ways it’s become more than just the title of an album, it’s really become my attitude for this new phase of my career,” says Beverley, looking svelte and stunning in figure-hugging jeans and killer Alejandro Ingelmo heels. “Everything has to be 100% on point or it gets left behind.”
“And now it’s my own label, it’s so much easier. There’s so much red tape at major labels, every part of the process is a negotiation. Now if I want to work with someone, I don’t need to worry about label politics, I can just pick the phone myself and dial them up.”
Judging by the names collaborating with Ms Knight on 100%, her phone’s been ringing off the hook. Some of the biggest names in the business have lined up to work with Beverley including legendary R&B producers Jam & Lewis (the force behind Janet Jackson’s breakthrough success through to million-sellers from everyone from Mariah Carey to Usher), the mighty Chaka Khan, original Bee Gee brother Robin Gibb, and her old songwriting buddies Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams) and Jimmy Hogarth (Duffy, Adele) as well as chart-topping songsmith Amanda Ghost.
“Me and Amanda have wanted to write together for years,” says Beverley of the co-writer of hits like James Blunt’s ‘You’re Beautiful’ and Beyoncé & Shakira’s ‘Beautiful Liar.’ “I knew we could come up with something special.”
She’s not wrong. Their song ‘Beautiful Night’ – the lead single from 100% - is an utterly anthemic, state of the art pop-R&B record that’s bound to turn a few heads in perceptions of what Beverley is all about.
“That’s why I wanted it as the lead single, absolutely,” says Knight. “Coming after my last record, Music City Soul, which was completely old school in concept, I wanted something that wasn’t just contemporary and hooky, but had real weight to it as well. A lot of people will take the lyric as the end of a relationship, which is fine, but it works on a deeper level too. Both me and Amanda had suffered losses of loved ones and wanted to celebrate their lives. So on one level the song’s completely joyous, but underneath there’s this bittersweet sadness to it.”
In fact Beverley reveals a range of emotions through the album’s 13 tracks – from the unbridled joy of the dancefloor missile ‘Breakout’ (“I was thinking about House of Knight with all my divas behind me on that one. Okay, I can’t vogue to save my life, but in my head Paris was totally burning!”) to vulnerability (the sparse, utterly beautiful ‘Bare’) to defiance (the uncompromising self-belief of ‘Square Peg’) and submission (a gorgeous, creamy take on the Bee Gees’ ‘Too Much Heaven’ anointed by an appearance from Robin Gibb himself).
There’s always a strong element of biography to Beverley’s compositions and no more so than on the mighty ‘Soul Survivor’ where she is joined by the force of nature that is Chaka Khan.
“When me and Guy (Chambers) first wrote that we thought ‘oh Tina Turner might like this’ – then I thought ‘sorry Tina, I’m keeping it for myself!’. I recorded it alone initially, but I knew there was another dimension to it – and Chaka was that dimension. She’s incredible.”
Clearly both women could relate to a song about keeping your head high and pushing on, sometimes against the odds.
“Everyone knows there are ebbs and flows in a career in the music industry. People fall in and out of favour all the time. The thing that gets you through is the love of what you do. It’s 15 years since my first single (the Brit swing classic ‘Flavour Of The Old School’) and now I’m more focused than ever.”
It¹s been quite a ride for Beverley since those early days. Try one platinum and 4 gold albums, 3 MOBO awards, Brit and Mercury nomination and an MBE for a starters. And that's before you get to shared stages with the likes of Prince (Beverley performed with him on several of his sell out 21 Nights dates), performances for the likes of Nelson Mandela and Quincy Jones, and racking up 14 Top 40 hits proving commercial longevity and British black music needed be mutually exclusive terms. By the time of 2006’s platinum-shifting ‘Voice - The Best of Beverley Knight’ she had won over thousands of new fans touring with Take That on their comeback arena tour (she more than filled Lulu’s shoes) and appeared (somewhat reluctantly) on hit BBC sing-off show Just The Two of Us.
This year, Beverley can add a new string to a bow that also includes radio presenter (BBC2’s Beverley’s Gospel Nights) and philanthropist (she’s a active campaigner for Christian Aid and Terrence Higgins Trust and outspoken in her position on racism and homophobia) with the launch of her own cosmetics range: ‘K by Beverley Knight’.
“I wouldn’t do something for vanity, it had to be about supplying a real need, and there’s not many widely available make-up ranges that cater for black skin,” says Beverley. “So I was involved in every step of the process – the formulations, the packaging everything. I had to own it.”
And one song that’s sure to own airwaves soon is the delicious percolating groove of prospective future-single ‘In Your Shoes’, cleverly sampling Orange Juice’s 80s gem ‘Rip It Up.’
“That’s a funky song for a bloody punk band!’ laughs Beverley. “I’ve worshipped that song forever and always thought one day it would be great to sample it, and now all things 80s are oh-so-cool it makes more sense then ever”.
Not only does it possess the inherent funkiness of Beverley’s best singles, it’s also about shoes. A seemingly trivial point perhaps, but anyone who knows anything about Beverley will know there are two things she loves. Prince and shoes. (She even namechecks her Jimmy Choos elsewhere on the new album).
“ Oh yes, shoes are huge. Everyone who knows me knows I don’t do drugs, I don’t get wasted, it’s just not me. Shoes, that I do,” she laughs. “If I could buy a pair of shoes a day, I would and I’d never run out of shoes to buy.”
100% - Track by Track review by Beverley Knight
Beautiful Night
The first single is about celebrating and holding dear the last moments you share with someone you love, before you ultimately have to say goodbye. Both I and Amanda Ghost who was my co-writer, knew exactly how that felt as we had lost very dear friends in our lives. I didn't want a morbid song, it needed to feel like a lullaby, and production duo The Rural nailed the strong yet gentle nature of the melody and lyric with a simple beat and piano riff.
Breakout
I co wrote this with DJ Munro. It's a "go out and have a great time" song!!! I wanted an anti-credit crunch, anti wallflower, feel good track, I think it hits the spot! It's the first disco-eque song I've ever done.
In Your Shoes
Produced by DJ Munro, it features a sample from the brilliant track "Rip It Up" that I have loved from childhood by Scottish band Orange Juice. I recently met Edwyn Collins, lead singer and composer of the band who went on to have huge success as a solo artist, and he loves what I have done with it!! It is total guitar led funk with a wicked sense of humour in the lyric "get yourself a life - and make it work!" In Your Shoes is about people who focus their envy of your progress onto you and your life, instead of concentrating on their own journey.
100%
The title track is about my total commitment to my boyfriend, something I haven't always done if I'm truthful, but this feels right. 100% has also become the mantra for my commitment to my career - I always give 100% of myself to music! I co wrote it with the brilliant Guy Chambers, he had recorded a beautiful instrumental piece with his musicians, I heard it and converted it into a groove ballad. Produced by Jonathan Quarmby and Kevin Bacon, it has the most stunning string, horn and flute arrangements. Killer.
Every Step
I was lucky and privileged enough to work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who are one of the most enduring, revered and successful R&B producers/songwriters in music history. This was the only overseas writing trip i made, the rest of the album was written in the UK. I was mindful of the fact that I was writing with some of my heroes, and so decided to write a lyric that would sum up how all the years of work had "brought me to the place where I stand today". I had no regrets about the decisions I had made over the years and I was proud to have lived "every step as me". The sound of the track is uplifting with the trademark Jam & Lewis double octave piano signature at the top of the song, and has a "grown up R&B" feel.
Soul Survivor
Soul Survivor is a rocking track produced by Bacon and Quarmby. I wrote it with Guy Chambers, at first intending to give it to Tina Turner as a testament to her years of staying in the music industry. I loved it so much I decided to keep it, but felt after I had sung it down that a legendary voice could add something extra special to it. Enter the incredible Chaka Khan who flew into London to perform the track as a duet with me in the studio. It was utterly fantastic! We both see ourselves as soul survivors; we have rode through the ups and downs in our musical careers, and we are both still here and loving it!!
Turned to stone
This is a song I wrote from the sad memory of a previous relationship. Sometimes as a relationship reaches it's end, you can become strangers, not even speaking. As though made of stone. Although it has a sad lyric, the feel of the track is very upbeat, especially when it hits the chorus! There is a recurring guitar signature throughout which is very sing-a-long, in fact I join in with it at the final chorus.
Bare
This as the title suggests is a stripped down semi live production of a 6/8 classic time signature soul ballad. I wrote this with Jamie Hartman of Ben's Brother. The key is deliberately low, as it produces a warmer, richer sound from my vocal in the verses. It is a song with a journey, it crescendos three quarters of the way through and then falls away right at the end. It is about the fear of opening up your heart entirely to someone you know you are in love with, because it is at that point you become the most vunerable. I went through this last year in the earlier stages of my relationship with my boyfriend. We've all been there.....
Square Peg
I wrote this with Paul Simm, who had coincidentally worked with The Rural and trained them in music engineering! They in turn, produced it. It has a haunting and raw quality to the production, with a really weighty beat and again led with a piano riff, and rises and falls with a string section. This is the most open and honest song I have ever written bar none, and while committing the lyric to paper was unbelievably hard, the lyrics took me around 30 minutes to complete. I am very self aware, the music industry has that effect on anyone who enters it. I wrote square peg about the fact that I don't easily fit any of the stereotypes associated with musicians,especially "urban" (black) artists, and as a result many in the media do not know what to make of me at all.
Gold Chain
Another Amanda Ghost co-write, it has a feel of an up to date version of a 70's blaxploitation movie, not dissimilar to something you would hear on a Jay-Z album. Gold Chain is an assertive song about not treating me as you would a gold chain, an accessory to be stared at and then discarded on a whim. The Rural once again took control of the production and created that movie soundtrack feel, adding horn samples and stabs, wa-wa guitar and the bouncing double-time hi-hat which gives it that 70s feel.
Money Back
This the last of the three songs produced by DJ Munro. The message is simple that we have all stated at one time in our lives, "I want my money back!" I am talking in this case about a relationship where the trust has evaporated and consequently, so has the whole point of the relationship. I'm asking for all the time, care, work ("money") invested in that relationship to be handed back! The production as with many of the songs on this album has a laidback, joyful, summer - R&B feel, quite the opposite of the lyric. This is also one of the few songs in my career (along with Gold, Remember Me and Salvador) where you can here me playing keys!! They were from the original demo and ended up staying on the finished production!
Painted Pony
I wrote this with Craig Wiseman, one of the world's most successful songwriters and co-writer of my song "Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda". It's another of the songs I have written in which I speak of how it has felt to be a recognisable name or face in entertainment, and how it can have a damaging effect on relationships when my lifestyle and specifically its demands on my time, is just not understood. This the last Rural production on the album, and I remember speaking to the lads explaining the concept and the vision I had for the production. I wanted them to create a " little girl's musicbox" feel, the kind that when you open it a ballerina twirls around until the music slows down or the lid is shut. They completely captured that sound.
Too Much Heaven
Too Much Heaven is a classic Bee Gees ballad that was a hit in 1978. I remember begging my sister to buy it and I would as a five year old, sing along to the record, making up my own words as I didn't know the lyrics and was too young to have understood them. I knew that melody inside and out though!! That melody stuck in my head and my heart and never left. It is simply stunning. I was asked by Robin Gibb earlier this year to sing two Bee Gee songs in a charity concert he was hosting. I chose Too Much Heaven as one of the songs. Robin enjoyed it so much that he suggested I record it which I did - with Mr Gibb himself featuring on backgrounds!!!! Again produced by Bacon and Quarmby, they gave the song a fresher sound without compromising the lushness of the original.
The first single is about celebrating and holding dear the last moments you share with someone you love, before you ultimately have to say goodbye. Both I and Amanda Ghost who was my co-writer, knew exactly how that felt as we had lost very dear friends in our lives. I didn't want a morbid song, it needed to feel like a lullaby, and production duo The Rural nailed the strong yet gentle nature of the melody and lyric with a simple beat and piano riff.
Breakout
I co wrote this with DJ Munro. It's a "go out and have a great time" song!!! I wanted an anti-credit crunch, anti wallflower, feel good track, I think it hits the spot! It's the first disco-eque song I've ever done.
In Your Shoes
Produced by DJ Munro, it features a sample from the brilliant track "Rip It Up" that I have loved from childhood by Scottish band Orange Juice. I recently met Edwyn Collins, lead singer and composer of the band who went on to have huge success as a solo artist, and he loves what I have done with it!! It is total guitar led funk with a wicked sense of humour in the lyric "get yourself a life - and make it work!" In Your Shoes is about people who focus their envy of your progress onto you and your life, instead of concentrating on their own journey.
100%
The title track is about my total commitment to my boyfriend, something I haven't always done if I'm truthful, but this feels right. 100% has also become the mantra for my commitment to my career - I always give 100% of myself to music! I co wrote it with the brilliant Guy Chambers, he had recorded a beautiful instrumental piece with his musicians, I heard it and converted it into a groove ballad. Produced by Jonathan Quarmby and Kevin Bacon, it has the most stunning string, horn and flute arrangements. Killer.
Every Step
I was lucky and privileged enough to work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who are one of the most enduring, revered and successful R&B producers/songwriters in music history. This was the only overseas writing trip i made, the rest of the album was written in the UK. I was mindful of the fact that I was writing with some of my heroes, and so decided to write a lyric that would sum up how all the years of work had "brought me to the place where I stand today". I had no regrets about the decisions I had made over the years and I was proud to have lived "every step as me". The sound of the track is uplifting with the trademark Jam & Lewis double octave piano signature at the top of the song, and has a "grown up R&B" feel.
Soul Survivor
Soul Survivor is a rocking track produced by Bacon and Quarmby. I wrote it with Guy Chambers, at first intending to give it to Tina Turner as a testament to her years of staying in the music industry. I loved it so much I decided to keep it, but felt after I had sung it down that a legendary voice could add something extra special to it. Enter the incredible Chaka Khan who flew into London to perform the track as a duet with me in the studio. It was utterly fantastic! We both see ourselves as soul survivors; we have rode through the ups and downs in our musical careers, and we are both still here and loving it!!
Turned to stone
This is a song I wrote from the sad memory of a previous relationship. Sometimes as a relationship reaches it's end, you can become strangers, not even speaking. As though made of stone. Although it has a sad lyric, the feel of the track is very upbeat, especially when it hits the chorus! There is a recurring guitar signature throughout which is very sing-a-long, in fact I join in with it at the final chorus.
Bare
This as the title suggests is a stripped down semi live production of a 6/8 classic time signature soul ballad. I wrote this with Jamie Hartman of Ben's Brother. The key is deliberately low, as it produces a warmer, richer sound from my vocal in the verses. It is a song with a journey, it crescendos three quarters of the way through and then falls away right at the end. It is about the fear of opening up your heart entirely to someone you know you are in love with, because it is at that point you become the most vunerable. I went through this last year in the earlier stages of my relationship with my boyfriend. We've all been there.....
Square Peg
I wrote this with Paul Simm, who had coincidentally worked with The Rural and trained them in music engineering! They in turn, produced it. It has a haunting and raw quality to the production, with a really weighty beat and again led with a piano riff, and rises and falls with a string section. This is the most open and honest song I have ever written bar none, and while committing the lyric to paper was unbelievably hard, the lyrics took me around 30 minutes to complete. I am very self aware, the music industry has that effect on anyone who enters it. I wrote square peg about the fact that I don't easily fit any of the stereotypes associated with musicians,especially "urban" (black) artists, and as a result many in the media do not know what to make of me at all.
Gold Chain
Another Amanda Ghost co-write, it has a feel of an up to date version of a 70's blaxploitation movie, not dissimilar to something you would hear on a Jay-Z album. Gold Chain is an assertive song about not treating me as you would a gold chain, an accessory to be stared at and then discarded on a whim. The Rural once again took control of the production and created that movie soundtrack feel, adding horn samples and stabs, wa-wa guitar and the bouncing double-time hi-hat which gives it that 70s feel.
Money Back
This the last of the three songs produced by DJ Munro. The message is simple that we have all stated at one time in our lives, "I want my money back!" I am talking in this case about a relationship where the trust has evaporated and consequently, so has the whole point of the relationship. I'm asking for all the time, care, work ("money") invested in that relationship to be handed back! The production as with many of the songs on this album has a laidback, joyful, summer - R&B feel, quite the opposite of the lyric. This is also one of the few songs in my career (along with Gold, Remember Me and Salvador) where you can here me playing keys!! They were from the original demo and ended up staying on the finished production!
Painted Pony
I wrote this with Craig Wiseman, one of the world's most successful songwriters and co-writer of my song "Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda". It's another of the songs I have written in which I speak of how it has felt to be a recognisable name or face in entertainment, and how it can have a damaging effect on relationships when my lifestyle and specifically its demands on my time, is just not understood. This the last Rural production on the album, and I remember speaking to the lads explaining the concept and the vision I had for the production. I wanted them to create a " little girl's musicbox" feel, the kind that when you open it a ballerina twirls around until the music slows down or the lid is shut. They completely captured that sound.
Too Much Heaven
Too Much Heaven is a classic Bee Gees ballad that was a hit in 1978. I remember begging my sister to buy it and I would as a five year old, sing along to the record, making up my own words as I didn't know the lyrics and was too young to have understood them. I knew that melody inside and out though!! That melody stuck in my head and my heart and never left. It is simply stunning. I was asked by Robin Gibb earlier this year to sing two Bee Gee songs in a charity concert he was hosting. I chose Too Much Heaven as one of the songs. Robin enjoyed it so much that he suggested I record it which I did - with Mr Gibb himself featuring on backgrounds!!!! Again produced by Bacon and Quarmby, they gave the song a fresher sound without compromising the lushness of the original.
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