Joan Armatrading

Press Release

JOAN ARMATRADING CBE

NATURAL RHYTHM – Released via BMG on July 23^rd 2021

Speaking about the new single, Joan said: “Natural Rhythm’s got right inside my soul, the pulse is slow but my heart beats fast.”

Natural Rhythm is the second single from Consequences, Joan Armatrading’s recently released Top 10 album which shot straight into the UK Top10 in its first week of release.

On July 23^rd BMG release Natural Rhythm, from Consequences, following up on the highly successful first single, Already There .

Natural Rhythm is the first track on Consequences (Radio 2’s Album Of The Week week) and, as with the other nine songs, is completely written, performed and produced by Joan herself.

The new single is a jaunty upbeat song in complete contrast to the first single which described a different aspect of love, the moment when one person had already fallen in love and was waiting for their partner to catch up.

Herewith links to the Packshot and Label copy.

Packshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ynimnxhntaemle6/NATURAL%20RHYTHM.tif?dl=0

Label copy:https://www.dropbox.com/s/q1aeuaafljepiek/labelCopy_Joan_Armatrading_Natural_Rhythm_%28Single_Mix%29_Digital_One_Track_Audio_538707745_14-Jul-2021_19hr19min16sec.pdf?dl=0

Natural Rhythm, as with all Joan’s songs has a beautifully crafted lyric which denies being Star Crossed but admits to being lovers and reading each other like an open book.

Joan will be performing tracks from Consequences as well as some of her biggest hits on the live stream concert she is airing on July 31st. Tickets for access to the concert are available now from https://joan.lnk.to/Livestream and are priced at £ 24.00.

STREAMED CONCERT JULY 31^ST 2021 8.00 pm GMT

On July 31^st 2021, Joan Armatrading does something she has never done before – she streams a specially performed live concert to her fans across the world.

In 2015 Joan Armatrading decided to call quits on long haul touring, not for her any longer the grueling slog across the world for years at a time but she made it very clear she was not retiring from live work for good, just limiting the time spent on the road.

In fact she stated categorically she would never retire as she writes because she loves to and now, even in these pandemic-ridden times, a special one off concert will be globally streamed at 8pm GMT on July 31^st.

This follows the release of her new studio album, Consequences, released by BMG on June 18^thand the first much acclaimed single from it, ‘Already There’

Joan will be playing the concert with her band and the show will feature not only new material but also some of the best known and loved songs from her illustrious 50+ year career.

Always a consummate performer, this will be an event not to be missed.

Tickets for access to the concert are available now from https://joan.lnk.to/Livestream

and are priced at £ 24.00.

Under embargo until May 5^th, 2021

JOAN ARMATRADING

CONSEQUENCES

New Album released June 18, 2021 on BMG

CD, Vinyl and Digital formats

A single, Already There, from the album, will be released on May 5^th

Consequences, Joan Armatrading’s new album, is one of her most intimate and direct albums yet and one that wears its conscience and its heart on its sleeve.

Released via BMG on June 18^th, and her 22nd studio album to date, Consequences ably illustrates the fact that Joan Armatrading never likes to repeat herself. It is a very different follow up to 2018’s UK’s Top 30 hit album Not Too Far Away.

Of course the change of musical pace will come as no surprise to Joan’s many legions of world-wide fans since she has always been a pioneer in what she does – ever since the release of her first album in 1972 when her then record company, by their own admission, had little idea of how to present her, being so outside the norm. It should also be remembered that Joan Armatrading was the very first female singer/songwriter from the UK to have international success with the songs she wrote and performed.

Whether she’s playing a blinding electric guitar solo that would put many of the recognised ‘Guitar Heroes’ in the shade or focusing on specific genres like jazz or blues, Joan has always gone where the muse takes her with no predictability attached. Repetition isn’t in her lexicon, even when composing the music for The Tempest and as demonstrated on the recently screened documentary about her career, ‘Me, Myself, I’. With her heartfelt, direct and melodic trademark vocal style and lyrics that tell it exactly how it is and a strong rhythmic flow throughout, Consequences is an album of some surprises for sure but couched in a passionate intensity that benefits from listening to it straight through from start to finish. A complete aural experience and an uncompromising tour de force that engages and gets better with every listen. And while the subject matter, love in its many guises, is an intrinsically intimate topic this is not an album about Joan herself but rather, as with all her work, one written from observation and where she has created songs that people can make their own, applying the lyrics to whatever their own particular circumstances might be. The single, Already There, is a perfect example of this as it details the common experience of when one person in a couple is already in love while the other still hasn’t quite arrived yet emotionally..

Consequences comes in CD, vinyl and digital format and comprises 10 tracks in total, all written, performed and produced by Joan. A single, Already There, from the album Consequences will be released on May 5^th.

Consequences Track listing:

* Natural Rhythm

* Already There

* To Be Loved

* Better Life

* Glorious Madness

* Like

* Consequences

* Sunrise (instrumental)

* Think About Me

* To Anyone Who Will Listen

Pre-order links- live from May 5th:

Consequences : https://Joan.lnk.to/ConsequencesPR

Already There: https://Joan.lnk.to/AlreadyTherePR

Since the release of her last album, Joan has been made a CBE (from an MBE) become a Trustee of

The Princes Trust, been awarded an Ivor Novello Fellowship, and received an Americana Lifetime Achievement Award plus a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women of the Year. Joan completed a major sold-out UK and American tour in 2018 following a massive 235 date world tour in 2014/15.

Among many other accolades she is the first female British artist to debut at number 1 in the Billboard Blues chart, where she stayed for 12 weeks and was the first ever female UK artist to be nominated for a Grammy in the blues category. Although touring is off the table for the immediate future, Joan will be giving a special digitally streamed concert in support of the album, later this year in August. Details of this to be announced nearer the time.

www.joanarmatrading.com

“I LIKE IT WHEN WE’RE TOGETHER”

First single to be released on March 22nd from new BMG album ‘Not Too Far Away’

JOAN ARMATRADING has been making glorious music for over 45 years. She has the gift of story-telling and the talent to combine it with melodies that transcend the generation divide. A fact that is demonstrated superbly on her new single ‘I Like It When We’re Together’.

‘I Like It When We’re Together’ is released in digital format only on BMG on March 22nd.

The song gets straight to the heart of the matter. There’s no shilly-shallying with this message, it’s clear and to the point. Its very directness takes it from the personal to the universal, it’s a sentiment everyone has felt (and sometimes wished they’d expressed more often).

In Joan’s own words “It’s a song that I hope will bring people together. This is why we are on this planet after all. It’s to like being with one another.”

The positive message of the lyrics is echoed by the jauntiness of the music yet there is still an element of the poignant, something Joan Armatrading does so well.

‘I Like It When We’re Together’ is the first track on her new album – ‘Not Too Far Away’ out on May 18th. The single received its first exclusive play on the Ken Bruce’s Radio 2 Show on Wednesday March 21st. It provides the perfect taster of treats to come.

Since her 1973 Outstanding New Artist award, Joan has received award after award. Three times Grammy nominated, two times Brit nominated, winner of an Ivor Novello award and a BASCA Gold Badge, Radio 2’s Lifetime Achievement Folk Award and MMF’s Artist’s Artist Award, she has had accolade after accolade. Given an MBE in 2001, she holds six Honorary degrees and her own BA (achieved while on tour) as well as being voted one of VH1’s Most Influential Women In Rock.

The album will be supported by live dates in America in May and a major tour of the UK in September. For dates/ticket information please go to www.joanarmatrading.com

‘I Like It When We’re Together’ can be purchased from here.

For interviews with Joan Armatrading and selected music tracks for airplay use please contact Judy Totton Publicity: 020 7371 8158/8159. judy@judytotton.com

Biography

“I write,” says Joan Armatrading, “because I love it.”

Joan Armatrading is an artist who has always stayed true to herself and love, as another famous person once wrote, Love is not love if it alters when it alteration finds.

Grounded in her music and confident in her abilities, Joan has never buckled to current trends and genres in over five decades of superlative music-making. ‘Influential’ and ‘pioneering’ are just two of the epithets that have been rightly attributed to her.

The very first British female singer/songwriter to gain international success, Joan has won accolade after accolade. In 2001 she was honoured by an MBE from the Queen, since upgraded to a CBE and she has even received the keys to Sydney along the way.

In 1973 she was named Outstanding New Artist in Music Week – and she’s never looked back.

With 22 superlative albums to her credit, and a new one about to be released world-wide on BMG, Joan’s subtle and sublime music has touched millions of people all over the world.

Three times Grammy nominated, two times Brit nominated, winner of a coveted Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection, and winner of the BASCA Gold Badge Award in 2012, it is a recognition that continues to this day. 2012 saw Joan receive the British Folk Festival Award, 2016 Radio 2’s Folk Award for Lifetime Achievement and, in the same year, the MMF’s Artist’s Artist Award. The standout achievements are many.

In 2007 Joan became the first female British artist to debut at number 1 in the Billboard Blues chart and also the first ever female UK artist to be nominated for a Grammy in the blues category.

Her CD, ‘Into The Blues’, remained at No 1 for 12 consecutive weeks. Joan toured the world in support of it and also released a deluxe edition of CD with DVD which showed her at her very best, live, on stage, performing music from across her career.

In 2014/2015 Joan undertook her last massive world tour – it covered an incredible 235 dates with most selling out as soon as they went on sale. Joan made it clear, however, she was not leaving the road for good – ‘I’ll never retire” – just withdraw from year long excursions’ she said.

In 2016 she composed the music to the acclaimed Donmar Warehouse production of The Tempest which played both in London and New York. Joan Armatrading has come a long way since her birth in the West Indies and her upbringing in Birmingham, UK.

Born in St Kitts on December 9th 1950 and moving to England when she was seven, Joan took her first musical steps on her mother’s piano. Although her father had a guitar it was strictly out of bounds so when Joan saw one for £3 in a pawn shop window she pestered her parents to buy it. Her mother bartered two old prams they no longer used in exchange. Joan soon taught herself to play and began writing her own songs at the age of 14.

Joan Armatrading’s debut album, ‘Whatever’s For Us’, released on Cube Records in 1972 and produced by the great Gus Dudgeon, was critically acclaimed and saw Joan voted as best newcomer. In 1974, she signed to A&M world-wide and a whole plethora of classic and memorable songs followed – “Love and Affection”, “Down To Zero”, “Drop the Pilot”, “Me Myself I” to name but a few.

Known as a true craftsman, Joan’s distinctive vocals and consummate musicianship – she has arranged as well as played nearly every instrument herself on the last five albums – have led to widespread and, perhaps most importantly, consistent critical acclaim. Effortlessly eclectic, her sound has ranged from jazz to soul to sophisticated pop, all driven by her passionate guitar. Indeed, she was the first non-jazz artist to play in London’s Ronnie Scott’s main room.

In 2003 Joan released a seminal album, “Lovers Speak”. All 14 tracks were self-penned as usual but, with the exception of drums and horns, on this album she played every instrument as well. The CD combined strong upbeat melodies, riffs that stuck in your head and passionate, soulful ballads. It was the result of a long-held desire to make a truly solo album.

In musical terms Joan Armatrading has achieved far more than most performers ever dream of. She has received countless gold, platinum and silver discs and figured large in VH1’s Top 100 voted poll ‘The Most Influential Woman In Rock’. She has continued to do what is important to her….and that has included other pursuits.

After years of committed studying, Joan achieved a goal she had held since childhood, she gained her BA Honours after studying history from the Open University – a feat very few other working artists would attempt, let alone whilst on tour. (She took her final exam the day after the last gig of her 2000 dates).

Other educational laurels include an Honorary Fellowship of the John Moores University of Liverpool (2000) and an Honorary Fellowship of Northampton University (2003). She has also received a Doctorate in Music from the University of Birmingham (2002), an Honorary degree from Aston University (2006), an Honorary Degree from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (2008) and an Honorary Degree from the University of the West Indies (2013).

In 2008, one month from her 58th birthday, Joan ran her first marathon. She ran the New York marathon of 26.24 miles and helped to raise £76,000 for her chosen charity.

A long time Ambassador and performer for the Prince’s Trust, she lends her support to various charities across the world. In December 1998 she released a CD, “Lullabies With A Difference” in aid of PACES, a charity for children with Cerebral Palsy. For five years she was President of the charitable and prestigious Women Of The Year Lunch.

The range of Joan’s involvement with music has also extended to media. Not only has she presented several series’ for BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4 but in 2009 she decided to interview five other guitarists for the BBC, discussing their styles and influences. The musicians ranged from the distinctive rocker, Mark Knopfler, to classical John Williams, blues artist Bonnie Raitt, veteran folk artist Bert Jansch and Bloc Party’s Russell Lissack.

In 2010 Joan released ‘This Charming Life’, another fine work which headed straight to number 1 in the Amazon overall download chart. A collection of 11 new compositions that saw Joan return to a more rock/pop format, it appealed to fans old and new. Never one to stand still however, two years later Joan released ‘Starlight’, a jazz flavoured album which highlighted her skill as an adept and talented guitarist in her own right.

In 2012 she launched a ‘Local Talent’ initiative which saw her personally interview and choose 56 young artists for support slots on her nationwide dates. A double album of that talent was later released with several of the young musicians going on to achieve significant solo success.

One country that has always been close to Joan’s heart is South Africa. A big admirer of Nelson Mandela, she twice performed for him, first on his 70th birthday at Wembley and then again in 2001 when she was asked by the LSE to perform “The Messenger”, the tribute song she had been commissioned to compose for him. Along with the crowd, Mr Mandela danced throughout the whole performance.

In 2018 Joan Armatrading re-signed to BMG. Her first album for the label was the 10 track ‘Not Too Far Away’, released that May.

Since the release of that penultimate album in 2018 , Joan has been made a CBE (from an MBE) become a Trustee of The Princes Trust, been awarded an Ivor Novello Fellowship, and received an Americana Lifetime Achievement Award plus a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women of the Year. Joan completed a major sold-out UK and American tour in 2018 following the massive 235 date world tour in 2014/15.

Now in 2021 her new CD & Vinyl release “Consequences” comes in CD, vinyl and digital format and comprises 10 tracks in total, all written, performed and produced by Joan. A single from the album, Already There, was released early in may 2021 with a live streamed global concert scheduled for July 31^st.

Of course the change of musical pace comes as no surprise to Joan’s many legions of world-wide fans since she has always been a pioneer in what she does – ever since the release of her first album in 1972 when her then record company, by their own admission, had little idea of how to present her, being so outside the norm. It should also be remembered that Joan Armatrading was the very first female singer/songwriter from the UK to have international success with the songs she wrote and performed.

Whether playing a ferocious electric guitar solo that would put many of the recognised ‘Guitar Heroes’ in the shade or focusing on specific genres like jazz or blues, Joan has always gone where the muse takes her with no predictability attached. Repetition isn’t in her lexicon, even when composing the music for The Tempest and as demonstrated on the recently screened documentary of her career, ‘Me, Myself, I’. With her heartfelt direct and melodic trademark vocal style and lyrics that tell it exactly how it is and a strong rhythmic flow throughout, Consequences is an album of some surprises for sure but couched in a passionate intensity that benefits from listening to it straight through from start to finish. Joan always writes from observation and to create songs that people can make their own, applying the lyrics to whatever their own particular circumstances might be.