Affirm? It’s to assert strongly, or make a formal, positive declaration (Oxford English Dictionary).
And in the case of Beverley Knight’s much-anticipated fourth album, the titular Affirmation is that one of the finest singer-songwriting talents in any genre of British music has now entered her prime. In collaboration with writer-producers including Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams), Peter Vettese (Annie Lennox) and Felix Howard (Sugababes), she’s expressing herself with a new force and urgency. And as the fabulous, rock-swaggering first single ‘Come As You Are’‚ makes instantly clear, in-her-prime Beverley is harder to box in, contain or categorise than ever before. Is that a thrill for her?
“Hell, yes! I hope it puts paid to the ghettoisation of me as an artist once and for all. I’m proud to say I’m black, female, British, and come from a soul-gospel background that I love and adore. But I’ve always been multi-faceted, and as I continue to grow and branch out from my roots, I’m becoming more so. It’s still all me!”
Undoubtedly so, because the thread unifying an effortlessly eclectic and musically confident collection of songs is that unmistakeable and awesome vocal sound. “I’ve always had a very wide range,” she says. “That’s been God’s gift to me. But if you really look after your voice, using it carefully and well, it gets better with time.” And then, of course, there’s the life experience factor...Says Beverley, “A good vocalist is one who has the basic instrument plus the technique - all those little riffs and ad libs that lift a performance above the ordinary. But a great vocalist is one who has all of that and more.” And the ‘more’‚ is the sense of having lived, loved and (sometimes) lost that imbues their every word. Such seasoning and patina can’t be faked. Nor can it be acquired overnight. “Aretha, Chaka, Marvin, Sam Cooke ... By the time they hit that magical decade, their 30’s, something had happened to their voices. Life had happened. You started to hear the wisdom, joy and pain - the mark of the woman or man - in all they sang. Now, I’m not presuming to compare myself to them. But what I am saying is, having turned 30 last year, and in terms of hard-won knowledge and experience, I’m just entering the zone.”
A key factor in her graduation from what is sometimes termed the ‘university of life’ was a relationship formed during the making of her platinum third album, 2002’s ‘Who I Am’. “I met a man, Tyrone, who very quickly became my best friend and soul mate - my husband, almost, in the sense that what we enjoyed was like a marriage but without the sex. Within weeks of our meeting, we were living together. It was a phenomenal time.” Beverley acknowledges that for her to love a gay man in this way meant triumphing over received prejudices. “I’m from a fundamentalist Christian household in the Midlands. My parents are from the West Indies, where the culture is frighteningly aggressive towards homosexuality. And I’m very much associated in many people’s minds with the r’n’b community, which can be similarly illiberal and hostile to anything outside of the perceived norm.
“But the fact is that when you meet someone and grow to love them, you accept whatever it is that comes with that - in this case, his having what turned out to be a far-advanced case of HIV infection.” Not that she found it easy to accept that status quo. “Boy, I was angry,” Beverley admits. “Why him? Why this man I had grown to love so much? Why my brother - my brother-sister, as I sometimes called him? I’d recently come out of a long-term relationship, and was going through a period of being here, there and everywhere. It was a tumultuous time emotionally, even before Tyrone became ill.” Then, during her last tour in 2002, Tyrone was hospitalised with pneumonia. His short-term recovery was against the medical odds, but left him seriously debilitated, and in February 2003 he died.
It was a devastating loss for Beverley. But her memories of the man and of their relationship will, she says, stay with her forever, and are proving an ever-renewing source of empowerment. “‘No-One Ever Loves in Vain’ (one of a handful on the record inspired by Tyrone)‚ is the title of a song I wrote with Guy (Chambers) after the initial tears had dried, and that terrible, bereft feeling had dissipated a little. I’d got to thinking, ‘he may have only been in my life for a short while, but my God, I value every last second we spent together. I truly believe that no-one does ever love in vain, no matter how brief or intense or painful that love is. Tyrone was the catalyst that changed the whole direction of my life, and the ripple effect of his time on earth will go on and on.”
Here Beverley is referring in particular to an involvement with Christian Aid, and its programme of safe sex education in the Third World, that was prompted by her experience of living with someone who has AIDS. Five months before Tyrone‚s death, she travelled with the organisation to Salvador (which inspired the album's song of the same name), capital of Bahia, Brazil, to see at first-hand communities ravaged by HIV. “A very in-your-face programme of events had been planned, and I was utterly floored by what I saw. Obviously, I already had a very keen awareness of what the disease can do, but going into some of the very poorest communities on earth, where nobody can read or write, and seeing little children who have been born HIV positive ... It was head-turning, and kicked my complacent, blase western arse in a way that I will never forget. I came back to the UK so full of anger.” As is self-evident from such vehemence, Beverley is a changed woman. “The experiences I went through in Salvador and with Tyrone have pulled out feelings in me that I didn’t even know I had,” she admits. “I just thank God that I’m a songwriter, because it means I’ve had an outlet, a way in which to process and express all that I’ve been through.”
It’s only natural then that Affirmation (which also includes writing collaborations with Chris Braide, Michelle Escoffrey and DJ Munro, should be the most complete personal statement to date by one of Britain’s most celebrated singers and writers. With famous admirers ranging from Nelson Mandela (for whom she has performed twice) to David Bowie, Michael Stipe to Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay, twice Brit Award and once Mercury Music Prize nominated, Beverley is that rare creature in today’s format-obsessed world - an artist who transcends boundaries, and who revels in defying easy definition (the winner of three Mobo Awards, she has also played Glastonbury, T In the Park and the V Festival).
With the release of her new set, it becomes clear that the best way to sum her up is by resort to just two words - Beverley and Knight. “I’m an albums artist, very definitely, and I think this drives the final nail into the coffin of that old idea that I’m an r’n’b singer - and nothing more.” is her own take on things. “To me, an affirmation is something uplifting and inspirational. Even the darker side of the album has that, as well as the lighter side - tracks like ‘Supasonic’ and ‘Tea & Sympathy’. And this personal Affirmation is me showing the rest of the world what I’m about now, more clearly so than ever before. I think it speaks volumes. Listen, and you’ll be left in absolutely no doubt that I see myself as a female singer-songwriter who relishes her soul-gospel background, but who sets no limits on just how far she can grow from her roots.” The proof, as she affirms, is in the listening.
Protection - we do a lot of it these days. Sun cream for our skin, sunglasses for our eyes, condoms for you know where - but do you remember to protect your hearing?
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