Joan Armatrading

JOAN ARMATRADING is an intensely private person, not known for courting publicity - but then she doesn't need to.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, she has had numerous silver, gold and platinum records, picked up Brit and Grammy nominations, won an Ivor Novello award and been honoured with an MBE.

She's met the Queen and Nelson Mandela and played to a capacity audience at the Royal Albert Hall.

Despite this illustrious career, one of the highlights of her life so far was her recent graduation, when she received a BA Hons in history.

It was hard won after five years of studying, but coveted for longer.

"I've always wanted to have a BA Hons and if you want something, you kind of have to do something about it," says Joan, who studied for five years to gain her degree but says she has no plans to swap the recording studio for a career in academia.

"I just did it to have it. I don't use it and I am not going to do anything with it. I just wanted it for myself to feel that I had achieved something."

The 52-year-old star has just released her 18th album, Lover's Speak, the first for five years. With the exception of drums and horns, Joan plays all the instruments on this album, as well as taking the writing, production and arranging credits.

"I've never played everything on an album before - I just wanted to do it. I've produced albums before and I always do the arrangements. But the essential difference is playing everything."

This hands-on approach was nothing to do with wanting to be a prima donna or control freak, she explains.

"When you make a record, at some point somebody is going to say, 'Okay, this is how it should go.' Well I'm the person that's written it and feel I have a head start as the person who might know how the thing should go.

"It's not about an ego trip or relinquishing power. Somebody will do and it might as well be me.

"I know how I want my songs to sound. Whether anyone agrees with me is another matter."

Born in the West Indies and raised in Birmingham, Joan has now made Surrey her home. She seems to ooze contentment - especially when talking about the new album.

"It's a very 'up' album, " she explains. "It makes you feel good. It makes me feel good anyway, which I think is just a reflection of my being very relaxed making the record.

"On day one with the engineer I said, 'I don't want to prove I can write, I don't want to prove I can sing, I don't want to prove I can play. All I want to do is say here is a bunch of songs that I think are really nice'."

A CD compilation of Joan's earlier work has also been recently released. Love and Affection: Joan Armatrading Classics 1975 - 1983 includes such chart hits as Me Myself I, Love and Affection and Lucky. For the uninitiated, it's a great introduction to Ms Armatrading's diverse talents.

Joan was only meant to play a handful of dates on her latest tour, but demand was such that more had to be added, including tonight's Anvil concert.

Joan will be supported tonight by a new vocal talent, Northern Ireland-born Juliet Turner, whose debut UK album Burn The Black Suit has already got critics' pulses racing.

Another reason to be in Basingstoke tonight - as if you needed one.

Joan Armatrading is at The Anvil, Basingstoke tonight. Performance: 8pm. Tickets: £22. Box office: 01256 844244