Legendary
soul songstress PP Arnold - best known for her string of hit singles while
based in London during the mid/late-Sixties, including her original version of
the classic ballad “The First Cut Is The Deepest” - returns this month with the
melodically-shuffling, heartfelt new single “Beautiful Song”. Which in turn
marks the first song to be released from the Band Of Sisters album “Issues” - a
project masterminded by respected British composer/musician David Mindel and
featuring 16 new songs sung “by women about women for women” by 15 different
female singers of all ages, with subject-matter ranging from friendship,
gratitude and strength to loneliness, depression and domestic abuse.
Born
Patricia Ann Cole into a family of gospel singers on October 3, 1946 in Los
Angeles, California, after enduring the hardships of an abusive teen marriage
PP’s first break in music came in the mid-Sixties when she was invited to join
The Ikettes - the female singer/dancer troupe that provided vocal and dance
accompaniment for the iconic Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Following which,
after the Revue arrived in Britain in 1966 to tour with The Rolling Stones,
Arnold would - after striking up a close friendship with The Stones’ superstar
frontman Mick Jagger - unexpectedly next find herself agreeing to Mick’s
suggestion that she stay in London, a move which in turn would result in her
becoming signed as a solo artist to The Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s newly-founded
record-label Immediate.
Meanwhile,
with her debut album for the label “The First Lady Of Immediate” spawning
1967’s aforementioned hit “The First Cut Is The Deepest” - whose success was
consolidated in 1968 by the equally-soulful “Angel Of The Morning” - PP would
quickly find herself becoming one of the iconic faces of London’s Swinging
Sixties before, following the collapse of Immediate Records at the end of the
decade, going on to attain success on the West End stage via a leading role alongside
Texan-born crooner P.J. Proby in 1970’s groundbreaking “Catch My Soul/Rock
Othello”, one of the first-ever rock musicals.
Nevertheless,
with her feeling increasingly out-of-place on Britain’s rapidly-changing music
scene of the mid-Seventies, Pat’s next move would see her returning to
California, where by 1981 (following the tragic death of her daughter some
years earlier) she had made the move to Hollywood - winning minor acting roles
in such popular television series as “St. Elsewhere” and “Knots Landing” before
returning in 1982 to England. Where in 1984 she would return to the London
stage as Belle the Sleeping Car in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s then-new smash musical
“Starlight Express” while also re-igniting her music career - attaining
international success via her vocal contribution to electro-pop outfit Kane
Gang’s mid-Eighties cover of The Staple Singers’ “Respect Yourself” before
collaborating in 1988 with The Beatmasters on their retro-styled hip-house Top
15 hit “Burn It Up”. Since which time further career highs have included
recording and touring with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, playing Goddess of Love
Erzulie in the Olivier Award-winning musical “Once On This Island”, and working
extensively with latter-day mod group Ocean Colour Scene.
All of
which has ultimately resulted in a remarkably enduring career which - with
session credits that read like a “who’s who” of the last four decades of
rock’n’roll and pop - has seen the ever-adaptable Ms Arnold over the years
collaborate, record, work and tour alongside a truly iconic list of bona fide
superstars - ranging from The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces and Jimi Hendrix
to Rod Stewart, Barry Gibb and Eric Clapton!
... Cue
an instantly-friendly, now-Spanish-based PP meeting up with “Blues & Soul”
Assistant Editor Pete Lewis at the Central London studios of BBC Radio 2.
Where, taking time out from Sunday morning rehearsals for her live session on
“Weekend Wogan”, she happily discusses her early gospel background; her life on
the road as an Ikette; plus her trailblazing time as one of the first-ever
British-based female soul singers during London’s Swinging Sixties.
PETE: Let’s start by taking it back
to the early days of you growing up in Los Angeles, California…
PP:
“Well, I was born into a gospel family who’d migrated to Los Angeles from Texas
just before World War II - basically to get away from all the racism of The
South, which back in those days was really, really bad. So I grew up a good
little Christian girl going to church every Sunday morning, teaching Sunday
school, and singing all those well-known congregational songs like “Amazing
Grace”, “Jesus, Keep Me Near The Cross”... But then while in my early years I’d
grown up with really just gospel and blues music all around me, by the time I became
a teenager - we’re talking sort of late-Fifties/early-Sixties - my friends and
I really started getting into all the new SOUL music that was happening at the
time. You know, at Junior High School they’d have these great lunchtime dances
where we’d be dancing and singing to all the latest Motown and Stax hits... So
yeah, overall my early/mid-teens were great, because I grew up around all that
great MUSIC! But then I made a big, big MISTAKE - I got PREGNANT, which meant I
had to leave school. And then my father - because in those days a teenage
pregnancy was really bad - made me get married… So though I was still a
teenager I then suddenly became tied to this guy who was older than me and who
I barely even KNEW.”
PETE: So how did you come to join
The Ike & Tina Turner Revue as one of The Ikettes?
PP:
“Well, I was married, I had two kids - and my life was HELL! I was working two
jobs, my husband didn’t work - it was a NIGHTMARE. So anyway, to make a long
story short, one Sunday morning I was doing all my laundry, cleaning the
house... And while I was in the laundry-room I prayed to God to show me a way
out of this hell that I’d created for myself - you know, I took full
responsibility. Then I went back in the house - and an hour-or-so later the
phone rang and an ex-girlfriend of my brother - Maxine Scott - was basically
calling to tell me she and her friend Gloria Scott wanted me to help them
become IKETTES! You know, they’d heard that the existing three girls were about
to leave and that, because they had a tour coming up, Ike & Tina were
needing a new trio of Ikettes like STRAIGHTAWAY... So next thing I know I’m at
Ike & Tina’s house, doing an audition with Maxine and Gloria to help them
get this GIG!... So anyway, we finish the audition - and Tina goes ‘right girls
- you got the gig!’... So then I go to her ‘Oh no, not me - I gotta go home! My
husband’s gonna kick my ARSE!’... You know, I was in an abusive teen marriage.
So then Tina says to me ‘Well, if you’re gonna get your arse kicked for nothing
you might as well go with us to Fresno tonight and at least see the show!’. You
know, I guess they really wanted me to be a part of this new group of Ikettes
because we were young, we knew all the steps… I mean, we were basically like
the personification of Motown/STAX, which was like a new IMAGE for Ike &
Tina… So anyway, I guess it was just one of those days in your life when you
just sorta go with the flow. I went with them to Fresno, saw the Ike & Tina
Revue, which was an absolutely BRILLIANT show… Then I got back to LA, put my
key in the front door - and BOOM, there it was! My husband HIT me - but at the
same time it was actually like he knocked some kinda sense into me! Because I
suddenly thought ‘You know what? This morning I didn’t have a way outta this - but
now I DO!’... So I just got my kids ready to take to my mom, pretended I was
going to work as usual, and then when I got to my mom’s I begged her to help me
- ’cause I knew the only way I could go on that road would be for my mom to
keep my kids... So yeah, that’s how I ended up going on the road with Ike &
Tina!”
PETE: So what are your memories like
of touring with Ike & Tina Turner during the early-to-mid-Sixties?
PP: “Oh,
musically-speaking it was FABULOUS! I get chills just thinking about it! I mean,
we’d go on like 90-day tours, and out of those 90 days we’d be working 87! You
know, it was like one-nighters all over the country and it was fantastic - hard
work but at the same time brilliant! Because every night on that bandstand you
had all these amazing musicians, many of whom - like the horn-players - had
come from the jazz era; Ike was a fantastic bandleader… I mean, EVERY NIGHT
that bandstand would be smokin’!... So yeah, that was how I paid my dues - on
the road with Ike & Tina and just really learning my craft... But then
having said all that, backstage was a very different story - it was actually
all quite turbulent. You know, there was a lot of women involved, they were all
on the road together... So you had like this harem of women with Ike Turner -
and to me Ike was a PIMP! They were his women, they all worked for him, and
Tina was the Queen BEE - and that’s how it WAS! Basically I think everybody was
using everybody else. Ike was using Tina, Tina was using Ike... Because no
matter what you say about Ike, the fact is that without Ike there would be no
Tina! Because while Tina was always good, he was the one who made her great.
But then at the same time on a personal level the whole situation for me was
very difficult. Because I loved Tina. And so when I’d see her all bruised and
beaten it would just break my heart. Because she was the one that had actually
saved ME from all that... But you know, that’s just how it WAS on the road in
those days. The horrible fact is that women had no power WHATSOEVER. Every
woman on the road was controlled by some man, and it was an abusive scene going
on.”
PETE: And so what was the story
behind you leaving the Ike & Tina Revue in 1966 and settling in London as a
solo artist?
PP:
“Well, we came to the UK to do the Rolling Stones tour. And as luck would have
it, the night before we flew to England I caught my boyfriend - who was the
trumpet-player in Ike & Tina’s band and who’d basically been saving me from
Ike - cheating on me with another woman. So I quit him. Which meant when I came
to England I was like a free spirit. And then of course when we got here we
were just so shocked that the whole scene here was as happening as it WAS. You
know, there was this whole hip kinda revolution taking place here at the time
with all the fashion, all the music - like I remember our first night opening
for The Stones at The Albert Hall and seeing them and all those people like
Jeff Beck just absolutely KLLING it!... So yeah, we did the tour, we had a
lotta fun - and I became like really close friends with Mick (Jagger). So from
that I was approached by Andrew Oldham - The Stones’ manager - who invited me
to stay in England and record for his Immediate label, where Mick would produce
half my album and Andrew the other half. And so there it WAS - another
opportunity just out of the blue! So once again I called my mom, to see if
she’d keep the kids while I’d stay in London for a while to see if anything
would happen. So we basically agreed that, if things happened within six months
I’d come and get my kids, and if it didn’t I’d come home... And so, because
within those six months I had my first big hit with “The First Cut Is The
Deepest”, I ended up getting my kids and staying in London!”
PETE: So how do you now look back on
your solo success in the UK during the mid-to-late-Sixties when you were dubbed
“The First Lady of Immediate”?
PP:
“Well, Andrew was a very creative manager. I mean, he was really tuned IN! We’d
meet, he’d play me material - and while I did have a choice as to what I’d
sing, at the end of the day I largely listened to him because he had great
judgement. You know, he really did put a lot of energy into my career, and his
concept for me was definitely one that paid off! And while unfortunately the
drugs did prove his downfall and by the end of the decade Immediate had
crashed, in its day it was a great LABEL! I mean, I’d be working alongside my
label-mates like (chart-topping British pop/rockers) The Small Faces, where I’d
sing on their stuff and they’d produce tracks for me like “(If You Think
You’re) Groovy”... You know, it was FABULOUS - going all over Europe, doing all
the TV, forming my own band The Nice with Keith Emerson as my musical director,
working alongside all those other great acts like Jimi Hendrix, Cream The
Kinks, Pink Floyd… Because what you have to remember is Madeline Bell, Jimi and
myself were actually the first (resident) black American artists here! You
know, we go back - that’s why they can’t get rid of us! And so while of course
unfortunately Jimi is no longer with us to tell the tale, Madeline and I do
still have many, many great stories to tell about our experiences in London
during that time!”
PP
performs in London as part of Band Of Sisters at the “Issues” album launch at
The BBC Club, Great Portland Street on October 9 as well as at The Pheasantry,
Kings Road October 11 and 12
PP’s single “Beautiful Song” is
released October 7. The Band Of Sisters album “Issues” follows November 4, both
through Band Of Sisters.
