{"id":357,"date":"2015-06-22T22:56:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T20:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=357"},"modified":"2015-06-22T22:56:33","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T20:56:33","slug":"joan-shows-some-love-and-affection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"Joan shows some love and affection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joan\"<\/a>The phone rings. Joan Armatrading is calling.<\/p>\n

Why does she call me?<\/p>\n

The British singer-songwriter, whose intensely personal lyrics, unique tunes and rhythms have served as the soundtrack for an entire generation in South Africa, is coming to perform in Cape Town, East London, Durban and Johannesburg between 3 and 11 July.<\/p>\n

Armatrading, 42 years on an artistic, musical journey, is internationally acclaimed,nominated and awarded.<\/p>\n

Now, on the line, she is just \u201cJoan\u201d.<\/p>\n

In prepping for the interview, I canvassed Eastern Cape opinions on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Two stories stand out. Both are from the war in the 70s and 80s.\u00a0One tells of how white conscripts drove their SADF Ratels into battle against Swapo freedom fighters in Namibia with Armatrading\u2019s songs pounding in their earphones.\u00a0The other is of hundreds of boycotting African kids from Nombulelo High in Grahamstown, organising under the barrel of troops in the townships, who got their only English lessons by diligently transcribing Armatrading\u2019s lyrics into their exercise books.<\/p>\n

Her songs would be lip-synched in BB Zondani Hall, where scholars would hold their own political meetings mixed with entertainment.<\/p>\n

Both stories surprise Armatrading, who says artists lose control of their work when it is released to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I write and present my songs, I hope people get the right things from it, such as the emotions, the place where I am writing from, and that you try and improve yourself, do good, do the right thing, and be true to yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 65, her story is one of musical diversity, starting out as a factory worker in Birmingham with a guitar and, as ever, original compositions, to her pop smash hits in the early 80s, followed by decades of touring, playing in different media spheres.\u00a0These include radio and television, and enjoying creative adventures in jazz, soul, and blues until now, her last world tour, which is also her first with just her on stage, solo, with guitars and piano, 90 minutes of Me, Myself, I.<\/p>\n

She will never stop playing or composing because the music is in her, she says.
\nArmatrading is famously generous on stage with audiences \u2013 and in this interview \u2013 but she is notoriously closed about her private life.\u00a0She says that if she \u201cgoes silent\u201d on the phone, it\u2019s because the journalist has gone too close.\u00a0Using silence as a personal form of passive resistance, fits the old battle cry of the women\u2019s movements of the 70s and 80s which was: \u201cThe personal is political\u201d.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m intrigued by her non-performance telephone voice.\u00a0She sounds very much like a down-to-earth, British antie.\u00a0She is unlike Linton Kwezi-Johnson (LKJ) \u2013 the militant black British dub-poet \u2013 who brought his show on Rhodes University\u2019s Great Field to a discordant stop and ordered students to stop taking flash photos.<\/p>\n

LKJ came across as crabby and pernickety.\u00a0But Joan is simply lovely. She listens, she laughs, she has her say.\u00a0Her sense of privacy is perhaps a game of boundaries, which recede in the face of trust and rapport.<\/p>\n

Why is she coming to the little coastal city of East London, I ask?<\/p>\n

She decided, after so many world tours, to check in at the small interesting places around the globe.<\/p>\n

Is this marketing? \u201cMarketing? What\u2019s that?\u201d she chuckles.<\/p>\n

Like the best of world travellers, she has a passion for always \u201cgoing there\u201d to check out the scene.\u00a0\u201cEven if I am going to New York, I don\u2019t say, oh, I\u2019m going there, I say yeah, New York!\u201d<\/p>\n

But we go through my random list of questions pillaged from friends around the country and abroad. Most of them are quips on her famous songs, and I don\u2019t think she will explain the back story, but she does.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Lucky: \u201cYes, I am still very lucky!\u201d she chirps with that dark-ale laugh.<\/p>\n

Drop the Pilot is a more interesting way of saying: \u201cDon\u2019t go with that person, go with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willow: \u201cI wrote Willow on a stormy night in West Beach, Florida. I went to a gig which was not the kind of gig I would do. Everything about it was wrong (television in the venue, gambling machines and a tiny stage). I was suddenly \u2018taken ill\u2019. I went back to the hotel which had willow trees and tiny, sweet little lizards on the walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Water With Wine: \u201cI got talking to this chap on the train. He followed me to my door, but he was not going in there. We stayed in contact and so the song is about what he was hoping (for),\u201d she says with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s with the \u201csurfer with slip-slops\u201d dress style? \u201cI\u2019m a very casual dresser. But I do like black. Gradually I\u2019ve just gone more black. It\u2019s nice and it\u2019s what I am comfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up poor and working-class never held her back or left her embittered. She never thought about it.\u00a0\u201cWhatever situation you are in, it\u2019s all you know. It\u2019s normal. I grew up in a big family of six children. It felt normal. I didn\u2019t feel working class or poor. I had brilliant parents who loved us and cared for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born to write music. It was in me. I didn\u2019t have to force myself. It just made me happy. I have always been happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armatrading has met, hung out with and played with some of the greats: Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Tracey Chapman, the British queen and Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n

Madiba, whom she visited at home in Pretoria, and played for him on his birthday in London, \u201ctaught me what it is like to be compassionate and to have a true heart. You cannot look at that face and not know it is not true. It showed in his face, body language and gestures. He saw people for what they were, with their flaws. And life is like that; nobody is perfect, life is a compromise, you know that? He remained dignified and true and followed the right path without being a total walk-over\u201d.<\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t say more about meeting Madiba or the Queen: \u201cLet\u2019s keep the mystery\u201d.<\/p>\n

Armatrading is struck by rapid changes in South Africa since her first visit in the early 1990s. when Mandela was released.\u00a0In Soweto she sees new \u201cposh, properly-gated\u201d homes. People on the street looked good, and there were tourists.<\/p>\n

She had boycotted apartheid South Africa, saying coming here at a time when people were not free to \u201cdo what they want, marry whomever they want, would have killed me\u201d.<\/p>\n

It \u201cfeels good\u201d to be among the first British women songwriter- performers to achieve international acclaim, but sees no relevance in being, as one reviewer wrote, the first \u201cblack British\u201d pop singer to make it. \u201cI am just a woman songwriter who had success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her views on racism are finely thought out. To think of racism in a constantly \u201cangry way\u201d would place it in a \u201cnarrow band\u201d of thought, and is precisely how apartheid wanted to make people think.\u00a0\u201cRacism is about all kinds of prejudice. It\u2019s quite wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can music be a force for change and peace in an ugly world, or here in Africa?
\n\u201cWe hope so, don\u2019t we?\u201d she replies.<\/p>\n

Where does she get her strength and insights?
\nIt starts with where you come to consciousness in life: \u201cIt\u2019s all you know. It [her music career] was not to do with being in the music business. I\u2019m private, and always have been. I am strong in mind and know what I want to do and where I want to be. I have no idea where I get it, maybe from my parents who always encouraged us kids to be who we are.\u201d
\n\u201cThe creative nature will always see people gravitating to that thing which speaks to them, such as movies, film, plays, music. You have no control over that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she is quick to counter, saying artists need to earn cash.
\n\u201cAll they want is to be reimbursed. You don\u2019t ask the plumber to fix a leak and then not pay them,\u201d she says.\u00a0Creatives need the financial freedom to sit in the garden, in nature, look at the sky, think, and let nature work its magic.\u00a0But thinking must lead to action and a body of work.<\/p>\n

Armatrading has made it a point to allow young artists around the world, such as Jesse Clegg in South Africa, to open for her.<\/p>\n

What life lessons can she offer Eastern Cape youths?
\n\u201cTry and do what you want to do from the position you find yourself in. It may be all you know and feel normal, but you can always aim for something else.
\n\u201cAnd start doing something. If you dream of being an accountant, start learning about numbers. Don\u2019t just sit and dream. That is not the creativity dream. It\u2019s the idle dream\u201d<\/p>\n

So Joan, where are you right now?
\n\u201cI am in a cool, private place.\u201d<\/p>\n

See Joan Armatrading’s tour schedule here\u00a0<\/a>and buy tickets at Computicket<\/a>.<\/p>\n

— Mike Loewe<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The phone rings. Joan Armatrading is calling. Why does she call me? The British singer-songwriter, whose intensely personal lyrics, unique tunes and rhythms have served as the soundtrack for an … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}