She has been called a legend and a feminine icon. But it is as Soul Survivor that she is currently touring the UK to enthralled audiences, writes Mike Glover.
For 60 years, PP Arnold, has bestrode the UK rock and pop and soul music scene, collaborating with most of the greats.
From her early days at Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label her allies, associates, and working partners have included the Small Faces, Cat Stevens, Mick Jagger, Barry Gibb, Eric Clapton, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Blockheads’ Chaz Jankel, Roger Waters, Ocean Colour Scene, The Blow Monkeys’ Dr. Robert, and Paul Weller.
But it could have been so different for the shy teenage academic girl growing up in the deprived Watts neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
Brought up in a strict Baptist family, little Pat Cole as she was called, had wanted to be a legal secretary.
But at just 15 she was groomed by an older man, became pregnant and physically abused.
By 17 she had two children and was desperate to escape, praying to God for a way out.
That route was through music, she recalls while back in South East London. Her non-touring home is on the Costa del Sol in Southern Spain.
“I asked for God to find me a way out. A friend came round and begged me to go for an audition with Tina Turner to be one of her backing singers.
“I had to tell my husband we were going out shopping, Next thing I knew I was singing Dancing in the Street in Tina’s front room.
“She asked me to join them, and I said my husband would never let me and I would be beaten for being home late.
“She said if you are going to be beaten for nothing, you might as well get beaten for something, so come and see the show.
“Which I did. Sure enough when I got home at 5am my husband beat me and I decided to take my children to my mother’s and join Ike and Tina Turner’s backing band, the Ikettes.”
Little did she know she was going from the frying pan into the fire, with Ike Turner’s abuse of Tina Turner well documented, including in the film What’s Love Got to Do With It?
He also sexually abused Arnold. It was this that led her to tell Mick Jagger, when the Rolling Stones were on a UK tour with Ike and Tina Turner, that she wanted to leave their show.
He arranged for her to be managed as a solo artist by Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham.
She is one of several of his Black lady friends said to have inspired the song Brown Sugar. “I never claimed it was me. I was never into celebrity. Mick Jagger was my friend for many years,” says Miss Arnold.
When she was settled in the UK, her children joined her, to which she attributes avoiding the worst of the excesses of the swinging 60s.
“I always had the responsibility of being a mother. I didn’t get involved in the drugs. My Baptist upbringing gave me the strength. I always feared the wrath of God.”
She talks while taking a break from rehearsing for an appearance at Cheltenham Jazz Festival where she appeared with the Ronnie Scott Orchestra, performing tributes to Chip Talor, who wrote her hit Angel of the Morning, and Brian Wilson, founder of the Beach Boys, with his God Only Knows.
The following week she appears at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal to perform her Soul Survivor set, accompanied by Jules Nelson on keyboards and guitar on Friday, May 8.
The evening is based on her autobiography, Soul Survivor, released in 2022, although Miss Arnold admits to leaving out some of the more salacious stories in the book, described as jaw-dropping in one review, from the show.
“If people want all that detail, they will have to buy the book,” she admits.
The evening is directed by Carol Harrison, creator and director of The Small Faces: All or Nothing Musical.
This is appropriate as one of PP Arnold’s greatest UK collaborations was with the Small Faces, featuring on two of their greatest hits: Itchycoo Park and Tin Soldier.
She describes lead singer Steve Marriot as her soul brother and briefly her lover. She stayed friends and collaborator when he left the band to form Humble Pie. She attended his funeral after he died in 1991 of smoke inhalation in a fire at his home in Essex.
In 1968, she released the ambitious solo album Kafunta, with orchestral arrangements by John Paul Jones, in his pre-Led Zeppelin days, and including self-penned material.
Unknown to her this album was a huge hit in apartheid South Africa and years later she had a sell-out tour of the by then integrated country.
In December 1969 she was the support act for Delaney and Bonnie and Friends high profile tour of the UK. The main friend was Eric Clapton, after the split up of Blind Faith.
“Robert Stigwood arranged for me to be the opening act on the ‘Eric Clapton, Delaney, Bonnie and Friends tour, and I put together a fantastic rhythm section, which included Steve Howe (Yes) on guitar, Ashton, Garner and Dyke with Leslie Duncan and Kaye Garner (Elton John, Tony Bennett, Burt Bacharach) and off we set,” recalls PP. “We were a hell of a band.”
Barry Gibb, the eldest of the Bee Gees brothers, then worked on an album with her that remarkably got lost in the music industry politics of the time, even when Eric Clapton helped her finish it.
It didn’t get released for nearly forty years when Miss Arnold’s sheer determination saw it released as The Turning Tide.
“Barry remains a dear friend, writing sleeve notes for the album and my autobiography,” she says.
During the 1970s Miss Arnold turned her skills to musical theatre and met American bassist Fuzzy Samuels. They subsequently became involved romantically and had a son, Kodzo.
Feeling out of place in the rapidly changing British music scene of the mid-1970s, Arnold and Samuels returned to her hometown of Los Angeles.
While they were living there, Arnold’s relationship with Samuels ended; just two weeks after the split, her daughter Debbie was killed in a car accident.
After a period of mourning, she moved back to England with her two sons and resumed her career.
From 1999 to 2008 she toured the world supporting Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, featuring prominently on his In the Flesh and Dark Side of the Moon tours.
The Kendal show’s promotion says: “PP creates a warm and engaging atmosphere, connecting deeply with her audience as she sings many of her ‘classic’ recordings like The First Cut Is the Deepest, Angel of the Morning and more while sharing many of her remarkable adventures.”
Having spent a lifetime touring the world, she shows no sign of letting up as she approaches her 80th birthday.
She headlines the Blackpool International Soul Festival at the Winter Gardens Ballroom on Saturday, June 20, promising the ultimate Norther Soul set.
And following her success at the Edinburgh Festival last year PP Arnold is returning to Scotland in September.
She is also bringing her tour to the Old Fire Station, Carlisle, on Sunday, September 20.
And in October she embarks on her 60th anniversary tour, with a new album showcasing duets with distinguished fellow stars.
The 60th anniversary refers to her time as a solo artist. She actually started singing in a gospel choir aged four – 76 years ago.
“Music has been my life, although it was not my original ambition. I never sought celebrity and didn’t really understand the business side or how to network.
“If I had not been forced to flee an abusive marriage my life would have been totally different. Music helped to support my children. It was my destiny.”
