Viv Hardwick finds Beverley Craven still has plenty of promise when it comes to a return to North Yorkshire and its historic Georgian Theatre Royal

BEVERLEY CRAVEN, the singer of popular 1991 hit Promise Me, had just returned from a visit to family in North Yorkshire when it was agreed that she’d be returning to the same area for an appearance at Richmond’s Georgian Theatre Royal.

“I was visiting Kettlewell nearby, where the film of Calendar Girls was shot. So it’s very picturesque but bleak and I was staying with my aunt who was quite poorly. I was cooking her food and taking her for visits to hospital. It was nice to get back down South because I’m a Southern softie. To be honest I thought, ‘Bloody hell, I’m not sure I could always live here. It’s definitely colder’,” says Craven.

“My aunt has lived in Kettlewell for years and my grandparents lived there before and that is the actual Craven district believe it or not. And, of course, Craven is on all the bins and other services. As soon as I get into the valleys and the hills it’s just like another planet. It’s so beautiful. I’ve often fantasised about buying a cottage up there, but I’d need to be a lot wealthier because I’d have to have the heating on all the time.”

Craven’s aunt was getting the results of chemo treatment as we talked and she felt that this was “doing the trick, but she’s very weak and that’s quite something for a lively woman who’s been knocked to the ground with chemo. It affects you physically and psychologically. She’s 75 and well pissed off to have been diagnosed with problems.”

Craven is sadly aware that her aunt will be one of the few fans in Richmond who will be forced to miss her debut appearance. “I’ll be dedicating a song to her and I think she will be asking someone to attend in her place,” she says.

The singer has opted for a computer to plan her set and backing vocals because she is often being asked to re-book at venues and Craven is keen to offer something different for a follow-up visit. “I make a joke about it and say, ‘If you hear lots of me singing then it’s just my computer’. I don’t want it to get too karaoke. I know a lot of performers are doing this and it’s a shame really because I’d rather employ musicians and backing vocalists, but when you are playing such tiny venues then all the costs add up and you’re in danger of paying to appear somewhere.”

Craven admits she’s always delighted to sing Promise Me and feels grateful and privileged to have a song that people recognise and want to hear. “I have had a few other songs that people know, Love Scenes and Mollie’s Song (written for her daughter), which seems to appeal to those with children. I got a message from a fan the other day that her mother sang it to her when she was a child and would I sing it at a gig. I thought, ‘Thank you very much, that makes me feel ancient’. Woman To Woman is also popular.”

Craven is never sure where her songs are going until the recording process. “Then you find that some of them blossom and you find you can lose some because they are not working for some reason. Most people when they’ve recorded an album will sit down with the record company or their manager and just go, ‘What’s the general consensus?’ I certainly do. After writing them, gigging them and recording them, I kind of lose my ears and can’t be objective about them any more.”

Muff Winwood, brother of Stevie Winwood and Spencer Davis bass player, used to act as Craven’s A&R man and became one of the best in the business.

“He’s retired now, but at the time I felt none of my songs sounded like singles because as the 1980s moved to the 1990s everything was electro-pop and female singer-songwriters were a bit thin on the ground. Certainly the style of what I was doing had nothing like it at the time. I felt that I didn’t sound commercial and Muff chose Promise Me and I thought, ‘Oh no, my career is over’. But what do I know, absolutely nothing. A lot of people now think if they do something current then why wouldn’t they get played on the radio? The key is to write something and have it produced in a way that is different to everyone else. Something terribly old-fashioned might just have a chance... otherwise you’re behind the curve.”

Craven feels that ballads, like Bryan Adams’ Everything I Do, are always likely to be bigger hits.

“We certainly have fun when we go out and gig. I like playing the little venues like Richmond, they’re always the best. My agent books all my gigs as well as people like Elkie Books and he’s got a huge roster of clients including Julia Fordham and Judi Tzuke. I think he knows what kind of place is good for me and the right areas of the country and I kind of leave it up to him.”

Beverley Craven, Georgian Theatre Royal, Friday, May 19. Box office: 01748-825252 or georgiantheatreroyal.co.uk