Sixties soul legend PP Arnold announces Auckland show

PP Arnold is a legend! The Los Angeles teenager, who became London’s First Lady of Soul after hitting town in 1966 with Ike & Tina Turner and coming to the attention of Mick Jagger, is still going strong. And she’s once again at the right place in the right time, as she has been so often in a career that’s lasted over 50 years.

Best known for her beautiful and classic mid-to-late ‘60s hits including “The First Cut Is The Deepest”, “(If You Think You’re) Groovy” and “Angel of the Morning”, as well as the power chorus of the Small Faces’ iconic hit “Tin Soldier”, PP is set to undertake her first ever concert tour of Australian and New Zealand. She’ll be backed by a super group of super fans: You am I's Tim Rogers, Rusty Hopkinson, & Andy Kent, Talei Wolfgramm and James Black.

PP’s tour down under follows the release last year of “The Turning Tide”, an album of unreleased recordings from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. It was meant to be her third album. Sessions were begun with Barry Gibb (who contributed a few new compositions) producing; Barry got busy with the Bee Gees, and the project was picked up by Eric Clapton, who used a band that would soon become the basis for Derek & The Dominos. “The Turning Tide” includes superb interpretations of Traffic’s “Medicated Goo” and the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” in addition to the aforementioned Gibb songs and more. It cracked the UK Top 30 upon release, recently made the NZ iTunes Top 20, and has been the subject of many accolades and much airplay since its release.

Although this will be PP’s be first concert tour of these parts, she has previously performed here as a featured singer with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters in 2002 and 2008.

PP has worked with numerous other artists in both a live and studio context too – from Nick Drake to Boy George. Her voice has graced numerous hits including Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and the KLF’s "What Time Is Love”. She sung on the Kane Gang’s hit 1989 hit cover of the Staple Singers’ “Respect Yourself”, which reached #19 in Australia. More recently she has recorded with Primal Scream and Oasis, and she has worked extensively with Ocean Colour Scene. She appears on Paul Weller’s 2017 album “A Kind Revolution”. She has a voice that other artists love to work with; her first duet was with Rod Stewart on a single produced by Mick Jagger, “Come Home Baby”, way back in ’67.

It was Jagger who saw the potential in PP in 1966 when, as one of Ike & Tina’s Ikettes riding on the back of “River Deep Mountain High”, she toured in Britain with the Stones. Jagger convinced her to stay in the UK and his manager Andrew Loog Oldham to sign her, and she had her first smash with the first recording of the now legendary Cat Stevens’ song “The First Cut Is the Deepest”. (It was her version that Rod Stewart remembered when he recorded it some years later.) She worked with Immediate Records’ label mates the Small Faces, including on the classic “Tin Soldier”, and recorded two superb albums of material that included bold interpretations of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” and much more. This timeless work has earned PP an ardent following amongst fans of ‘60s British rock and pop in addition to lovers of classic soul, and a number of her early dance numbers are considered Northern Soul classics. Her status as an icon of her era when she starred alongside old friend Marianne Faithful in the final episode of the original series of “Absolutely Fabulous” in 1996 (for which she and Marianne especially recorded a new version of the program’s theme song “This Wheel’s On Fire”).

With her memoir soon due for publication and a new album in the can, co-written and produced by the Ocean Colour Scene’s Steve Craddock and also including a couple of tracks written by long-time supporter and fan Paul Weller (who also sings on one of the tracks), 2018 promises to be a big year for PP Arnold.

She gets right into the swing of it in May when she teams up with a stellar five-piece band featuring Tim Rogers on guitar & vocals, Andy Kent on bass, Russell Hopkinson on drums, James Black on keys and Talei Wolfgramm on backing vocals. All five love PP and her music – Tim and Talei recreated Steve Marriot and PP’s vocal parts for a duet of “Tin Soldier” on Rockwiz some years ago (and Tim will do the same with PP for this tour!)  This is a dream band backing an extraordinary vocalist in what will undoubtedly be amongst the most talked about tours of the year.

PP ARNOLD, with Tim Rogers, Andy Kent, Russell Hopkinson (from You Am I), Talei Wolfgramm and James Black, together with special guests, in Auckland in May.

Sunday 20th May – The Powerstation, Auckland

Tickets via www.davidroywilliams.com/tours/pp-arnold/