Joan of jazz

The first female UK artist to debut at No1 in Billboards Blues charts, she promised her Londonderry fans “a good mixture of songs” when she steps out under the spotlight.

In addition to all her popular favourites from the 70s and 80s, Joan will also be playing songs form her blues/pop/rock and Jaxx trilogy of CDs which began with Into The Blues in 2007, followed up by This Charmed Life in 2012 and now her latest CD, the jazz-fuelled Sttarlight.

Her audience will know her for her strong, rhythmic acoustic guitar playing and melodic electric solos, but the tracks from Starlight cast a totally different light on her body of work, with an exceptional collection of some of the most relaxing mood music around.

Despite having embarked on a punishing tour, Joan was still able to enjoy some downtime recently at the Olympics in London, watching Team GB footballers at Olympic Park, where she saw the female team play against South Korea

“It was absolutely brilliant. I didn’t know they split it into two sections and you got to watch two lots of matches. I thought I was just going to see one .

“The first one was Belgium against China. It was a good game. China were a little bit like the England football team, they’d get the ball and then just pass it...that’s what England does. So it was a nil-nil draw.

“Then I saw the British team playing South Korea and it was absolutely briliant. It was fast paced.

“They were good at keeping possession, they passed it to the right person so they kept it in the team. I was right behind the goal so I got to see all the goal scoring and some of the set pieces they did so it was fantastic.

“The crowd was on their feet. The crowd was just totally there with them and really spurred them on. It ended up 5-3 to Britain. There was a band there to play music and keep people chanting. It was wonderful with Mexican waves happening and all that.

“I have watched stuff on the television, but you just cannot translate that to the audience at home.”

Feativals feature heavily at the start of the tour, and among the big events Joan has already headlined is the Cambridge Folk Festival.

She was enthusiastic about the event: “It was great. I forgot the words to ‘Me Myself I’. I turned round to look at the keyboard player and he was singing the words so for one second I got the right words and then turned back round and of course it all went again. It was fantastic.

“The thing about festivals is that the first part of this tour is about festivals and doing a lot of different festivals in Isle of Wright, Cambridge, Croprey and playing different festivals in Europe as well. People at festivals do lots of different music and are exposed to lots of different music and that is what’s really good, so when it rains, which it did at Cambridge, to them it is just rain. You just put your brolly up.”

Different venues offer a different ambience, but that does not bother Joan, who likes the intimate shows as much as the outdoor festivals.

“You get different atmospheres. There are different set lists depending on the festival. I like them all...they are are all nice and they all have different things that make them all enjoyable.

Promising the audience at the Millennium Forum a great night of music, she said: “They will get a good mixture of songs so they will get stuff that they are very familiar with like Love and Affection, but they will hear songs from different albums, and then they will hear the new stuff as well.

“It is a good balance. I never just do new songs and I never ever just do old songs.

“Just come along and have a good time and when I am talking just talk back to me,” she said.

Discussing the content for the UK City of Culture next year, she said if she was involved the key for her wold be diversity.

“You cannot get better than a diverse lot of music.

“You have traditional music; great folk music and you cannot beat great rap music and you can’t beat great jazz or classical music.

“The thing about music is that there are lots of different genres and it is nice to present all those genres, that’s the beauty about it.

“If I was presenting music, that is what I would do.”