Beverley Craven takes a journey back through the decades in an exclusive chat with RETROPOP.
The singer-songwriter rose to prominence in the early-nineties when her single Promise Me made waves across Europe and, following a reissue, finally cracked the UK charts.
It was an uphill struggle for the musician – “But I was all over Europe, away from home every week promoting the album left, right and centre for over a year,” she notes – before the single finally gained traction on home turf.
Even then, she remained philosophical. “Before the record came out I remember holding a copy with my name on it and thinking, ‘Even if this isn’t successful I’ve still got an album that I can show to my grandchildren’,” Beverley smiles in a sit-down interview for the June 2023 issue, adding: “It’s all about luck and timing.”
Promise Me took her to No. 3 in the UK charts in 1991 and her self-titled debut long-player, which originally came out the previous year, eventually matched that success, going on to spend nearly a year on the Albums Chart and selling more than 1.2 million copies worldwide.
Follow-up ‘Love Scenes’ arrived in 1993 but following a six-year gap between her second and third albums, Beverley was dropped by Epic Records – despite having signed an eight-album deal.
“It felt like a smack in the face,” she says now. “It was such a curveball. They were no longer into what I did so that was that.”
In the years since, she’s continued to release music and has toured with Julia Fordham, Judie Tzuke and Rumer on the ‘Woman to Woman’ tours, admitting she’s happy to sing the songs that people love.
“It’s all about nostalgia. That’s the kind of artist I am now,” adds the singer. “I represent a certain time, the early nineties, and music is like time travel. It takes you back to a different era. I still do a bit of writing but I’m nowhere near as productive as I was when I was younger.”
‘Memories – The Complete Epic Recordings 1990-1999′ is out May 26 on Cherry Red Records.
Read the full interview in the June 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
