Joan Armatrading – HuffPost 2.27.13

Mike Ragogna: So that leads nicely to my question what advice do you have for new artists?

Joan Armatrading: I don’t know what advice I have for new artists, but what I did do on my 2012 tour when I went around Britain was I took fifty-six local artists, fine artists, with me. So instead of taking one person around who’s my support, I had fifty-six people. In each city, if they were from Birmingham, then they played the Birmingham gig. If they were from London, they played the London gig. If they were from Brighton, they played the Brighton gig. There were fifty-six people each playing a different city on the tour. I think that’s what I try to do. The great thing is if you’re starting out, you should be able to play to people, get them to hear your songs, get them to see you, get them to know you and your personality, just introduce yourself and, hopefully, they will become friends of yours. That’s what I did, and that’s actually the answer to the question. That’s my advice, to get out there and try and get people to see who you are. Because I was on tour and I could kind of do it, then I did it. It was hard work.