That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Beverley Knight

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

Singer, songwriter and West End star, Beverley Knight, joins Gaby for a natter about all the brilliant things she has planned for this year. They chat about her 50th year celebrations, her return to the West End...and her foray into film! Bev is such a joyous character, who loves life and has infectious energy - and we hope some rubs off on your after listening to this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

year, Miss Beverly. Thank you. Happy New Year to you, Gabby. Good Christmas, good New Year. Brilliant. Always. Always brilliant. Always brilliant. Always have a good time. It's very interesting. You and I, just before we started recording, we're talking about going to the gym, I have a real thing about people at this time of year doing, oh, my New Year's resolution. I hate resolutions. Yeah, forget resolutions. Not. Forget them. Hallelujah to you.

Absolute. Binham. Yeah. They mean nothing because you, you. You make this. I resolve to do X, Y and Z, and it becomes a bug bear. Yeah, I agree. A thing in your head. And then eventually it just peters away. Yeah.

That's not about resolutions. No. And also this thing that people go and they rush and they go, I'm going to go to the gym every day. Do you know what? Don't do it right now, but do it when you just go, okay. Because it just makes you feel better, doesn't it? Working out, going to the gym, doing weights,

good for your mind, body and spirit. Yeah. and menopause and staving off dementia, all of these things. It's just important for all of that. It really is. And the more weight you can get in, you know, the women worry about, oh, if I do weight,

I'm going to bulk up and I'm going to, you're not. You're really not because a lot of that is to do with what you're eating as well. But the weight promotes the testosterone and the older you get and more all of that stuff falls away, that just helped you, as you say, to stave off those menopause symptoms and dementia, etc. It's so important. It's so good.

So you came from the gym this morning. The sun is shining. We are ready for the world, quite frankly. You've never not been ready for the world, though, have you? So I think, so I've got a photograph of you with my daughter when she was two. She's now 22, my elder daughter. Wow. But even before that, I remember.

I remember interviewing you. And I honestly, hand on heart, you have not changed. And what I always loved about you is feisty for all the right reasons. You knew what you could do. You knew what you wanted to put out there. You knew what you were capable of. And you love life. And that, to me, that's you in a nutshell.

Have I, is that right? Would you say? That's pretty right. It's pretty accurate. I very much love life. I love people, I love living, I love interacting with folk. There is a reason to get up in the morning and smile. You know, it's another day, let's go.

That's my vibe. And I have, you know, always been quite centred on this is what I want to do. And I want to achieve it. And even if it takes forever, I'm still going to do it. And then tick it off. Right, what's next? But you don't, it's not like you've thrown it away. don't say, oh, well, I've done that.

Oh, but you are, I've achieved it. And that is a different word than I've done it. Do you know what I mean? I do. I do. I do. And there's power in words. I write songs.

But I think if you achieve, you can not only feel good about yourself, but you can be hopefully an inspiration to other people, a beacon to say, look, I went from point A. over here and it looked like it was going to be difficult and there might be some obstacles in challenges. But I eventually got to point B and guess what, you can go to point B too. You might even go to point C, D, E, F, you know, do it because it can be done. Did you, were you always like that then? Were you very determined and disciplined? Really, when you were a child as well.

Oh, my mum and dad would have called it stubbornness. I think now they appreciate that it was just a determined mindset. If I fixed my mind on something, nothing was going to change it. Nothing. And I was going to get whatever it is. I wanted to get done, ticked off, you know, I was going to do it.

But not in a bad, not in a way of, you're not an elbow. You don't, I don't, strikes me that you're not somebody who elbows people out the way. You're somebody who bring people in, not push them away. You've got to, nobody does anything by themselves. that's just not how life works. Even if you look at someone, I'm a solo artist,

you might look at me and say, look what she did. Oh, she's achieved this, she's achieved that. Yeah, what you haven't seen is the army who was marching with me. I might have been at the front and in the middle, but they were all with me and often, you know, shoulder to shoulder. So it's about all of us coming up and all of us coming through, that is the reality of anybody's situation, you know.

You always, always have people who have helped you. Some are there for the long haul. Some might be popping and then pop off again. But there is always a collective that help you to achieve anything that you've achieved in life. So for you, the fifth chapter, your album, and now you're in your 50s as well. Yeah. Does it feel like those people are still standing side by side? Can you sort of look back?

Obviously looking forward because there's, let's hope you're going to your 10th chapter. I hope so. Yes. But the people that were there and the people who are here now, you just, I feel that you just feel ever thankful as well. Yeah, they're still there. That's the thing. I've got friends who have supported me when we're at school,

together. You're going to be famous one day, babe. You're going to watch on top of the pops. You're going to be famous. You know, to this day, now we laugh about it going, I remember when you used to sing to us in the playground at school. And we're all like in our 50s and we're all laughing about it. Last year we all met up in the summer. My little group of friends, we've all known each other since we were 11.

And we all met up just to talk about, do you remember so and so from school? Did you sing in the playground with them? I did? No, no, I meant when you met up, you needed to find, promise me this year, it's a brand new year. You will meet up with them again. You will find a playground and you will reenact that moment. Oh my God, I might have to do that.

That'd be fun. I'll go back to all Rampton and what do it. And what song was it that you would sing in the playground? Well, my one friend would always ask me to sing Madonna songs because he was obsessed with Madonna. And then my other friend would always ask me to sing Janet Jackson's songs. So it was always, yeah, Madonna, Janet Jackson, but at school, like assembly and stuff like that,

it was always Whitney Houston. And I got a bit older by the time Whitney Houston came along, so I could sing those songs. And, you know, they were part of my DNA. Do you know what? I'm just sitting here smiling, thinking, imagine all those young girls now who were in the playground who sing your songs.

Oh, that's mad. That, that, that, almost. It always kind of makes me go, Huh? No way. Me, my songs, no way. But also for a young black girl in a playground who thinks, I'm going to, nobody's going to take notice of me.

Yes, they are. For a young girl, for a young, for anybody that's in the playground who might be slightly shy, because you and I've spoken about that and feeling that awkward feeling. It can. You can stand in the playground and sing and somebody will listen. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

We talked about it before. I always felt as though I was square peg, round hole, wrote the song, wrote a song about exactly that. I just never seemed to find a place for me. I wasn't one of the cool kids. I was very much a nerd, you know. I was very sporty and a nerd, but music obsessed. and that was my heart and soul.

So I never found... Your tribe. A tribe. There was never a tribe. But I did have my close friend, so I was lucky. I was everybody's friend, if you know what I mean. But the thing that always centred me to this day, music. Music was my go-to, my passion, my home, my living room.

And I'd sing for anybody who would listen. Or I'd sing to myself. I still do. I'll walk around the supermarket. Good. You know, still sing away and people are like, hmm? Oh, that's Beverly. Yeah, she's singing, of course.

You know. That's wonderful. And it's so empowering. So I would say to any of those kids who are in the playground and scared to let their voice go, let it fly, let it fly, because it'll give you power. There's so much power in the melody. in the notes and in the words, you know, give full vent to it.

Somewhere someone is hearing you, you know. It's so interesting because those kids that said, we want to see you on top of the pops. You'll be on, no, not going to, we want to see you, you'll be on top of the pops. When you, all the things that you look back on now, including the musicals, because you and I spoke, when you did your first, when you did the bodyguard,

I remember interviewing you and you'd been on stage for a week or two weeks or something, your eyes were bigger than they'd ever You've got big eyes I've got big eyes I mean they were just And I went Oh you were loving And that was that am I right

Was the bodyguard the first thing you did That was the first pro Yeah show that I've done I'd done so much hand dram before that But this was the first time That was on the West End stage Bit of a jump

But what an about term Because now you know Award winning nominated Liviers all the rest of it As a stage actress. Isn't that fantastic? It's mind-blowing.

I think, again, it speaks to just that determination. I wanted to do a good job. Whatever it took to do a good job, I was going to do. Determination, that word again. Really was determined, you know. And the resilience of it

because you've got to be resilient in that game. My God, eight shows a week, just over and over. I didn't have to do eight shows when I did the bodyguard. I did six shows because it's such a big thing.

But in all the other shows, you know, eight shows a week. But not only that, everybody else around me, the whole of the ensemble and the creatives, you know, they enabled me to do that job. If there was ever an example of how you might be the one who walks off with the Olivier Award, but an army backed you to help you to get there. Theatre is it because you simply don't exist without everybody around you

from the person who wrote the libretto to the person who's done the score, your fellow actors on stage with you, you know, costumes, lights, sound, all of it, the set. That really is the perfect example of, everybody coming together to help you to get over the line. It's a very special, whether you want to call it family or team or whatever. Yeah. It is extraordinary. There's nothing quite like it.

Absolutely right. Nothing like it. It's so, it's so much about that, that relationship that you form with everybody else who is around you. And they all have their part to play. And together, the real star is that show Because long after you've gone, that show will exist in another realm, in another life somewhere. Ben, you're about to do it again.

So you're going, this year is quite a year for you. Yeah. With the album that we've just spoken about, the fifth chapter. But also, you're going back into sixth Easter Act and you've got part two of your tour. Yes. So are you going to sleep ever? I get lots of sleep.

I make sure I'm sure. I sleep. So let's talk about Sister Act. So that's the latest thing on stage. That's right. It's March. And just a couple of months away. Yes.

Excited to be going back? I am. I am because, oh my God. I've got Ruth Jones of Gavin and Stacey fame. Fabulous. She's so fabulous. Oh my God. And she's fully, fully doing mothers.

She's Mother Superior. And she's fully Welsh as the Mother Superior, which is just a whole whole. different spin on that character. So I'm looking forward to that. I've got the wonderful, the voice of Disney I call her. I'm absolutely manifesting

Disney Princess role for Lizzie B who will be, she's like a West End legend. She'll be Sister Mary Robert, you know, the one who's shy and then finds her voice. When you hear her sing, you'll be like, okay, right, wow. It's just absolute, extraordinary

voice. Lamar is going to be making his theater debut as Curtis. He's a lovely actor. He does a CBBC. He does a key show on CBBC. That's right. He's so good in it. He's good. He's really good. And I've been telling him, I told him years ago, you got to get into it. And he was like, oh, well, you know, you know, laid back. He's, oh, well, you know. And now finally he's going to do it. And I'm so glad he's going to be opposite me. He's playing Curtis, the gangster with his little crew. Leslie Joseph is. She's back. She's back. Why is Cracking Sister Mary Lazarus? It's just going to be fantastic. I can't wait. How long are you doing it for? Well, I am doing from mid-March to the 8th of June.

Oh, a long time. Right. Okay. A nice little run there. Yeah. And then my mate, Alexandra Burke, is going to take over the role of Sister Mary Clarence, aka Dolores Van Cartier. So she'll be in the habit too. Lovely. Fantastic. Yeah.

So then you do, so when you finish the Sister Act, you then go, you're back out there at September on tour? I swap hats from theatre. Are you going to be doing some gigs? Are you going to be doing some festivals? I'll be doing the festivals in the summer. I can't imagine you're not doing them. Yeah. That's a big part of your makeup, isn't it?

Absolutely. Lots of good stuff coming my way. And then I'll continue to wear my music hat because then in September as the festival season died, off, I'll be back on stage for part two of my 50 tour, which I'm very excited about. Royal Albert Hall, amazing. And going back home to Wolverhampton, to the halls at the Civic, which I'm very excited about. Because they've revamped it. They've given it a bit of a polly. I love the way your accent, whenever you talk about home, your accent gets much stronger.

Oh, Woolrampton. No, I love it. I absolutely love it. What does it feel knowing what you've got for the next year? Is there a comfort in that Or is it What is that like? Because I think we're both We're both freelancers For another expression

So very often Somebody say Or can you do something in June I don't know what I'm doing in June Because it's all over the place Yeah So how does it feel To know exactly

What you're doing Each month That must be quite exciting It is exciting You can relax I know that I mean that's 2024

And then 2025 I know that I'll probably be going back into theatre. Oh, you know that already? Yeah. Can you say what that is? Not yet. Oh!

So I will, you know. But theatre will be happening. You're blushing. Okay, I'm going to try and guess. Is it something you've done? There's also a movie. I'm not even going to go. You're not going to tell me.

No, there's also a movie in there somewhere. Sorry. There's lots going on. Okay. All right, I'm going to now calm down. I'm going to say, can you tell us anything about this film? I can't tell you. Nothing. All I'm going to say is in the movie, I definitely won't be anything like the character that you know me as. I will be playing against type.

Right. Yes. Not a singer. Definitely not a singer. Not a singer. Not a singer. Is it a film that, is it a film or is it a TV series show thing? Oh, this is a movie. In the cinemas. This is in the cinema. So you could be winning. an Oscar. I'm funny it out there. Oscar worthy. Maybe one day. Okay, so you're doing a movie

and then music, you're doing another musical. Is this something you've done before? Yes. So, but I'm not going to say anything else. I'm just going to drink this. Sylvia. She's not going to tell me. I'm going to tell you anything.

So you've played. But yeah, there is a comfort. So answer your question. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not even that's the question. There is a comfort in knowing that at this point you're going to be doing And at that point, you're going to be doing this.

But there's also excitement in all the bits in between where I'm like, I don't know. Let's just see what the universe puts on my lap. That's always exciting. You know, it's so interesting, though, that there's a lot of crossover with people that we know in theatre, in music, in television, in radio. And they all say the same thing. She's so busy and you never, you never, you. You always make time for yourself and for others. And I get that that's, yeah, that you, that's important to you.

It's taking time for yourself is really important. And I had to learn that. As I told me, I had to learn that, you know, you need to stop so you can rejuvenate so that you can be of good service and use to other people. And, you know, you just need to stop sometimes. Yeah. Because I love what I do, I always thought, I don't want to stop.

It's boring. I just want to keep going. But now I understand that it is really important to do so. And I guess the older you get, the more you realise the value of having a break, you physically need to have a break. But it's important for me to know that I've rested so that I can go on stage or, you know, whether I'm on screen or getting, a character or making a movie

or making a movie knowing that I'm not carrying an injury or just general tiredness or whatever it might be that my mind is on the job and not on 17 other jobs that are coming

or you know I'm worrying about it's I'm present that's what I want to say I'm present in that moment that's important, really important to me. I don't think you could do a good job otherwise. And learning to be present with other people when I'm not on stage or doing a movie or whatever,

when I'm just talking to you now or I'm in a restaurant with my friends or with my husband or those moments, being fully, fully focused on that. That's important too. So these are things that I have learned along the way and that I would absolutely encourage other people to get to that place, quicker than I got to it at least. Yeah, it's interesting.

I mean, the older you get, you keep learning. I mean, I love learning. Love learning. I forever want to learn. But I wish I'd put into practice the things that I've learned now, even though I knew they were there. Does that make sense to you? So you've just said the same thing.

You just wish you'd done it a little bit earlier. People call it mindfulness, and that sounds very woo-woo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just giving a damn about the people you're with at that time and taking care of yourself so that you can take care to be with the people that you want to be with. You know, yes, those things are so important. And I'm glad I'm doing it now. and not trying to focus on a million things

while I'm trying to focus on something else. It doesn't serve you well. You know, it's interesting. Coming in here this morning, I was on the train. And I looked at the character, I do this thing where I tried to see how many people I can say good morning to, who will answer me back.

And I do it, especially on a sunny day today, sunny. So I just look at people, well, hello, good morning. And I do it on the train. And I start talking to everybody on the train. Sometimes they give me a very strange look but most times everyone chats But this morning, and I promise I'm not exaggerating I do exaggerate, I know

But this, I'm really really not Every single person was on their phone Everyone That's not and that wouldn't seem Strike me as hyperbolic at all Because everybody is on their phone But there wasn't a child There was a baby in a pram

That the mum had given the phone And he was on the phone She was on her phone It must have been his own phone I've suddenly realised because she had her own phone but everyone was on a phone and I suddenly thought

they're not watching the stations go past they're not, nothing and I suddenly did I did have that moment I thought I'm going to share that with Beverly because I can imagine you saying to everybody

standing up on the train and going everybody put your phones down come on let's all sing together I'd love that have you never done it? I've never done that I've done it. Really?

I've never done that. There was a man listening to Living on a Prayer really loudly in his headphones. Oh my God. So I started singing out loud to him without even realising. And then the whole carriage we all sung. And it's all... Okay. What is it about that song?

Living up prayer. You always want to join in with it. Yeah. It's just the power of music. It's compelling. But that song seems to be one of those songs that everybody just sings along to. Everybody knows it. They all know the woe.

Everybody loves the woes. Next time you're on a train, will you just sit? You do it in the supermarket. I do sing on the train. Do you know, I probably do sing on the train. And I sing so much, I don't even know I'm doing it. I love that. So it's probably that.

Okay, song of choice. Song of choice on the train, getting everyone to sing. What would it be? Not living on a prayer. Oh, my God. One of yours. Shoulder would have could have. They probably would be shoulda would have could be.

Yes. if I did it because I know most people know that one. Yes. Oh, good. Right. I'm going to make sure I'm going to stalk you and follow you. Make sure you sing on the train. Beverly, thank you so much. Good luck with the album. Good luck with the tour. Thank you.

Good luck with Sister Act and the film and the show. I know what I'm hoping it is, but it could be so many if you've done it before. Drift it up. It could be so good. Oh, she's not going to tell me. Lovely, have your tea. Thank you, my lovely. Thank you so much. My pleasure.