Andrew Dawkins
BBC News, West Midlands
Marc Brenner
Beverley Knight has said she is planning to record more music after performing in her hometown theatre.
For the first time in 40 years, the artist is treading the boards in Wolverhampton this week for a production of Marie & Rosetta.
The work features music celebrating the legacy of gospel and blues singer Rosetta Tharpe in the development of rock ‘n’ roll.
Knight said “expect to hear some really bluesy vocals going down, some really earthy sounding stuff” in the music she would record.
The singer told BBC Radio WM this would take place “in the short period” after finishing in Wolverhampton and before doing her first show with Take That’s Gary Barlow.
Asked what kind of material would be recorded, she said for her “it’s always a hybrid” before mentioning the “blues and that kind of sound” in her current show and the film Sinners “and that proper fusion of modern blues and that”.
“I’ve just been living for it,” added Knight, who said she did not know when it would be released.
She last performed on stage at the Grand four decades ago in a theatrical production of West Side Story, the singer previously stated.
Knight, widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest soul singers, has said to be cast as Sister Rosetta in this week’s production was a “great honour”.
Marie & Rosetta tells the story of Tharpe and her protege, Marie Knight, played by Ntombizodwa Ndlovu. It is on at the Grand Theatre until Saturday.
It is set in 1946 in Mississippi and Beverley Knight said it was “right up my street… the gospel, of course, I was born into that whole tradition myself”.
She added: “I’m so happy I’m home. I’m gonna be in my old bedroom.
“More or less it looks the same as it was. [The] bed’s in the same place… [the] fitted wardrobe’s in the same place.”
Knight said her favourite place in the city “just to zone out and just chill out” was Bantock Park.
“I love Bantock Park. You’ve got the lovely cafe there and they do a really good tea and cake and… I go for lovely runs around there in the morning.”
