PP Arnold: London’s First Lady Of Soul

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Pat Arnold born Patrica Ann Cole in 1946 in Los Angeles professionally known as P P Arnold is a soul singer who enjoyed considerable success in the United Kingdom in the 60s and beyond Born into a family of gospel singers PP married early had two children worked a series of menial jobs until the early 60s when her friends contacted her with an offer she couldn 39 t refuse The girls had managed to arrange an audition for them to replace the original Ikettes the vocal and dancer singer troupe behind the Ike and Tina Turner Revue One of the girls didn 39 t show up and PP was asked to fill in The three girls were offered the job on the spot PP defied her husband placed her children in the care of her parents and joined Ike amp Tina Turner She came to England in 1966 on tour in support of The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger was impressed by her soulful voice and convinced Stones manager Andrew Oldham to sign PP to record with his newly founded record label PP quit the Turner band to establish a solo career She also had a fling with Jagger PP enjoyed several major British hits including songs written for her by Steve Marriott of The Small Faces She also sung backing vocals on the their hit quot Tin Soldier quot and toured with them in 68 PP toured with Jimi Hendrix The Who The Kinks Blind Faith David Bowie and others and scored several hits including a cover version of quot The First Cut Is the Deepest quot and quot Angel of the Morning quot After the collapse of record label in the late 60s PP released two singles produced by Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees but a planned album with Gibb was never completed In 1970 she moved to the musical stage and contributed session musician backing vocals to many notable UK sessions During these sessions she met bassist Fuzzy Samuels of Crosby Stills Nash amp Young They married and had a son The couple returned to Los Angeles PP 39 39 s marriage to Samuels ended and two weeks after the split her daughter Debbie was killed in a car accident She withdrew from public life re-emerging in 1978 when she was reunited with Barry Gibb and teamed up with Andy Gibb for a duet recording of the Carole King song quot Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow quot She returned to England in 1982 to raise her son there In 1984 she joined the cast of the musical Starlight Express She appeared on Roger Waters 39 album in 1992 providing vocals on the song quot Perfect Sense quot In 1994 she joined the cast of the award-winning musical Once On This Island While the production was playing in Birmingham she met leading UK band Ocean Colour Scene one of the new wave of latter-day mod groups who like their mentor Paul Weller idolised The Small Faces Her friendship with OCS led to her singing the lead vocal backed by Primal Scream on a cover of The Small Faces 39 quot Understanding quot which was included on a successful Small Faces tribute album She also worked extensively with Ocean Colour Scene on their 1997 album This success led to plans for her to record her first solo album in decades but once again it was not completed Deciding to put together a new band to promote her material Arnold joined forces with Chaz Jankel former pianist with Ian Dury and The Blockheads This was followed by an invitation to tour widely with Roger Waters She was a backup vocalist on his 1999 2000 tour as well as the 2006 2008 tour Dark Side of the Moon Live In mid 2007 she released her first recorded work for several years The album is a duet with The Blow Monkeys frontman Dr Robert and has been met with critical acclaim as have their live performances at several venues Click here to visit this podcast episode