Soul survivor

BEVERLEY Knight's solid 13-year success in the music business allows her to express some sympathy for the pressures on Amy Winehouse but she admits she's got no time for the bad boy' culture of others in the industry like Pete Docherty.

Speaking before her biggest ever Music City Soul UK tour reaches Middlesbrough Town Hall, on October 26, and The Sage at Gateshead, on November 12, the singer says: "I feel sympathy for Amy Winehouse who needs support to ensure she's provided with the help she requires to get back to being a performer.

"But I don't have a lot of time for someone leading the tortured genius' life like Pete Docherty are you sure, I want to ask? It's a shame that in this day and age many artists seems to be like comets or great big posters that everybody can see and are very visible but are taken down the next day. Whereas my career seems to be, and I hope I'm not speaking too early, panning out more like a book where there are many chapters and many things going on over the years. I would prefer to be that little book on the shelf rather than the great big poster."

Asked to reflect on why so many young artists risk losing their lives by indulging in the party culture linked to the music scene, Knight says: "It happens through pressure mainly. I am speaking of Amy here who has the pressure of enormous success happening to her very quickly. I haven't had that massive success on that kind of global scale, almost overnight. My career has been working over the years steadily to what it is now. That's always something that I can handle and plan for it."

S HE also pays tribute to a lot of good people around her who made sure her tenacity to succeed is stabilised by advice which keeps her humble.

"Family and friends are always there after all I am from Wolverhampton and whoever heard of a difficult diva from Wolverhampton it's not going to work with my accent," she laughs.

That doesn't stop me from checking out her list of requests which all host venues will be asked to provide during the tour.

"My list is nearly always the same because all the band love brandy. But I can't be without my cup of tea, so there's got to be a kettle, teabags and soya milk."

Knight, who became an MBE in February, and who is best known for hits Greatest Day, Shoulda Woulda Coulda and Come As You Are, is equally honest about the Pentecoastal faith which dominated her formative years in Wolverhampton.

But don't call her a goodie twoshoes.

"The fact is I am what I am. I can't change it, I won't change it, I don't apologise for being what I am.

What always makes me laugh is that people who are not out to slag off other artists and act the fool and wreck themselves are always viewed with suspicion. That's why they are vilified because basically people are suspicious of why they would be nice. No, I'm not a goodie two-shoes by any stretch of the imagination, I'm just a decent person but I'm not something who's in the tabloids all the time. That's what it is basically. I can't help that and for me it's take it or leave it, that's my personality and I'm not to start acting up just to satisfy the tabloid end of the media. Then all the credibility that I've ever gathered and the acclaim disappears. I prefer to be me respected' than to be me notorious' and have everyone secretly laughing at me."

The tracks on the Queen Of Starting Over EP came from a gig she did for iTunes which was about 75 minutes long and broadcast on the internet.

"It was such a success and so fantastic we thought that these songs needed to be reprised. People have been screaming for something live from me for a long time and this is the perfect vehicle to do it.

There are the songs that people will know on there and also, those who have the new album, will recognise Queen Of Starting Over from Black Butter on there and it coincides very nicely with the tour," she says.

"The tour needed to be busy because there are so many areas of the country that I hadn't reached in a while. I have been to Middlesbrough before, the Town Hall, and I've never played The Sage as a proper show although I've done something for radio. I think the Sage is wonderful and I'm very used to the North-East because one of my best friends lives in Newcastle but DJs in Middlesbrough all the time. DJ Munro. He's called Munro Craig and people always think it's Craig Munro."

Knight's well used to fielding questions about her one and only reality TV appearance on BBC1's The Two Of Us, where she partnered Five Live and TV presenter Nicky Campbell in a singing contest.

"Oh God, I get asked to do this kind of TV so many times, but to be honest I don't like these shows. It was very funny in the beginning, but just how many people have made it from these kind of shows into a chart career?"

Will Young from Pop Idol and Lemar of Fame Academy are two of the rare exceptions, with the latter only finishing third in 2002 but collecting a £1m recording contract with Sony, thanks to Knight championing his career.

"But you're not going to catch me sitting next to Simon Cowell one day," she says.

● Beverley Knight, Middlesbrough Town Hall, October 26, box office: 01642-263848. The Sage, Gateshead, November 12, box office: 0191-443-4661