OFFICIAL PROGRAMME

Hi Everyone,

2002 has been a year of fantastic achievement for me and this journey I’m on is certainly never a predictable one.

I am always amazed at the opportunities and places my music can take me, never more so than the events of this past year. With Who I Am charting Top 10, touring both with and headlining in the spring, the Mercury Music Award nomination and an inspirational trip to Brazil with the charity Christian Aid looking at problems over there with poverty and HIV/Aids, the past 18 months has allowed me to experience things that will stay with me forever.

It has taken a lot of hard work, and there’s a lot more striving still to do but it’s been worth it. I’d like to thank all the people that have helped me along the way and those that continue to support me. Your support means the world to me.

I’d like to welcome you to the tour and I hope you enjoy the show. What a great way to end the year - we love being on stage and we aim to give you a great time!

See you next year with a new and more shows…

Peace ‘n’ love

Beverley Knight An awesome voice, an already great artist, yet one who has used that self-claimed time away to con- tinue the all-important process of maturing and growing. Certainly, she’s been missed in her tempo- rary absence, but the good news is that this three-times Mobo award-winner is here among us again. Not only that, but, as a blossoming and very centred 29 year old, she’s sounding even better than ever. Why wouldn't she be? Since last time around, she’s charmed (and been totally awed by) Nelson Mandela, sung Happy Birthday to a delighted Mohammed Ali, duetted live and on record with Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay, and done a whole lot of getting to know herself too. "All of which has brought me to a very good place indeed!"

This much - and more - is evident from her fabulous album, ‘Who I Am’. The fact is that has again, and triumphantly so. "I’ve been through many, many changes, and you can hear them all right here", she admits of the living-and-learning process she has undergone these past two and a half years. "I’ve found out lots about the industry I work in but also, and more importantly, about me myself-and-I. Perhaps most significant in all of this was the fact that, during it all, I came out of a long term relationship. That was a big old thing for me, believe me! As the title suggests, it’s a collection which deals primarily with the question of identity. "With the people and experiences that have shaped me, and with where I am headed next," she confirms. That said, it’s a journey with a projected happy ending. "Because I’m pleased to say that I’ve come out on the far side with my soul intact, with a clear sense of exactly who Beverley is, and (she laughs here, as if in gratitude) with the smile still on my face!" Good news, then, for the university graduate turned homegrown r’n’b heroine - a woman who, when looking for musical role models, turns more readily to artists like , (as well as greats such as Aretha and Chaka) than to whoever it is that media opinion is electing as the latest funky diva-du-jour. "Man, that’s not where I’m coming from at all! What Prodigal Sista did (with its two top 20 hits 'Made It Back'and 'Greatest Day') was break me out of that specialised, ghettoised box that all British black women artists find themselves dropped into, and which I’d been fighting for so long to escape from. Those Mobo awards, (Best R'n'B act in ‘98 and ‘99 as well as a Best Album Award for ‘Prodigal Sista’), were a start Then there was my insistence on playing live whenever and wherever possible. Yes, it costs a whole lot more to take your music to the people in that way, but that’s how the women who inspired me did it. They didn’t just sing and dance to backing tracks in a club. They were out there fronting a real band, holding a show together and working on captivating their audience. And that’s how I intend to do it too."

If the picture that you’re forming is of an artist more interested in developing her own talents than in following fashion, you are on the right track. Says Beverley, "My feeling about all of that is that when something or someone is super-hot, it or they can very soon grow cold. I prefer to see myself as kind of a back-burner, quietly keeping up a steady but intense heat!"

And true enough, on the top selling singles so far, the temperature is near-enough at boiling point. They provided the perfect taster for 'Who I Am', a set that showed just how far the girl from had come. The album features one strong song after another - some written and recorded in collaboration with top industry names here in the UK (D-Influence, Dodge and C -Swing for example) others with the cream of the crop in the U.S. From Nashville - Country Music Award winner Craig Wiseman with whom Beverley co-wrote the classic ‘’ – or Philadelphia (, who has worked with the likes of D'angelo, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott). "Songs are the key to it all with me, that’s why I’ve taken my time in coming back with this. Quality is appreciated by record buyers, and quality can’t be rushed. Hopefully, when the results are out there for everyone to hear, fans will feel that their patience has been rewarded."

Among those waiting patiently to hear ‘Who I Am’ was a steadily-growing list of famous admirers from Bowie and to Michael Stipe who she met at ’s open-air Celebrate South Africa Day concert back in April 2000. Jay Kay has to be more than a little smitten too. He invited Bev to guest on two of the tracks from his recent Jamiroquai album ‘A Odyssey’ and support him on his UK & European arena tours.

All of which is great, of course. But perhaps the best measure of where the sista herself is coming from can be taken from the reaction to finding herself at a private audience with the truly legendary Nelson Mandela. "It knocked me sideways that, through music, I had got to meet one of history’s liv- ing legends, a man who future historians will still be writing about in 500 or more years’ time. And how had it happened? It was because I, a woman from Wolverhampton, had dared to have a dream that was bigger than those that everyone else around me was carrying with them." By her own self-assessment, Beverley Knight has come a long, long way. And who would dare to set a limit on just how far that extraordinary talent could carry her still?

Alan Jackson ‘Who I Am’ entered the UK album charts at number 7 on March 17th 2002 and was certified gold status within a few weeks, the sales are now verging on platinum status. The first single, ‘Get Up’, was released in October 2001 and was a top 20 hit and a club smash, riding high in the club/dance charts. The video was nominated for a CAD (creative design award) for ‘Best Urban Video’. The second single, ‘Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda’, was Beverley’s first UK Top 10 hit. A huge Top 5 airplay record, it was one of the highest rotating singles of the year.

The third single, ‘Gold’, was released on 24th June 2002. It scored Bev another top 30 hit and sent ‘Who I Am’ back into the Top 20 album chart. Following highly successful support tours in Europe and the UK with Jamiroquai, Beverley undertook a headline tour of the UK in May. This was followed by appearances at various European festivals through the summer including Glastonbury, T In The Park and V2002 in the UK.

The latter stages of 2002 see no sign of Beverley slowing down. She was recently nominated for the prestigious 2002 Mercury Music Award. In October Beverley returned from a life-changing trip with the charity Christian Aid to Salvador in north-eastern Brazil, an experience that she found both moving and extremely informative. Beverley's trip allowed her to experience first hand the amazing projects that have been set up to combat a country plagued with extreme poverty and illness. Whilst in Brazil she visited organisations including GAPA-BAHIA, an AIDS prevention project, and CESE, an organisation that campaigns against .

Upon returning from her Christian Aid Trip, Beverley had the honour of performing at a benefit event for a Nelson Mandela Children's fund, which again allowed her to meet with her idol and inspiration.

Beverley has also recently travelled to New York where she recorded a new version of her single ‘’ with . Originally planned as a straightforward remix, Wyclef and Beverley soon reworked the entire track -its production, lyrics and melody – hence "Shape Of You - Reshaped’. The pair also shot the video, (which also features new Clef signing, 19 year old rapper ‘Hollywood’). Already the highest new entry in the urban chart the track is scheduled for release in the new year. www.beverleyknight.com

‘Shape Of You - Reshaped’ feat. Hollywood, produced by Wyclef Jean - released Feb 24th 2003

PHOTO - © JAMES DIMMOCK PHOTO - © JAMES DIMMOCK

PHOTO - © JAMES DIMMOCK PHOTO - © JAMES DIMMOCK

PHOTO - © JAMES DIMMOCK

In October Beverley returned from a life-changing trip with the charity Christian Aid to Salvador in north - eastern Brazil. Christian Aid is one of the UK’s leading international development organisations. It works wherever the need is greatest, irrespective of reli- gion, and supports local organisations that are best placed to respond to people’s needs.

“I anybody who initially is put off by the name Christian Aid, kind of needs to go back to the drawing board and re-think and see the work that’s being done.” "I’ve seen extreme poverty I’ve seen desperate cases and situations, the way that people are forced to live their lives, mainly due to poverty, everything seems to stem from poverty there. But in that kind of desperation I’ve also seen some inspirational characters, some rays of hope and some of the most genuine and strong willed people I’ve ever met. I hope people continue to support Christian Aid in this amazing work." "Strongest British R&B set in years from the Beverley Sista"

- Sunday Mirror

"Funky, souly, R&B’y .. in a word - Excellent"

- CD:UK Magazine

" 'Who I Am’ is as definitive and forthright as it’s title suggests. To hear Knight open her lungs and let rip is to experience something like R&B heaven"

- Sunday Times

'Operating at the point where pop and soul collide and hip-hop gazes on approvingly, the voice soars, swoops and sometimes just hovers with a power and grace that separates the blessed from the merely good.'

- Q "remarkably confident.. fantastic voice.. flamboyant stuff. The sparkling 'Who I Am’ gives the impression of a star about to go stellar."

- Q

'Utterly infectious'

-

"In musical breadth and emotional scope, it’s way beyond anything in it’s field this country has ever produced, damn near perfect"

- Attitude

'If there was ever a competition to find the woman with the most impressive live performance, Beverley Knight would surely win hands down.'

- The Daily Star Paul Reid- Guitar 'They call me Reidy, funky by nature. Bev is my lil baby, second to no one it is my pleasure to be part of her story, she is by far the most gifted and talented artist around. I have worked with the likes of Shola Ama, Usher, Brandy, Winans, Mark Morrison, Helen Bayler, Gloria Gaynor, amongst others.

Carlos Hercules – Drums 'Bev is one of my favourite artists. Her work and vibe is uplifting and refreshing. We have a great time on and off the stage! I have worked with Marti Pellow, Belinda Carlisle, Lynden David Hall, Heather Small, and many others. I'm like the Daddy of the team!'

L to R: Louise Marshall, Steve Walters, Billie Godfrey, Ashley Kingsly, Beverley, Paul Reid, Lucy Jules, DJ Pogo, Carlos Hercules. Lucy Jules – Backing Vocals 'Determined to stay eternally young!! Love anything to do with music. Favourite pastime= laughing!

Steve Walters – Bass On planet bass my path has taken me to share music with , Rod Stewart, Everything But The Girl, Kylie and . Play for real, listen for keeps, dance for joy, love for peace."

Ashley Kingsly- Keyboards 'It's a pleasure playing for Bev - her energy is great. Prior to this I have worked for Chris Rea, Mica Paris, Shola Ama, Mark Owen and many other wonderful people'

Billie Godfrey – Backing Vocals Before working with Beverley I have sung with artists including Lionel Richie, Sting, Lisa Stansfield and The Weather Girls. You can also find me on Kylie Minogue’s album ‘Fever’.

Louise Marshall- Backing Vocals I studied piano at Chetham’s and Guildhall School of Music & Drama. It’s great working with Beverley and the whole band. In the past I have worked with artists including Martine McCutcheon, Marti Pellow and Michael Ball. Band

Paul Reid Guitar Carlos Hercules Drums Steve Walters Bass Ashley Kingsly Keyboards DJ Pogo DJ Lucy Jules Backing vocals Billie Godfrey Backing vocals Louise Marshall Backing vocals

Management

Dave Woolf DWL Alan Edwards Outside Organisation

Also thanks to Karen Brosh at Outside Organisation, and Kizzi Alleyne-Stewart and James Windle at DWL.

Big thank you to Records for their continuing support.

Website (thanks Marcus!) - www.beverleyknight.com

Band Credits

Paul Reid: Many thanks to Framus Guitars, Godin Guitars, Mesa Boogie and Boss. Also Ben from M.A.D Music you are a star in your field. Carlos Hercules: Zildjian Cymbals & Pearl Drums, Protection Racket. Thank you for more than a decade of top gear & fantastic support. Steve Walters: Many thanks to Warwick, Washburn, Rotosound and Yahama. Also James Barker, James Howe & Ben Yourreall. DJ Pogo: Many thanks to Vestax, Shure, Anne Springerfrom Etnies & Nikita- thanks for all your support. Lucy Jules, Billie Godfrey and Louise Marshall: Many thanks to Iman Cosmetics, Jo, Ruth & Claire @ Faith, Korres Natural Products, Palmers Skincare. Shure Microphones. You all are lifesavers! Tour Manager Andy Bernstein

Production Manager Matt Napier

Tour Production Chris Fitch Production Assistant Adam Berlyne Lighting Design Steven Abbiss FOH Denny Vidal Monitors Rob Webster Reed Drum Tech Trapper Guitar Tech Martin Herbert Vari*Lite Tech Simon Lynch Vari*Lite Tech Simon Anderson Rigger / Set Steve Bellfield Skan PA Rigger Nick Stagg Caterer Suzy Coll Caterer Pauline Austin Merchandise Jessica Fischer Band Bus Driver Ray Valks Crew Bus Driver Matty Haberjam Truck Driver Dan Gobey Truck Driver John Burgess Truck Driver Paul Edwards

Trucking Fly By Night, Birmingham Lighting Company Vari*Lite, Middlesex PA Company Skan PA Hire, Reading Catering Eat To The Beat, Hertfordshire Staging Steeldeck, London Travel Agents MBA, London Accountants Dales, Evans. London Merchandise Blue Grape

Many thanks to:

Simon Lynch @ Vari*Lite tech Simon Anderson @ Vari*Lite tech Jessica Fischer @ Blue Grape Suzy Coll @ Eat to The Beat Pauline Austin @ Eat to The Beat Billy Bowman @ MBA Rob Wood @ Times Studios Matt Snowball JHE Music Bank Publicity & Display