PP Arnold's Long Lost Slice Of The '60s Has Finally Seen The Light Of Day

As far as amazing life narratives go, you don't get many more fascinating or far-reaching than that of American-born '60s chanteuse PP Arnold.

After fleeing an abusive marriage she'd endured as a teenage mother in an LA ghetto, Arnold was plucked from obscurity in 1964 to join The Ikettes - the all-female singing and dancing troupe who backed the smash hit Ike & Tina Turner Revue - before absconding from that role a couple of years later while on tour in the UK at the behest of a young Mick Jagger, who'd become besotted with both her voice and charisma.

So at the very height of swinging-'60s London, Arnold found herself signed to British soul label Immediate Records and racking up chart hits like The First Cut Is The Deepest and Angel Of The Morning in between working with artists such as The Small Faces, Rod Stewart and various Stones and flitting around a social scene, which included everyone from Jimi Hendrix to George Harrison.

And while these halcyon days weren't destined to last forever, and there's been plenty of highs and lows in the ensuing decades, since those heady times Arnold has still managed to work with an incredibly diverse array of artists the calibre of Nick Drake, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Boy George and The KLF.

Now Arnold's star is on the rise once more with the recent release of her long-lost third solo album The Turning Tide, which, in turn, has culminated in her very first trip down to Australia.

"I'm so excited, I really am," the singer gushes from her current abode in Spain. "I really can't wait. I'm in training, I'm like an athlete here getting ready for you guys! Grandma's here training every day so that I'm physically, mentally and spiritually ready to rock!

"I still love singing and I love performing, it's my favourite thing. I'm still in pretty fine shape physically and vocally, so I love it. I've continued to work on my voice over the years to keep it up to par - I don't want to sound like an old lady, that's for sure. I'm singing all of these songs from the '60s and everything and people want to hear them how they were, and I want to be able to give it to them, and sounding great just like they did back in the day."

To aid her on this noble quest, Arnold has assembled a crack squad of Australian musicians who she's super keen to meet and begin making beautiful music with.

"I'm learning about them and I am totally impressed and really looking forward to working with all of them," she enthuses. "There's Tim and Andy and Rusty from You Am I, who I hear are an amazing rock band, and then we've got James Black and Talei Wolfgramm - he's got a great voice and is sounding good - so I'm really looking forward to working with everybody! Can't wait!"

And the feeling is completely mutual according to her prospective new bandmates.

"In the short journey from Ikette to Immediate, PP Arnold established herself as one of the great soul singers," offers You Am I skinsman Rusty Hopkinson. "The thought of being behind the drum-set and accompanying her on tunes like The First Cut Is The Deepest is incredibly exciting. I certainly didn't have to be asked twice, in fact I don't think they asked me once. I just called up my friend Dave and said, 'You gotta let play me drums, mate!'"

The Turning Tide was shelved some 50 years ago amid a smoky backdrop of music-industry politics, but sounds as fresh today as when it was first put to tape. The album was put together with Barry Gibb both contributing songs and producing, but, when the Bee Gees became an ongoing concern again, he left the project and was immediately replaced by Eric Clapton, who finished the record using the band that became Derek & The Dominos, as well as vocalists Rita Coolidge and Doris Troy.

"It was definitely an exercise in keeping the faith," Arnold chuckles. "I've been trying to get these tracks heard since they were recorded, which is nearly 50 years ago really. They were recorded at the very end of the '60s - between '68 and '70 - and they just kind of sat on the shelf since then because they were never released.

"I'd left Immediate Records and then Barry and I got together after meeting through a mutual friend when he loved my version of To Love Somebody - that's what brought us together, and I was a big Bee Gees fan. It was during a period when the Bee Gees had split up and Barry really wanted to keep recording and doing things, and he was really excited about working with me because he really liked my voice.

"He was writing all these great songs - they sort of run through him like a river - so we decided to do the album with him writing songs and producing, so he could keep recording. He was responsible for me to signing to RSO and having [Robert] Stigwood take over my management for that period. So we went in and recorded all these great songs.

"I'd been on Immediate and was considered, like, this 'little Mod girl', so we wanted to change the whole vibe and a lot of the songs on The Turning Tide were Barry's beautiful, beautiful ballads, which were really stretching me in a way. I'd always been influenced by Dionne Warwick and the quality and craftsmanship of these tracks was really special.

"Plus we experimented with a few things like the really-rock version of Born that's on the album - people are always really shocked when I do that, and they don't realise that Barry could do anything really!"