HUNTINGDON HALL - OCTOBER 2008

From 'Worcester News'

It's not often in this navel-gazing age that you come across an artist who has no qualms whatsoever about baring her soul for all to see.

Beverley Craven does all of this and more – this diva’s identity bracelet must surely be the beating heart that she wears on her sleeve.

Personal relationships would be her Mastermind subject if required and there’s no doubt at all that she would win the trophy.

She may have been a loser in love but she’s most certainly a winner in life.

Mr Know-It-All couldn’t hide his ignorance behind a subtle minor chord arrangement, Woman To Woman was precisely that, and I Miss You left nothing to the imagination. These were superbly crafted songs.

Yet there was scarcely a trace of bitterness in these epics. She unashamedly borrows from Carole King and Joni Mitchell as far as style and delivery are concerned, yet skilfully manages to avoid the charge of being too derivative.

She has also attracted some fine sidesmen, the saxophone and guitar departments providing more than a taste of 70s jazz-funk retro that evoked memories of Tom Scott and the LA Express. This band hung together well.

Beverley Craven has a charming, self-effacing stage persona, and although she was undoubtedly preaching to a fair number of the converted, never once – despite a light dusting of name-dropping – did she convey anything other than being a mistress of all she surveys.

(Review by John Phillpott - 31 October 2008)

RONNIE SCOTTS (BIRMINGHAM) JUNE 1999

From 'The Birmingham Post'

Singing star Beverley Craven could not have wished for a better debut at Ronnie Scott's. After six years away from the music scene having a family, Beverley is back on tour promoting her new self-penned album Mixed Emotions and is playing two sets of two-nighters at the club in June and July.

A packed, attentive and amazingly quiet audience greeted the singer/songwriter who spent the first set introducing songs specifically written around her family and girlfriends, like a biological clock themed Tick Tock about her sister and Mollie's Song about her seven-year-old daughter.

Beverley accompanied herself on piano throughout, with Nigel Hitchcock (sax) John Giblin (bass) and Ian Bairnson (guitar) providing excellent support.

The second set also saw Beverley sharing with the audience, this time, her experiences of a broken romance and relationship in Love Scenes and Feels Like the First Time.

Beverley had opened and closed the second set with her best-known songs Holding On and Promise Me and by the time she played an encore, I Listen to the Rain, the polite audience had leapt up to applaud in vain for more.

(Review by Stephen King - 16 June 1999)

RONNIE SCOTTS (BIRMINGHAM) JUNE 1999

From 'The Sunday Mercury'

If you've ever bought one of those "All Woman" or "The Gentle Touch" compilations of female singers, chances are it included a Beverley Craven song. Back in the early 90s Beverley was hot property, with the singles Holding On and Promise Me.

Two albums later, she took a sabbatical to have three children and a break from the business.

Now she's back - though judging from the svelte figure which swept onto the stage at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham it was hard to believe she'd been on triple maternity leave. Dressed in the sheerest of silk slips that resembled fish scales, immaculately turned out, she had hardly changed in six years.

Backed by sax, double bass and guitar, this was a typical intimate gig at Ronnie's - the stage resembling a cosy living room (except you'd be lucky to find this group turning up at your house for a jam).

The warm, rich sound of piano, Beverley's great voice and the backing band swept around the club as she sang Woman To Woman, Tick Tock (from the new album Mixed Emotions), Mollie's Song and One Of A Kind.

It must be tricky (though enjoyable) being one of her friends or relatives.

Nearly every song centred around a girlfriend, child or parent: "It's my therapy," she explained. "You're mine!" replied one of the crowd.

The new album may be a mirror of the last and most of the songs run along the same lines but when it's as enjoyable as this, who cares?

(Review by Jon Perks - 20 June 1999)