Beverley Craven
| Beverley Craven | |
|---|---|
| Born |
28 July 1963 Colombo, Ceylon |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals / piano |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Website | beverleycraven.com |
Beverley Craven (born 28 July 1963) is a British singer-songwriter best known for her 1991 UK Top 5 hit single "Promise Me". Her most recent album, Change of Heart, was released in 2014. She has sold over four million records in her career.
Although British, Craven was born in Colombo in July 1963 while her father was working for Kodak in Ceylon.
Two years later the family returned to Hertfordshire, Craven began taking piano lessons at the age of seven encouraged by her mother who was a classical violinist. Upon leaving school, she attended art college while performing with various bands in London pubs and writing songs. She was also an accomplished swimmer during her teens and competed in several local and national swimming competitions around the UK.
Craven did not buy her first pop record until she was 15 when she started buying records by singer-songwriters such as Elton John, Judi Tzuke, Stevie Wonder and, in particular, Kate Bush, all of whom influenced her music.
At 18, Craven left school and home and worked in a number of odd jobs. Having failed to find any sympathetic musicians with whom to play, at the age of 22 she decided to strike out on her own as a piano-playing singer and songwriter. Following a brief stint touring with soul singer Bobby Womack, who tried to sign her to his record label, she recorded her first set of demos and attracted the attention of Go West’s manager, John Glover. He quickly set about securing her a major music publishing deal with Warner Brothers and a development contract with Epic records followed.
In November 1988 she was sent to Los Angeles to work with some established songwriters and to ‘learn her craft’ playing in bars and restaurants. The experience was "unproductive" she confesses, preferring even now to write alone. Soon afterwards, again in Los Angeles, she made her first attempt to record her debut album with Stewart Levine of Simply Red fame. However she felt the professionalism of the recordings failed to capture the naivete of her work and was relieved when Epic agreed. She went on to record with Paul Samwell-Smith, whose other production credits included Cat Stevens, Carly Simon and All About Eve.
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