Ruby Turner, Britain’s number one R’n’B and soul voice, plays in Gretna and Lockerbie this month as part of Lockerbie Jazz Festival.
Her CV positively sparkles with superstars in the music world. The singer, songwriter and occasional actress has worked with the likes of Bryan Ferry, Mick Jagger, UB40, The Temptations, Steve Winwood, Lulu and The Four Tops.
Ruby’s peripatetic career has steered her from Montego Bay in Jamaica, to Handsworth in Birmingham, and most of the way round the globe. Her big break came in the mid-1980s when she was asked to join Culture Club and sing on “From Luxury To Heartache”. A solo record deal soon followed and her debut album, “Women Hold Up Half The Sky” (1986), was a critical and commercial success. Since then there have been many hits sprinkled throughout her career, from “It’s Gonna Be Alright”, which reached No 1 on the American R&B chart, to “I’d Rather Go Blind”, which was the highlight of her string of chart successes throughout the 1990s. She also branched into acting as well, working in stage productions of “A Streetcar Named Desire”, “Carmen Jones” and “Fame”, on the BBC soap opera “Doctors” and appeared in the feature film “Love Actually”.
In tandem with the loquacious Holland and his big band, she has belted out boogie-woogie and scintillating soul and wrapped her sumptuous voice around everything from evocative elegies to stomping stadium anthems. She has guested on Jools’ Annual Hootenanny as well as performing “You Are So Beautiful” with Jools Holland at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in London.
Turner enjoys devising new concert schedules with Holland – “Jools has this boundless enthusiasm about him which is really infectious” – but is also involved in her own solo projects: “I always want to push myself. There will probably be some blues, some soul, some jazz and gospel, and who knows what else? The main thing is that it makes you feel warmer, happier, and stirs your emotions. I feel blessed that I have been able to do something I love for so many years. But I have no intention of slowing down or looking backwards. I live in the here and now.”
Whilst Ruby Turner headlines the Festival, other female musicians also appear: American singer, Melba Joyce and American pianist Stephanie Trick play in Lockerbie and Moffat, Alison Affleck plays in Annan, whilst Seonaid Aitken’s band Rose Room plays at Take Five and Sue McHugh runs Singers Unlimited.
Ruby Turner will be appearing:
Lockerbie: Friday 25th September. Lockerbie Town Hall
Gretna: Saturday 26th September. The Gretna Social & Athletic Club
The full programme is available on the website www.lockerbiejazz.com.
Tickets are available from our ticket hotline: 07894 088218; and in person from:
• Mckenzie’s Newsagents, 110 Central Avenue, Gretna DG16 5AQ,
• Margarets Newsagents, 108 High St, Lockerbie, DG11 2ES,
• Midsteeple Box Office, 1 Midsteeple, Dumfries DG1 2BH,
• Moffat Bookshop, 5 Well Street, Moffat. DG10 9DP.
