Beverley Craven is back trying to fulfill her promise again

Beverley Craven had a worldwide hit, but found raising a family didn’t fit with the life of a pop star, writes Ed Power

BEVERLEY Craven has had a roller-coaster career — and then some. The English singer’s debut single, ‘Promise Me’, was a worldwide number-one in 1991. But she was then a young mother, and it was difficult for her to juggle professional and family responsibilities. When her marriage ended in 2010, she became an object of tabloid fascination. She has been in the wars.

“It is exhausting being a mother,” says Craven (52). “Being pregnant is exhausting, breast-feeding is exhausting. As the mum, you are the main carer of the child — traditionally and to this day. That’s not sexist. It impacted on my career hugely. But I wanted to be a mum, even though it wasn’t planned, exactly.”

Some artists grow ambivalent about their best-loved songs. Yet Craven harbours no enmity towards ‘Promise Me’, a swooning ballad that hung around the upper echelons of the UK charts for months in 1991 and which has been covered and sampled many times.

Craven was surprised that ‘Promise Me’ was chosen as a single, and, all these decades on, that novelty has never quite faded.

“I was incredibly young and naive,” she says. “There were times I just had to take a leap of faith. Well, I’ve got a manager — he should be looking out for my best interests. I’ve got an accountant — he should be doing the same. The record company wants me to be a success — they’re not going to do anything stupid.”

When it was suggested that ‘Promise Me’ be the lead single off her debut album, Craven was stunned. She loved the soaring ballad — but it did not strike her as a natural fit for radio.

The A&R guy felt otherwise.

“I would leave my A&R guy choose the singles. I thought ‘Promise’ was a very strange single to kick it off. Clearly, I didn’t know what I was talking about. Some artists want to stay in control of everything. But you’ve got to let go — you can’t do everything when you are on TV, doing promotion, recording. There is so much stuff. How, as an individual, do you keep all the plates spinning?” Craven asks.

“But I love it when people respond to a particular song. After a gig, they might up come to me and tell me their life story. I feel really honoured — to have composed something that so many have connected with is a real joy.”

The downside was instant fame, which became more of an issue after she married musician, Colin Campsie, and they had three daughters. When their marriage broke up, the gossip press descended, drawn by the revelation that Craven had moved out of the family home.

“It is a bit of a pain, actually,” she says of celebrity. “I’m not complaining. You can’t moan about having been successful. But doing well in this business is not necessarily conducive to being an artist. I, personally, am of the view that being commercially successful impacted on my writing in a negative way. I am quite protective of my creativity now. I try to ensure that I’m not killing it. I want to feel good about the music. It should be enjoyable.”

Craven’s career is now small-scale. She self-releases music, which she sells at her gigs.

Craven comes to Ireland this week for a short tour and is looking forward to meeting fans. “To start with, I wasn’t keen on singing in front of an audience,” she says. “Back then, I just wanted to be a songwriter. Then, I got a record deal and one thing led to another.

“Now, I love going on the road. I’m not slogging my guts out. It’s small and manageable and I love it”.

• Beverley Craven plays Set Theatre, Kilkenny, Wednesday; Triskel, Cork City, Thursday; INEC Acoustic Lounge, Killarney, Friday; Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, Saturday.