AMERICAN soul singer PP Arnold will play Leeds Wardrobe tonight (October 16)  as the only Yorkshire show of her 14-date British tour this autumn.

The 71-year-old Los Angeles vocalist will be performing in Yorkshire, courtesy of Leeds promoters Foot Soldiers Music, as part of a rare UK trip to coincide with the belated release of her album The Turning Tide.

Marking her 50th anniversary as a performing artist, Arnold also is issuing her autobiography, The First Cut In The Deepest, through St James Publishing House.

Arnold first arrived in Britain as an Ikette backing singer with the Ike & Tina Review in the mid-1960s and was spotted by Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, who immediately convinced Andrew Loog Oldham to sign her to his label Immediate Records. Several hits followed: The First Cut Is The Deepest, Angel Of The Morning and (If You Think You're) Groovy.

York Press:

PP Arnold, as she appears on the album sleeve of The Turning Tide

In the aftermath of Immediate folding, Arnold recorded The Turning Tide, first with Bee Gee Barry Gibb and later with Eric Clapton. Gibb wrote such songs as Born, High And Windy Mountain, Bury Me Down By The River (with brother Maurice), the title track and Give A Hand Take A Hand, but could only half complete the record before returning to Bee Gees’ commitments.

Clapton took over, calling in his Delaney and Bonnie band, soon to became Derek And The Dominoes, and they duly recorded songs by Steve Winwood (Medicated Goo), Van Morrison (Brand New Day) and Jagger and Keith Richards (You Can't Always Get What You Want).

However, industry politics left these recordings sitting on the shelf for many years and it became Arnold's mission to let them see the light of day. Recovering her lost gems, she fought successfully for the right to release them from various publishers still not keen to part with them. Whereupon Ocean Colour Scene's Steve Cradock began mixing the tracks, calling on his friend Paul Weller to allow them to use his Black Barn Studio and his long-time engineer, Charles Rees, to bring the songs back to life.

"These recordings document my growth and development after the Immediate label years and my struggle to survive being a relevant solo artist during a lot of lost years in my career," says Arnold. "It’s an amazing trip down memory lane, that I am so thrilled can be experienced in the here and now."

Looking ahead, a new solo album is on the horizon for next year, produced by Cradock. In the meantime, tickets for the Leeds gig on Arnold's first solo tour for many years are on sale at lunatickets.co.uk and crashrecords.co.uk