Joan Armatrading: ‘I love the Beano – in fact, I was in it, having a slap-up meal’ | Joan Armatrading

I’m not sure we have been in a more depressing, hope-bashing time since 1945. What can the ordinary person do? eamonmcc
Well, the title of my new album is How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean. I have no answers and I haven’t met anybody who has, but I hope we get rebooted to something a bit more balanced. I think we’ve become polarised because when you’re face to face with somebody, things such as body language and eye contact stop us doing certain things. That doesn’t happen on social media, then it spills into the real world. We’re not going to get rid of all wars and disagreements, but the album title is asking how on earth do we get out of this situation that we’re in and get back to a nicer place.

What are your memories of your legendary performances on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test? VerulamiumParkRanger
I remember being very nervous – I’m always nervous! – and it would have been one of the first times people would have seen me playing on television. Before that, John Peel would play me and he would come to the sessions, so people had an inkling of me, but you wonder: “What will people think?” I remember meeting [presenter] Bob Harris – his big smiley face hasn’t changed. I introduced Love and Affection by saying “Track four, album three, side one, Joan Armatrading”, because I tend to do stuff like that.

How did Lester Freamon from The Wire (actor Clarke Peters) come to sing the deep baritone vocals on Love and Affection? GaryDonner
His name was Pete Clarke then but he had to change it because in [actors’ union] Equity there was another Pete Clarke. We were both in [rock musical] Hair so I knew him, and when I wrote Love and Affection I wanted a bass voice. Pete wasn’t a session singer but not many people can sing that low, so he also did the bass voice on another song of mine, Opportunity.

During a gig once you explained that Opportunity was based on a story about a hopeless bank robber who accidentally shot off the end of his finger. Is it a true story? comeonchaps
It is. I read in the paper about how they caught the guy because he dropped his wallet and all his details. I write a lot from observation or things people tell me. On the new album, I’m Not Moving comes from seeing someone having a huge meltdown and saying: “I’m going to kill everybody”. I try to put myself into the shoes of whoever I’ve observed so I can write about it in a meaningful way.

What was it like to be invited by Bob Dylan to perform at his seminal Blackbushe concert in the UK in 1978? DiamondTrevet
I still get people coming up to me saying they were at that concert or it was the first time they heard of me. It was quite a thing because all the people on the show – myself, Lake, Eric Clapton, Graham Parker – were his personal choices, so that was incredibly flattering. I met Bob briefly to say hello and goodbye, but it was one of the biggest concerts ever in the UK [reputedly about 200,000 people]. I’ve played the Pyramid at Glastonbury but I’ve never seen a mass of people like Blackbushe. It was my equally most nervous moment. There’s never any guarantee than an audience will applaud, so when it happens you always think: “Oh my goodness.”

When you sang Willow at Blackbushe the charged, mesmeric chorus seemed to go on for ever. Does any single performance stand out for you, when everything fell into place? IcommentthereforeIam
Absolutely. Best Dress On isn’t a song that people necessarily know, but the first time we played it in Europe the audience sang the chorus without prompting. Then this kept happening night after night. Eventually I kept a league table of who would sing the chorus the longest. Somewhere in Canada they sang it 27 times. I was thinking: “Oh, this must be how it is when somebody’s really famous.”

How much do you remember of Antigua? What kind of a shock was it rolling up in Birmingham aged seven, and has a sense of dislocation remained with you and influenced your music? LividChocolate
I don’t know about dislocation – I was seven! What I do remember is seeing snow for the first time and being really enthralled by it, and my mum having trouble getting me to come back into the house. I’d made the journey to Birmingham on my own, and after flying in I also had to take a bus on my own from the airport to the centre of the city to meet my mum, so I was just really happy to see mum and dad again. I don’t have strong memories of Antigua. I remember it being warm.

How did you come to do some backing vocals for Queen in 1986? PaulC1978
I was in Townhouse studios in Shepherd’s Bush, and Queen were in the next studio. Roger Taylor just came over and asked if I’d sing on Don’t Lose Your Head. I did, then went back to my thing. It was the first time I’d met any of them, but after that Roger and I did one of those Battle of the Bands competitions together, which was really nice. People focus on Freddie, which is right, because he was a powerhouse, but Roger, Brian and John were such a big part of it.

Is Drop the Pilot about someone in particular? stephenw1979
It’s not about anybody particularly but one person is saying to someone: “Don’t go out with that person; go out with me.” Drop the pilot is an expression that had something to do with planes, but it was just more interesting to say “drop the pilot” and “drop the mahout” [elephant rider] than “give up that person”.

Your Letter is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Who wrote the letter that you “read yesterday”? thenewthoreau
That is a real incident and it’s really expressing the longing for somebody. I love that song and it’s one of the most vivid memories I have of recording, because it took a while to get the mood. I knew exactly what the mood should be, but even if you’re all playing it note for note, you still have to get into a state and feel an attachment to it to make it really work.

Can you say something in a song you can’t say – or wouldn’t say – to someone you know personally? RadioTed
I always say I protect my privacy, so it would be really weird to say that and then put it all in a song. The singer and the person in the song aren’t always the same, although a lot of singers want people to make that assumption. But I’m on my 21st album: why on earth would I write every single song on all those albums about me? When you think of all the things that have happened to the people in those songs, that would make me a very weird, very mixed-up person.

I’m a big fan of the movie The Wild Geese and your haunting theme song. However, I understand you’ve never sung it live in concert and I wondered why. Jonnycake
Probably because it’s a song that I was asked to write. It’s the same with The Messenger, the song that I wrote for Nelson Mandela, although I have sung that live because I sang it to Mandela when he was up on the stage dancing. With The Wild Geese, I watched the film, read the book, then wrote the song. I love the film and I like the song, but it doesn’t have the same connection.

Last year you tweeted about being a fan of The Beano. Which character is your favourite? VerulamiumParkRanger
They’re all great. When I was a child I used to get the Beano, the Dandy, Whizzer and Chips, Cor!!, Mandy, Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, the Hulk … I love all comics. I was actually in the Beano. I was on the Tom, Dick and Sally page, saying to Sally, “Come and have a slap-up meal with me”, and we have a meal while the others are peering through the window, looking jealous. I was on the letters page once too, and one time I was invited up to the DC Thomson offices, which was just brilliant. I still get the Beano, the Dandy and a couple of others every Christmas.