If someone asked me, ‘How did you do it?’ I couldn’t tell them. “The fact that I’ve been able to perform for 61 years and be on stage is amazing to me,” she told us brightly. Gladys Knight with Janet Jackson not of the Jackson 5

A week before it kicked off, Gladys guested on the BBC’s Later With Jools Holland, giving a pretty spine-tingling rendition of Help Me Make It Through The Night, which had given her a UK No.11 single in the bleak winter of 1972. Eleven years ago, Gladys Knight appeared in Britain for the first time in aeons, billed as her Farewell Tour. Signing off from Motown with the Grammy-award winning Neither One Of Us (another US No.2), there was a wise switch to Buddhah Records in 1973, where the Pips reached their commercial apogee with a succession of singles that included the peerless Midnight Train To Georgia, another Grammy bagger and the combo’s first No.1 single in their homeland.Ī leaner Eighties ended with the group disbanding and Knight scoring the perfect launchpad for her post-Pips career singing the theme tune for 1989’s James Bond film, the glorious Goldfingered Licence to Kill, which showed off her incredible lower register and bagged her a Top 10 single in ten countries… but, alas, still her only solo hit in much of the world.Īs is the case with many legendary soul stars of the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, there comes a time when closing the chapter on their last leg of celebrity becomes inevitable. And because Gordy was having a thing with the Supreme one, who was in the midst of launching her solo career. Gladys also discovered The Jackson 5 only to have Motown honcho Berry Gordy twice refuse to sign them, then snatch them from her and give to Diana Ross to officially “present” Michael and his brothers because, two months Knight’s senior, she’d had more hits. Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Gladys Knight & The Pips were a family affair an all singing, all dancing group with her brother and cousins, who have all since retired), and who enjoyed a slightly frustrating second-string stint at Motown, where they recorded future standards like the Billboard No.2 I Heard It Through The Grapevine, only to have it handed over to Marvin Gaye to take it one place further. But there’s many other reasons why we’re saluting this legendary lady, the exemplary empress of soul, and you’re just about to find out. Indeed, such was the power of her voice they may as well have called themselves Gladys Knight & Her Pipes. With a songstress’ prowess that rivals Aretha Franklin for sheer power and emotion, Gladys Knight has always been known to approach her career with a subtle understated class that still allows her the respect gained by being the former vocal and focal point of The Pips.

Gladys knight tour dates uk 2018