Singer Beverley just craving to entertain again

Beverley Craven feels like a woman released. She may be best known for her hit song Promise Me and her huge success in the early 90s.

She played to packed-out venues, won the Brit award for best British newcomer and sold more than four million copies of her first two albums – but the thrill of pop stardom didn't take long to wane.

By the late 90s, the Sri Lankan-born, British-raised singer had become "disillusioned" with the music industry and turned her back on songwriting to concentrate on bringing up her three children – Mollie, now 17, Brenna, 14 and Connie, 12.

And that is where the story might have ended, had Beverley not thought she still had some unfinished business.

A brief comeback in 2004 was stymied when the 47-year-old received the devastating news she had breast cancer – but now, after overcoming the disease, she is finally ready to throw all her energies into writing and performing once again.

Without the major record deal she admits she found "stifling", the singer is setting out on her own, with her own independent, cottage industry label and says she has never been happier. A new album called Close To Home, her first original work in five years, was released last month.

Fans of her stripped-back piano melodies will be able to see just how happy when she arrives at Pocklington Arts Centre, next week, as part of a low-key tour to, as she puts it, "dip my toe in the water again". A bigger tour in larger venues is planned for later in the year, so this could be the best chance for a while to see the singer in more intimate surroundings.

"I just feel so much more relaxed these days," says Beverley. "Being part of the big label conveyor belt became really stifling at one point and that's why I had to walk away from it all.

"It's quite hard to understand when it's happening because that's what you've always been aiming for. So when it doesn't make you happy you can't work out why. It's only with a little time and space that you can see it clearly.

"Now my husband is my manager, we sell the CDs through the website and everything's much smaller – and happier."

Beverley says she never had any concrete plans to return to the recording studio, but, eventually, she found the lure of making music once again too much to resist.

"I basically got my inspiration back," says the down-to-earth singer. "The kids were growing up and needing me less – I'd become a glorified taxi service – and I found that I started having little melodies or sentiments for songs pop up in my mind.

"I'd go out with a girlfriend and she'd end up pouring her heart out to me over a glass of wine and I'd be thinking: 'Ooh, that's a good idea for a song'.

"My creative juices started flowing again and once I started it all came really easily. I don't think you get rusty as a songwriter – but some time away certainly helps renew your enthusiasm.

"I think the breast cancer was a huge wake-up call for me, too. I realised I had so much more I wanted to do. I didn't want to sleepwalk into middle age with nothing to aim for."

Beverley Craven comes to Pocklington Arts Centre, Market Square, Pocklington, on Saturday, May 9, at 8pm. Tickets cost £18. Call (01759) 301547