Beverly Knight, Faye Treadwell, The Drifters Girl, The Garrick Theatre

Jess Young

First of all, you look absolutely wonderful, and so, Faye Treadwell. So, tell me a little bit about the show that you’re performing in? 

Beverly Knight

So, the show I’m in is called The Drifters Girl and it’s, as the title might suggest, it’s the story of the vocal group The Drifters. But it’s actually the story of the woman behind the group who managed them at a time where women certainly were not managers and were not in control of their own destinies. She took the bull by the horns and said, “I’m going to manage this group,” after her husband passed away – who was the original manager – and she took them to global super stardom. So, it’s her story with, of course, the wonderful classic music of The Drifters all the way through.

Jess Young

Absolutely. I saw it last week and it’s incredible. All the talent, the singing, I mean your voice in particular. And all of the men on stage, just yeah, incredible. 

And Rankin, I just want to ask you, obviously that happened and it seemed quite quick!

Rankin

Was it too quick? I don’t know.

Jess Young

I think it looked great!

Rankin

Did I give you enough time?

[Laughter]

Jess Young

Well, you were saying that doing things quickly kind of makes you feel more relaxed?

Rankin

Yeah but for me for me, the thing is that photography, once you’ve been doing it for 30 years – I guess it’s a bit like singing. You don’t even have to think about it, really. It’s so in your blood, it’s so ingrained. And you know, it feels natural. So, when you do it super quickly, what happens is you create an energy. It’s a bit more fun when it’s not in front of people, because the music’s a bit louder and it’s a bit more in the moment. But the whole point is you’re capturing that moment. And it’s like, creating that moment. If you kind of do it fast, you know, put the pressure on yourself to do it faster also really helps. And that’s why I’ve got these assistants as well, because they’re there to make it simple not for me but for Beverly. So it makes it quick, so I’m not thinking about, oh what’s gonna, you know, is the camera gonna work? Is it on the right setting and stuff. So, it makes it super quick. So everybody thinks this is for me; they’re actually here for the subject to be really looked after.

Jess Young

Absolutely, and it’s those small things that actually make these photographs as great as they are. You’re as comfortable as you are as well.

Beverly Knight

Absolutely. I’m completely comfortable. Because then that frees me up to just, like Rankin’s saying, just be myself on the camera. And, you know, it’s not like, I know the lights this way and turn this way. You know, all those things.

Rankin

Yeah it would be nice to talk about, because sometimes you must be in situations where someone puts a light over here and you’re thinking, uh-oh. What do you do when that happens? 

Beverly Knight

Me being me, I will try and helpfully suggest, you know, oh maybe we can try it… we’ll do a couple of those shots and then maybe we’ll try it over here, you know. I.e, you know, can we just move the light this way.

Rankin

Do you know what light suits you?

Beverly Knight

Well I have a broad idea. Obviously nowhere near as detailed as yourself. But being of darker skin, I know, you know, that a nice… I need really good light and I need a warm light, to really help the skin look good.

Jess Young

Brilliant, well thank you guys so much that was amazing. Any questions?

Rankin

It’s alright to be shy!

Audience Member

I have a quick question for Rankin. If you’re shooting someone that you don’t know that well, do you do a lot of research before?

Rankin

Yeah, yeah I do. It depends, but I try not to judge them on the research, because there’s a lot of stuff that’s written about people that’s not true. So, I’m very empirical. I judge people on what they’re like in front of me. And I really trust that much more than I do the research. But if you don’t know anything then it… actually, sometimes that can help. But that’s because I’ve been doing it for 30 years. If I was starting out, I would, you know, when I started out I researched everyone in detail. Now I can wing it a bit.

[laughter]

If I want to. You know, and also I just trust that, you know. I mean, we’re lucky that we’ve done it before, but the two people on this next shoot I haven’t, so we’ll see how that goes, yeah. 

Jess Young

It will be a different experience. Well, thank you so much Beverly.

Beverly Knight

My absolute pleasure, thank you! Fantastic.

Rankin

Yeah, look at that.

Beverly Knight

Love it, love it.

[Applause]