No Stopping Sam

Peter Robertson catches up with the singer-songwriter of the classic hit Stop!

- Peter Robertson

Stop! was among a string of international hits Sam Brown had between 1988 and 1990, and she worked with legends like Pink Floyd, George Harrison, Elton John and Dionne Warwick. But tragically, after touring extensively with Jools Holland, Sam lost her singing voice and had to hang up her microphone in 2007.

Although she's just made an unlikely comeback, Sam, who sounds croaky just speaking, says: "Losing my voice has been very upsetting. It was a big slap in the face. Not an easy thing to deal with. I've missed being able to sing. I'm almost like a different person."

As to what happened, Sam says: "I did a corporate gig with Jools in 2005 and I had to push to get the note up to pitch, which was very unusual for me. I'd never had a problem with tuning. It sort of got worse. In early 2007, I toured with a band I was in called Homespun. We did a couple of gigs but then I couldn't do it, so we had to cancel the tour. I've had two operations, in 2007 and 2013. I've worked with a voice physio in America. I've done psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, speech therapy, acupuncture, Reiki, and crystal healing. I've cleaned up my diet, I've stopped drinking caffeine, I've done voice exercises five times a day.

"If I start crying, I can feel there's a gap where my voice is. I think it is in there, but you need money to explore these things and I'm not a rich person. Each thing I do I have to save up, not only for the treatment but also to take the time off work." By "work", Sam means teaching the ukulele, which she's done since 2010, mainly now in London, Dorset and Oxfordshire, and sometimes even Australia. "I'm having to teach cos I need income," says Sam.

"The royalties I get are pretty good but not enough. I have to work as well, especially as I'm putting an album out and you need to spend money to do that."