SAM Brown, best remembered for her stunning hit Stop!, is a busy woman. As well as writing songs and performing her solo sets around the country, she is touring with Jules Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, which comes to Ragley Hall on Saturday, June 26.

The Evening News is the media sponsor for the event, and readers should keep their eyes open for competitions to see Jules at the hall in the near future.

"The great thing about Jules is that he seems to appeal to every single person in the country," she says.

Sam has not only become Jules' regular of late, appearing as a guest singer at Jules' live gigs, but she has also been writing and recording songs for the hugely successful Small World, Big Band series of albums.

She says writing songs with Jules is a chance to practice her greatest passion.

"I started writing songs because it came 100 per cent naturally," she says.

"I never decided I was going to be a songwriter, I just write songs.

"Because of the success of Stop!, I was thought of as just a singer for a while.

"I've been trying to get back to what I did when I started, which was to write."

S top! Was Sam's hit single in 1988 which reached number one in five countries, and got to number four in the UK charts the following year.

The album of the same name also became a world-wide hit, selling more than two million copies.

"It was fantastic to have a hit record like that, it made me realise what I didn't want to do," she says.

Sam decided she wanted to write more intimate songs, about things that mattered to her, rather than get caught up in the trappings of the pop world.

Daughter of legendary guitarist Joe Brown, and T-Rex backing singer Vicki Brown, Sam decided she wanted to write material that was personal to her.

She really found her artistic stride with her 1993 album, 43 minutes, which she wrote while her mother was still suffering from a terminal illness.

"Mum has always been the real inspiration for my music," she says.

"She had a lovely, really powerful voice."

Her mother Vicki was a well known singer in Holland and Belgium.

Sam's father Joe, together with his band the Bruvvers, clocked up numerous songs in the 60s.

With music in her blood, it was inevitable that Sam would follow in the family business.

"I just fell into it," she says.

"I used to go to work with mum, so I was always meeting musicians.

"I started working very young, and did my first professional gig when I was 12.

"I moved to London when I was 17, and haven't stopped working since."

Over the years, Sam has combined intimate solo albums with her work with Jules.

Although none of her solo albums since Stop! have achieved the same commercial success, she has balanced her more personal work with high-profile tours with other artists.

In 1994, she was backing singer on Pink Floyd's Division Bell tour and has since been a regular with Jools Holland for the last five years.

She first met Jools in 1989, on a pilot show of the Happening, a predecessor of the hugely successful Later programme.

"We did the odd gig together for a few years, but now I do all of Jules' tours as well as writing songs with him," she says.

"It's a huge contrast to my solo work, having this huge band to sing with."

Sam is excited about performing with Jules in the picturesque grounds of Ragley Hall.

The concert not only features Jules and all full 18 members of the Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, but ends with a firework finale.

The Ragley Hall concert is expected to be a sell-out.

The gates open at 6pm, and the programme starts at 7.45pm.

Adult tickets for the Ragley Hall event cost £27.50 in advance, or alternatively they are available on the night for £30.Tickets for children cost £17.50 in advance, or £20 on the night.

Tickets can be bought from the IML Box Office 01603 660444 or Worcester TIC 01905 726311.