Among the starlets of '60s soul, Stax original A THOMAS was dubbed 'The Queen'. Adored by The Beatles and Otis, a star turn at Vattstax, at 82 her flame burns bright, her career a storied object lesson. "I have tried to make it a joyful experience," she tells ANDREW PERRY.

Holding court: the Queen of Memphis Soul, Carla Thomas, 1970.

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ARLA THOMAS WAS 24 YEARS OLD WHEN she flew Transatlantic for the first time with the Stax-Volt Revue to tour Europe in spring 1967. Touching down at Heathrow, the craziness commenced: The Beatles had sent limousines to collect the entire entourage, which also included Sam And Dave, Eddie Floyd, Otis Redding – with whom Thomas had recorded the duet album, King & Queen, released the previous month – plus Booker T & The M.G.’s, house band for all the acts, along with the three-man Memphis Horns.

Despite her tender age, Thomas was often billed as the Queen of Memphis Soul, having blazed a trail on Stax’s Satellite precursor with her self-composed 1960 single, Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes), and earlier that year another hit, Cause I Love You, alongside her father, Rufus Thomas, of Walking The Dog fame.

That British pop royalty adored Stax’s greasily R&B-flavoured sound was a given (after all, the fledgling Rolling Stones covered Walking The Dog), but none of the Revue’s acts were prepared for the attention that greeted them in Europe. At a warm-up gig by Carla Thomas and The M.G.’s at the Bag O’Nails, the hipster hang-out on London’s Kingly Street, all four Beatles were in attendance.

“We’d been sent down to this quaint little club, just to get Booker acclimatised to his [rented] organ,” Thomas, now 82, remembers. “Booker was taking a little solo at one point, and I backed up to him and said (stage whisper), Maybe I’m seeing things, but isn’t that Paul McCartney sitting over there at that table? I couldn’t believe he would be there for our show, so afterwards I asked him, Is this your club? Like that would be why he was there, looking so comfortable.”