A Roy Shipston exclusive

JONI MITCHELL appears at London's Royal Festival Hall next month - her fifth, and last, show this year. Joni has virtually given up appearances - ein order to "find out who she is."

When we phoned her at her Laurel Canyon, California, home, she was packing to fly to Memphis to see a friend and said how much she was looking forward to playing in London.

Why so few appearances in a year when her popularity has expanded so much. particularly through "Big Yellow Taxi"?

"This is a year of replenishing for me. All I have done are two festivals and London's Royal Festival Hall in January. I've just got a couple more bookings- - Vancouver in mid-October and London next month. I think that's on November 21.

"I haven't done much, apart from writing, because I just needed to stop and take a look at what I was doing. I had to slow down. If you keep going at such a pace all the time you lose the perspective of who you are- makes you crazy. I just wanted to hang out and be a person for a while."

Joni is particularly looking forward to the Festival Hall show because she wasn't too happy about her experiences at the IoW. "I almost quit a couple of times because of all the commotion. During my first number people were freaking out about 10 rows from the front. In the second there was a lot of confusion as doctors tried to get to them. In the third someone got on stage and started playing bongoes - and then photographers started screaming at me to look their way. I just wanted to sing.

"I got a bit mad and after that I was able to sing all right. But I'm glad i didn't miss the festival. It was a great thing to see and be at."

Joni, who said there wasn't any truth in rumours that she plans to work with James Taylor in the future, will be recording a new album soon.

"I usually record in November or December. I have enough material of my own for an LP - -some new songs and some written a very, very long time ago. I usually put old and new songs together on albums. The old ones have more of a kind of melodic style than the ones I write now and I think it's good to put songs with different texture together because they make each other stand out more."

About the success of "Taxi" Joni is a little coy.

"That wasn't really intended to be a single. I am not really a singles artist. I never thought it would do as well as it has. It was a surprise to me. I haven't any plans to release another.

"The nicest thing about that for me was that it first started moving in Hawaii, where I wrote it."