the tour

It’s been hard work but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Visiting places like Peru, Lima, Bogota and Guadalajara for the first time was really exciting and I enjoyed going back to Australia and Asia because it’s been 12 years since I performed there. Back then, I only had a handful of musicians on stage with me. Now I have 15 musicians, including a ten-piece, female brass band from Reykjavik. When they’re not playing their instruments they wave flags and help make each show really huge and bombastic like a grand finale.

I don’t know if the audience would agree. But his definitely feels like my most theatrical tour. Aside from the costumes and the whole visual spectacle, the music is very celebratory and full on. I’d say 50 per cent of each set is from Volta and Medúlla and the other 50 per cent is older songs. I didn’t want to play the same songs night after night so we rehearsed 40-50 songs from Debut to Vespertine before the tour.

The travelling on this tour has been really tough. The only thing we have the time to do between shows is eat, sleep and travel. I’m an iPod shuffle girl so wherever I am I just press play and see what comes on.

the Big Issue - 31.03.2008