HONESTLY, we are so looking forward to doing this show at the Cliffs and coming to Southend,” said Lisa Stansfield, in her broad Rochdale accent.

“You know Snowboy? (the Latin percussionist, Mark Cotgrove, from Southend) Yeah? Snowboy’s been in me band for like, ever. He’s like a brother to us really. And his brother, Paul Cotgrove, he does the film festival, yeah? He’ll be coming to the show too – it’s going to be like a family show!”

I chatted to Lisa about her new album, Seven – aptly titled, as it’s her seventh studio one – and her tour, which will be coming to Southend in September.

The album comes 25 years after Lisa topped the charts globally with the single All Around the World, and has been produced and written by Lisa and her husband Ian Devaney.

It’s a ten-track affair, with bonus tracks on the CD. Firm R ’n’ B and soul runs throughout, but also with quite an eclectic feel going on – some songs are dancey, disco even, some more bluesy.

I was listening to it in the car and was struck by how the lyrics throughout mostly seemed to be about heartbreak, or unrequited love. As she writes the songs with her husband, who she has been married to for 26 years, I wondered how much of it came from personal experience.

“I don’t know really,” she said, “I think when you’ve been with someone for a bit, but you still feel certain emotions, you know, and instead of talking about it you channel it into another space in your head, tell a story of someone else, another love affair, go with your imagination.

“I mean, we’ve been together for 26 years, and I love my husband and he loves me, but does anyone want to listen to that? I think I embellish the truth in a way. “ The songwriting relationship sees Lisa writing most of the lyrics.

“A lot of the time, you’ve got to watch me, you see. I’m nosy, and I won’t let on, but I’m taking it all in, what other people say. Someone could be in a room and all sorts could be going on, and I could be watching someone have a cup of tea or do something really boring, but in my head, they’re having an affair” Lisa added laughing. “The imagination’s a beautiful thing.”

Ian was Lisa’s old schoolmate. The pair of them, along with Andy Morris, formed the band Blue Zone in 1984, which did pretty well in the dance world. In 1989, she was signed as a solo artist, but still continued to co-write with Devaney. It wasn’t until 1998, after years of friendship, that they married.

Lisa said: “Well me first marriage, well that went a bit wrong. (Lisa was referring to a brief marriage in 1987 to a man she met on holiday.) “Me and Ian were already friends and we just got on very, very well. I think we were a bit scared to get together, because we’d worked together since we were 18. I suppose we dropped our guard and it all happened.

“I think we were frightened to mess the music up, but we didn’t.”

When Lisa first broke on to the scene – and I’m old enough to remember – there was so much hype about the fabulously soulful voice coming from this northern lass.

Listening to Seven, which is her first album in ten years since she went off the scene to concentrate on a film career, (she starred in the Edge of Love and in 2013 she appeared in the film Northern Soul), you are instantly reminded of that distinctive, controlled voice and her range, which effortlessly dips from low to high and back again in a second.

At 47 years old, she sounds exactly the same as she did back when she was on Top of the Pops in bright red lippy, wearing her hair in a jet black kiss curl under a beret.

“My voice has changed a lot over the years,” she says. “It changed for the worst and then I gave up smoking and after that it changed for the better.

“When I was smoking, I lost the top end of my voice, but I did smoke loads. They used to call me Two Pack Lisa – honestly, I was really bad. I went to a hypnotherapist and gave up. And then three years later, when I suppose you’ve got rid of it all, my voice got better again.

“I used to do this vocal warm-up thing when I was smoking, but since I gave up, I don’t have to. I just sing All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You. I scream it out and get straight on with it.”

Lisa is obviously as well seasoned as they come concerning live performances, but she says she can still get nervous.

“I suppose you get nervous for different reasons,” she says. “When you’re younger, you’re thinking ‘can I do this?’, when you’re older, you’re constantly thinking, ‘can I still do this?’. And then you worry about what your body looks like, but it’s all a load of rubbish anyway.”

She added: “I think singing’s sort of like, just a really lovely feeling, like, nobody can touch you. Even though there are loads of people watching and listening, it’s almost like you could be on your own, even though at the same time there is this massive connection going on.

“It’s a strange combination of doing something that is independent, with everyone else there with you.”

LISA STANSFIELD
Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff.
Tuesday, September 16.
Tickets, £30-40, from 01702 351135 or
southendtheatres.org.uk