"I have sung in a few churches, but I have never sung in this particular cathedral," she says.

"I don't know how to put it really, but it's an amazing thing. I always get a special feeling when I enter a church."

A spiritual feeling?

"Of course! And to enter Chichester Cathedral I would anticipate will be rather special – to put it very mildly!"

It's a date which comes in a very special year for Lulu, the year of her 60th birthday this November.

"It gets mentioned practically every day now," she laughs. "At first I thought it was a big thing, but now it is just another year really, just another number.

"When I was very young, if my mother said she was going to be 60, I would have thought she was ancient. But we are living longer now if we take care of ourselves, if we exercise."

And Lulu certainly does both of those: "You have to be disciplined to last as long as I have in the business! You have to be very focused. It doesn't happen by chance.

"It's hard work and it's a job, but I love it and I want to continue. I want to be in the now and not something from the past or just living in the past. As far as music is concerned, I try to be very aware of what is happening now.

"So yes, I exercise and I keep fit. As far as my mind is concerned, I think you have to be very aware and open. I am doing a university course right now in social sciences."

It's all about moving forwards, but – fortunately – Lulu is perfectly happy to talk about the great decade in which she first made it big, the 1960s.

Was it really the greatest decade to make music in?

Lulu laughs: "For years I never really thought about it. I just took it for granted. I was so busy. But I look back now and see just how amazing it was.

"I have a girlfriend in America and she said 'I can't believe I have known you 25 years and you still keep revealing new things to me'.

"She said 'I was literally at school when the whole of America was on countdown for the arrival of The Beatles, the whole of America – and there were you hanging out with them!' "

Put it like that, and it was a remarkable time, a time when a big part of the attraction of The Beatles was the simple fact they came across as so real.

"If you are in this business, people think you are special and that you are different. But in fact you are not really different at all. You have the same feelings and the same ups and downs."

But surely there's something special about someone who sustains their success for so long?

Lulu admits it's not easy to account for such longevity in such a fickle business.

"Part of me says 'I don't know', but then I do know. Everything is a contradiction. There are so many sides, so many views of everything. Part of me says it is because I work hard.

"Part of it though is that I had a manager who was much older than me (Marion Massey)."

For teenage Lulu, Marion clearly played a parental role: "She was like a second mother to me.

If I had been with a young group of guys who managed me, things might have been different. It would have been more difficult to keep my feet on the ground."

Something she's managed to do ever since, while plenty of others have burned just as brightly and then disappeared.

Lulu admits there are times when she would love to rush off to a desert island or just not pull back the duvet – but the urge never lasts long.

The sheer joy of performing is too strong, and not for nothing has Lulu has gained a reputation as a singer who comfortably creates a good rapport with her audiences.

"It's a bit of a drug. But it is a beautiful sharing thing. You give and you receive. It's a wonderful thing."

For tickets to the Lulu concert call 01243 780192.


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