My gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow are special. The fans are so generous

new challenge and I kept on adding layers until it had all the layers and drama I knew it could have.”

Recording it was fitted in around domestic matters, but that’s nothing new in the Ellis-Bextor household.

“With my last album we went in the studio when my youngest was only 12 or 13 weeks,” she recalls. “I had him there while I recorded it and it was actually really peaceful.

“I don’t have a proper job, so I can’t really complain.

“Lots of people have proper nine to five jobs and you can’t just turn up with your baby there.

“I can bend the rules and if something doesn’t feel right then I can rebalance it. I know I’m very lucky.”

Music has always been central to Sophie’s life ever since she was a child and she says that, no matter what she was doing for a “day job” it would continue to be. “My mum has a lovely singing voice and she used to sing around the house a lot. And my dad is a passionate music fan.

“He has a huge vinyl collection and would celebrate when I got my first single or went to my first concert. It never occurred as a family that I wouldn’t be into music.

“And I’m the same with my kids. I don’t care what they do for a living, but I want them to be music fans.”

The tour begins in Cambridge on June 2 and she’s at Usher Hall in Edinburgh on the 11th.

Scots dates have always been among her favourites and getting back this time will have a very special, poignant reason.

When she played Oran Mor in Glasgow on a previous tour she met fan Jo Macdonald backstage. Jo, who was just 31, had cystic fibrosis and she sadly passed away before Sophie could catch up with her on her next Scottish tour.

“She was so memorable because she was so charismatic and lovely,” adds Sophie. “And she also stuck in my mind because she told me she’d had a lung transplant just days before the concert. I didn’t believe her at first but she showed me the scars.

“I wanted to do something on that next tour so the Scottish audience were incredibly generous in giving donations and I matched that pound for pound.

“Those gigs were special and her family and best friend came to the Edinburgh show. It was an emotional evening and the city has a special place in my heart because of that.”

Tour tickets are available from ticketmaster.co.uk