In terms of the voice, yes. Warming up and having a good half hour break before I go on stage is always important. There have been a couple of times when I haven't been able to do that. It's a bit Catch 22.
You get important people who want to meet you before the gig, so you have to do a load of talking and you only get a few minutes to get focused, to check you've got everything. I've found that if I get a good half hour beforehand, that works.
Earlier on in the day, I don't like to do too much talking. Continuous talking is worse than singing. An hour-and-a-half's singing isn't too bad, you can control it. And drinking... I can't drink when I'm on the road, that kills me. Alcohol, talking and being in a smokey environment is the worst thing. Going out, burning the candle at both ends... I learned the hard way that you can't do it!
How often do you drink?I do like to touchdown on a few shots. I'm not a massive fan of alcohol, it's not really the greatest taste in the world. Or maybe it's because I put so much vodka in and so little fruit juice it just tastes rank. It's more a case of if I know I don't have to sing, let's have some drinks. But I know I have to have a little window to recover. As long as I've got that I'm fine.
How do you define beauty?It's changed over the years. When I started off it was all aesthetics. I've always maintained it's about the face, the eyes, the bone structure. If there was a beautiful face, the rest of the body didn't matter. It wasn't necessarily the beautiful backside, great breasts, slender. It was always the face that did it for me. Maybe there weren't that many great faces in Southampton so I really noticed it when one popped up...!
Now it's changed. It's the personality, the way a girl can hold herself. That way a guy can actually be more of a gentleman, to be sincere about it. Girls can see through all the bull. Just be real about it, be cool. It is now definitely more about the inner beauty than the external beauty. Although a great pair of breasts and a lovely arse is always a good look... (laughs)
