On Tour

We've stayed in tour mode since the small- scale tour we did in May. It was great because we hadn't played those kind of venues for years. We were doing stand-up clubs - places like the Windsor Old Trout. We needed a change of atmosphere - sometimes when you do the same venues every year you know what the gig is going to be like before you've even done it. In a theatre you can get so comfortable, you can almost forget you're performing. Going to smaller places adds an element of uncertainty - it's more nerve-wracking, but you feel quite energised.

We both feel at our best when we are on the road. The day has a kind of shape to it and we tend to start operating as individuals. Ben (Watts) has to go to the gig and set up his amps, check his guitar, while I'm sorting out whether I've got enough water to drink backstage. I need lemon and a jar of honey in every dressing room - it's pychologically soothing.

We did some brilliant gigs in Europe last year. We played the Quasimodo club in Berlin - we'd forgotten we actually had an audience in Germany and suddenly we were in a club with 200 core fans and it was great. The worst gig was when we did a festival in a small town outside Rome about eight years ago. The Cocteau Twins were on the bill and we'd been promised there'd be 10,000 people in this field. When we turned up there must have been about 300. It was dismal.

Tracey Thorne is lead singer of Everything But The Girl whose new Album 'Amplified Heart' is available on WEA records. A nationwide tour includes Aylesbury Civic Hall (0296 86009) tomorrow

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