“I LOVE Wales and its people, they always give me a warm welcome; I hope people come to the concerts and remember who I am,” says Elaine Paige OBE, who follows the remark with her trademark laugh which echoes down the phone.

“Touring is jolly tiring and I didn’t plan to do it again, but about 18 months ago I got twitchy so I came up with the idea of doing just a couple of shows a week.”

Elaine kicks off her concerts in Shrewsbury on 3 October and finishes in St Albans on 26 November. Three of her performances between then will be right here in Wales as the star of stage and radio is coming to Aberystwyth, Llandudno and Cardiff.

As well as shaking up the number of shows a week, Elaine has also revamped the content of her concerts.

“This is a bit different to ones I’ve done before with the usual musical theatre songs,” she said.

“I decided to do something a bit different to engage myself and audiences, so this is a soundtrack to my life.

“It includes songs I like listening to, ones that I loved growing up, so there’s Burt Bacharach in there, the Beatles, Carole King, Carly Simon...

“I’ve met a lot of these people along the way so as well as singing their songs, I also tell anecdotes about meeting them.”

But die-hard musical theatre fans needn’t worry because their favourites will get an outing.

“I will also sing some of the musical theatre songs I’m known for. I wouldn’t dream of not doing them!” she laughs.

Elaine Paige is at Venue Cymru, Llandudno on Thursday, 2 November and Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Friday, 3 November.

Read the full feature in this week’s Cambrian News, on sale now