WITH her album, Seven, a new entry at number 13 in the UK album charts, Britain’s iconic soul singer Lisa Stansfield has announced a ten-date UK tour.

Starting in Birmingham on September 5, the tour will include Gateshead and York before concluding in Guildford on September 17. Lisa and her band will be performing songs from Seven as well as classic hits from throughout her career.

Twenty five years after topping the charts, globally, with the single All Around The World, and ten years after the release of her last album, the Grammy-nominated, multi-Brit, Ivor Novello and Silver Clef Award winner, the Rochdale singer – who can boast sales of nearly 20 million records and a string of international top ten hits – has returned to the soul and R&B that she is known for.

Written and recorded with long-time songwriting partner Ian Devaney, whose credits include The Bodyguard and Indecent Proposal soundtracks, Seven is a soul record and while it is eclectic there is a thread running through it.

“A lot of the album is about the trap that a woman has got herself into – an unrequited, doomed or mismatched love – and how to get herself out of it... if she can,” she says.

The songs are strong reminders of Lisa’s ability to tell stories and create identifiable characters within her lyrics. “I think we all suffer the same pain, all feel the same happiness, and we all have the same emotions within us. My life isn’t very racy or exciting so I make things up, tell stories. I like telling stories,” she says.

Seven marks Lisa’s return to the international stage and confirms her status as one of the UK’s premier recording artists.

  • Lisa Stansfield appears at Gateshead Sage on Saturday, September 6, and at York Barbican on Friday, September 12.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10am from gigsandtours.com or call 0844-811-0051. For more information, see lisa-stansfield.com