I can’t believe it’s been so long... Dido steps back up to the stage

 
1 February 2013
The Weekender

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It was an audience of just 100 at the private members’ bar in Mayfair. But Dido’s first live show in four and a half years was a huge step on her journey back to the charts.

The 41-year-old took time off after her third album Safe Trip Home in 2008 before starting work on her fourth, but was delayed further by the birth of her first son, Stanley, in July 2011. She made a triumphant return at the Arts Club in Mayfair, playing tracks from her forthcoming record, Girl Who Got Away.

Dido told the Standard: “I can’t believe it’s been so long. I suppose it is a comeback but it didn’t really feel like I’d been away once I got up there.

“You don’t realise you miss it until you get up there and it’s like, ‘Oh, I love doing this’.”

She lives with Stanley and her husband, the writer Rohan Gavin, in north London.

Dido added: “I was doing all the vocals while I was pregnant. I had written most of it before and was recording it, then stopped when he [Stanley] came along and pulled it all together at the end of last year.”

The Kensington-born singer’s first two albums sold 28 million copies and her next album is due for release in March.

There are no solid plans for a tour yet, she said, but added: “I was thinking of autumn, maybe? I was thinking I’d have to literally just take him [Stanley] on the bus. He’s pretty cool and pretty adaptable, so I hope he’d enjoy it.

“I think the beauty of my job is that it can be done.”

But Dido admitted she is unlikely to pen a track about motherhood.

She said: “It’s almost like it’s too big a thing to write about. I feel like I can’t even put it into a song. For me, it’s everything.”

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