HUNDREDS of recordings across a career that has so far spanned seven decades. Royal honours, number one hits across Europe and a classic song that decorates each and every party soundtrack. Petula Clark. The legend returns to Basingstoke this month and caught up with The Gazette to look at her new album and how deeply personal her songs have to be.

Sadly many unfortunate enough to witness or in some way be involved during the brutal realities of a early 1940s Britain are no longer with us. The memories of such a generationally defining moment is condemned to within the confines of battered history books or watered-down revision notes on a BBC Bitesize App.

For someone who made her debut as a child on BBC Radio to enlist spirits of a nation at war with the enemy, music icon Petula Clark’s intoxicating aura remains formidable. But far from rousing troops, her job now is to reconnect people with their emotions. A testament her new album From Now On confirms.

“It’s almost impossible to compare the sounds,” Petula told The Gazette.

“My music depends on how you’re feeling. I’ve recorded all over the world but there was something different about recording this album. The whole process came in a tiny studio at the bottom of the producer’s garden.

“There was cats chasing birds, real English gardens, a Wendy house - it was beautiful. But then you would step into the sort of shed and it would open up like a Tardis. 

“It is an incredibly intimate space and its where From Now On was written.”

The recording is an idyllic set of songs that resonate at the heart of perhaps Britain’s most enduring performers. 

Someone of Clark’s calibre could be afforded time to enjoy herself after what feels like 83-years in the spotlight. From her first release as a nine-year-old Put Your Shoes On Lucy, the commercial 60s where Sailor would permeate the speakers in most homes in England and spawn the Surrey-born singer her most persistent hit in Downtown and through her alluring vocals that deviated across the globe and recorded in a host of European languages, Clark’s home within this country will never be uprooted.

“Some people claim they can write a song about anything,” Clark said.

“But I don’t believe in that. If it hasn’t touched me, I can’t write about it.

“And all the songs I have written and performed, they have to be personal to me. Everything I sing is real.”

She added: “The best thing about being a professional performer is showing this to an audience. I remember coming to Basingstoke a good few years back. I remember saying something a bit silly but they were wonderful. It’ll be nice to come back here.”

Petula Clark is coming to The Anvil on Thursday, October 6 at 7.30pm.

Tickets start at £27 and for more information visit anvilarts.org.uk.