Your singing career spans an impressive 35 years, from fronting the Eurogliders to performing as a solo jazz artist, what do you believe has been the key to your success?
That’s a tough question. It’s a funny industry, we’re totally at the mercy of public taste and opinion. I guess there’s some luck involved at the beginning in being in the right place at the right time, but I’ve always worked hard at putting on a good show and tried to make quality recordings.

How have you kept the passion for your work – what inspires you to keep recording and touring?
I’m lucky, I really like my job. I like travelling and I like getting in front of an audience … Getting on stage energises me and if I do my job properly, I make people feel good. With recording, I try to make sure I work with people who inspire me and record songs I really like and can relate to.

We heard it all started with a talent quest. What can you tell us about your first big break at a Cheltenham pub?
That’s right, my boyfriend and I performed as a duo and we entered a talent quest run by Courage Breweries. We managed to win a couple of the local heats and were destined for the semi-finals. At one of the heats, we were spotted by a talent scout and he offered us a five-month residency in Dubai on an old cruise liner that had been converted into a hotel and moored in Dubai Creek.

The next big chapter involved heading to Australia as a performer on a cruise ship … Do you have any tales to share from that experience?
It was a good lesson in knowing your audience! The audience were for the most part several decades older than us and the first night we performed, they just sat in stunned silence. The entertainment director on the ship was less than impressed. We quickly ratted through the ship’s collection of records and found an album of old standards, which we learned note for note by the next performance.

We’ve heard some wonderful rumours about how your band the Eurogliders got its name. Is there any truth to the tales?
It’s a pretty boring story, really. The band was originally called Living Single but we found out there was already a band in the UK with that name so we decided we needed to change it. All the band members wrote down words on strips of paper and we put them all in a hat. The first two words drawn out of the hat were ‘glider’ and ‘euro’, so we became Eurogliders. It doesn’t mean anything and it’s a bit of a strange name, but it served us well!

What can you remember about the excitement and buzz when the band first started gaining popularity?
It’s a bit hard at the time, there’s always the next goal you’re trying to achieve and you’re going at a million miles an hour so there’s not much time to savour the moment. It’s amazing when I look back how much we did in a relatively short time – going from an unrecorded Perth pub band to touring the world and platinum records, all in a couple of years.

You were in the public eye during the brilliantly bold era of the 1980s … Any fashion regrets you want to confess to?
I made a lot of the clothes for myself and other band members. I was trying to make an impression … A lot of the stuff I wore was pretty out there and I certainly wouldn’t parade around in it now, but I don’t have any regrets. To this day I still make most of the outfits I wear on stage so there’s no one else I can blame if I look ridiculous.

You’ve performed for former president Bill Clinton, the late Princess Diana and five Australian prime ministers, but who’s one person you’d really love to see in your audience one night?
My dad. He passed away a few years ago and he never saw me perform live. He was in Scotland during the early part of my career and spent his retirement in Greece. He followed my career through my recordings and the internet when it emerged, but he never saw me on stage.

You’ve achieved incredible feats in your career, but what in your life are you most proud of?
My son. For a good part of his formative years, I was a single parent. He’s an adult now and he’s grown into a wonderful person and I’m very proud of him.

What’s your personal definition of ‘success’?
Good question. I think one’s definition of success probably relates in some ways to your age: a young person looking forward might have all sorts of things they wish to achieve and measure success in terms of future achievements; someone who has been around for decades will probably be looking backwards at what they did along the way. I think for me, being able to put food on the table and a roof over my head since the late 1970s doing a job I absolutely love, rates as success. There are a lot of people who have a crack at the music industry and for whatever reason it doesn’t work out for them; I feel really blessed and in a way successful that I’ve really only ever sung for a living and had a career that’s fast approaching 40 years.

Local audiences are counting down to your appearance at Brisbane Powerhouse on Friday July 31 – can you give us any hints on what can we expect from the show?
I’ll be performing songs from across my jazz career, but I usually throw in a few surprises and maybe a Eurogliders’ song or two. Things change from night to night.