"It should be called the Vyvienne Long Orchestra, really," says Long during a brief break between touring with Rice and starting her own series of performances. "I've got some amazing musicians playing with me. I did a small tour last September, so the whole idea of touring my own material still feels fresh - it still feels like I'm starting out. It's quite a big contrast between playing my own shows and playing with Damien. It's very different fronting a band rather than playing along, where the focus isn't on you. There's a huge difference in concentration. It's much more intense, because singing and playing at the same time is in itself much more demanding."

"My own 'original repertoire' has expanded a lot in the last year, so my shows will be mostly original material, maybe only one cover," she says. "Lots of the songs are developments of music I wrote a long time ago, and I had to make a conscious effort to finish them off and write lyrics. After finishing a US tour with Damien in October, I'm going into the studio to finally record them."

"I'm kind of the first public face of the cello in Ireland, but I'm happily surprised by how interested people are in the instrument, and how accepting they are - rather than considering it just a classical instrument, they're quite happy to see three cellos on stage."