When I saw the track listing for your new album Soul UK, I thought "we have to talk". You have covered a lot of my all-time favourite British soul tracks, so I must commend you for your impeccable taste!

Thank you! Honestly, this record is an absolute labour of love. I've always banged on about how British soul doesn't get the respect it deserves, and people always say that about me: "you don't get the respect you deserve". But you have to honour the people who put it in the spotlight in the first place.

Some of the blame lies with British soul fans, who could be quite snobby: if it comes from the US, it must be authentic, and if it comes from the UK, it's just an imitation.

Completely right. That attitude has infiltrated the minds of a lot of people who are outside of the soul fraternity, and that's a dreadful shame, because we know that's not true. That's why I made this record: to say "come on guys, celebrate your own", and to reintroduce the songs to a wider audience, who will hopefully not see the difference between the continents.

I like what you've done with Jamiroquai's debut single, When You Gonna Learn, because you've taken the track in quite a different direction.

I've sung with Jamiroquai on stage, but people have forgotten that Jay isn't only famous for racing cars, and going out with models, and having punch-ups. He's well known because he's sold 30 million albums and made some great British soul/funk records.

The production on some of the Eighties tracks might sound a bit dated to modern ears, but you've produced an album which has its own particular stamp on it, with a production that hangs together all the way through.

It needed to be a cohesive record. With a lot of albums I've heard, where people have covered other people's material, they take the guts out of the song and it becomes some kind of boring, bland old thing. I think: why have you done this? I can't see the connection. I didn't want to make a "covers album". I wanted to make an album which was a concept of something which I feel desperately passionate about.

One of the earliest tracks on the album is Freeez's Southern Freeez (from 1981), which is a pretty sophisticated track for a young girl to be into.

I think it's because I grew up with music in my system. Growing up with gospel, I didn't grow up with straight up and down pop. That came when I started to nick the radio out of mum and dad's room. I was growing up with sophisticated chord changes, which I completely understood because they were a part and parcel of my DNA anyway. I didn't appreciate that they were sophisticated until I tried to replicate them on piano.

You've also covered a track by George Michael, who isn't a name that you would directly associate with the British soul movement. Did you know right from the start that you were going to take One More Try in a Southern soul/gospel direction?

When I first heard One More Try as a kid, my first comment to my sister was "this sounds like church". It had the chord progressions of a proper, old school, Charles Wesley hymn. Then when I did my version, I said to my sister "do you get what I mean now?"

You'll be getting married next year. Is that all planned out, and what sort of music have you got lined up?

I'm going to beg my band to do the honours. It's going to be old-school soul with a little bit of funky house, because some of my singers have had funky house records in the charts in their own right.

Do you know what your first dance is going to be?

We know, but we've got to keep it a secret. It's an absolute classic from the Eighties. We're not doing a slowie. We want to throw some shapes. We want to shake our butts! Once I do the business and get married, we'll have a chat again, and you'll be like: oh my God!

Soul UK is out now. Beverley's show at the Royal Concert Hall is on November 23.