GO LONDON newsletter Bringing our city to your living room Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive the best London offers and activities every week, by email Update newsletter preferences

Backstage at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, the nine touring members of Florence + The Machine are huddled together in a corridor. They’re due onstage in 10 minutes in front of a sold-out Saturday night audience of 13,000.

But right now they’re performing for themselves. Florence Welch — barefoot, diaphanous Gucci frock, sturdy emerald-green support underwear — leads her half-girls, half-boys group in a near-a capella version of June, the opening track on her fourth album, High As Hope. There is twirling, clapping, ululating, hand-holding, some elbow-bumping waltzing, a little bit of acoustic guitar and much intra-band bonding.

“Ho-o-o-o-ld on to each other,” choruses Welch in that remarkable voice, the voice and the emotion warming up the unlovely passageway cluttered with boxes and chairs.

This is the band’s pre-show singalong, a ritual that has been performed at the start of all their concerts this year, and will continue teeing off nights on a tour that stretches to next summer. It does what alcohol used to help do for the now-sober Welch — it puts her in the zone. But it also underlines the aesthetic of the entire High As Hope era, one that also encompasses her first book of (typically revealing) poetry, lyrics and drawings, Useless Magic.

“It’s an emotional record with lots of longing for tenderness and connection,” Welch, 32, tells me. Ten days before Glasgow, we’re meeting in Camberwell, part of the wider south London neighbourhood she’s always called home.

“It’s almost a softer record than I’ve done before,” she says. “There is anger in it, and fury, but in a song like June, the cry is just please hold on to each other.”

Winter music festivals to book now 4 show all Winter music festivals to book now 1/4 Rise festival, December 15-22 As well as combining snowsports and music, Rise festival is putting a real focus on wellbeing in December. There are 220km of pistes for skiers and snowboarders to explore throughout the week, before taking part in mindfulness and health-orientated events, such as alpine yoga, and trying out more extreme experiences like paragliding, snowmobiling and mountain husky rides. When it comes to the music, expect an eclectic lineup up of DJ sets from the likes of Annie Mac, Camelphat, David Rodigan, Richy Ahmed and Sonny Fedora. 2/4 Tomorrowland Winter, March 16-19 Legendary Belgian dance festival Tomorrowland is launching a sister event in the French Alps this March, with Tomorrowland Winter taking place for the first time in the village of Alpe d’Huez. As you’d expect with the organisers’ pedigree, some of the world’s biggest DJs are in town, with Armin van Buuren, Steve Aoki, Martin Garrix and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike performing at the festival. It promises to be a huge event, with around 30,000 people attending from around the world. Tickets are already proving very popular — those wishing to attend should sign up to the waiting list. 3/4 Snowboxx, March 23-29 Music fans will be flocking to the French town of Avoriaz to see the likes of Craig David perform at Snowboxx this March. Jax Jones, Wilkinson and Rudimental will also play at the festival, which takes places over one week in the mountains. The organisers really know how to put on a party, with après ski events taking place in the site’s igloos andeMike Skinner hosting a tree house rave. Seven days of accomodation and a festival wristband start at £239. March 23-29 4/4 Snowbombing, April 8-13 ‘Ibiza on ice’ is the experience fans can expect from Snowbombing, which takes place nearly 9,000ft up in the Austrian Alps between April 8 and April 13 in Mayrhofen, Austria. Expect some of the wildest parties to be thrown to celebrate the festival’s 20th birthday, as well as some of the most high-profile live performances — Stormzy, the Prodigy and Fatboy Slim headline, while expert skiers and novices alike are welcome on the slopes. Packages for festival passes and accommodation begin at £249. Rex Features 1/4 Rise festival, December 15-22 As well as combining snowsports and music, Rise festival is putting a real focus on wellbeing in December. There are 220km of pistes for skiers and snowboarders to explore throughout the week, before taking part in mindfulness and health-orientated events, such as alpine yoga, and trying out more extreme experiences like paragliding, snowmobiling and mountain husky rides. When it comes to the music, expect an eclectic lineup up of DJ sets from the likes of Annie Mac, Camelphat, David Rodigan, Richy Ahmed and Sonny Fedora. 2/4 Tomorrowland Winter, March 16-19 Legendary Belgian dance festival Tomorrowland is launching a sister event in the French Alps this March, with Tomorrowland Winter taking place for the first time in the village of Alpe d’Huez. As you’d expect with the organisers’ pedigree, some of the world’s biggest DJs are in town, with Armin van Buuren, Steve Aoki, Martin Garrix and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike performing at the festival. It promises to be a huge event, with around 30,000 people attending from around the world. Tickets are already proving very popular — those wishing to attend should sign up to the waiting list. 3/4 Snowboxx, March 23-29 Music fans will be flocking to the French town of Avoriaz to see the likes of Craig David perform at Snowboxx this March. Jax Jones, Wilkinson and Rudimental will also play at the festival, which takes places over one week in the mountains. The organisers really know how to put on a party, with après ski events taking place in the site’s igloos andeMike Skinner hosting a tree house rave. Seven days of accomodation and a festival wristband start at £239. March 23-29 4/4 Snowbombing, April 8-13 ‘Ibiza on ice’ is the experience fans can expect from Snowbombing, which takes place nearly 9,000ft up in the Austrian Alps between April 8 and April 13 in Mayrhofen, Austria. Expect some of the wildest parties to be thrown to celebrate the festival’s 20th birthday, as well as some of the most high-profile live performances — Stormzy, the Prodigy and Fatboy Slim headline, while expert skiers and novices alike are welcome on the slopes. Packages for festival passes and accommodation begin at £249. Rex Features

She explains how this idea fed into the tour production. “I wanted to make an environment where people felt embraced. So, lots of organic material (the stage is made of beautiful, soft wood) and a proscenium. There are no sharp edges, and there’s fabric hanging from the ceiling.

“I actually wanted scent-design, because I’m a loon!” she announces, laughter exploding volcanically from her, “like a church smell pumped into the venues. But they were, like, for health reasons you can’t do that. What if someone is allergic? And also — how expensive do you want to make this tour?” she laughs again.

Off-stage and in conversation, Welch is still very Florence-y. A jangle of jewellery around neck and wrists and fingers, expressive hand gestures, much flicking of hair, lots of cheerfully out-there emotionality. But there’s a relief, too, that High As Hope was received and reviewed so well. Especially as the first single, from its opening line, was especially revealing.

At 17 I started to starve myself, I thought that love was a kind of emptiness, she sings on Hunger. In spring I attended an early playback of the album, hosted by Welch in a private members’ club in Mayfair. Introducing the songs she appeared uncharacteristically trepidatious. Hearing Hunger, and then Grace, her apology to her younger sister for being, basically, an annoying, attention-hogging sibling, I understood why.

The admission of a teenage eating disorder was the biggest worry, “because it was such a big piece of myself to give to people. And it would have been heartbreaking if it had been received in the wrong way. But people received it with love and kindness. Which was life-changing for me.”

In what way? There is a pause, a hair-swish, a clank of the three crucifixes round her neck.

“It was something I’d kept secret my whole life,” she eventually replies.

“But I’d started talking about it to some people who could help, and other women who had experienced similar things.

“And that beginning to bring things to the light made me able to write a song about it.” And, then, presumably, decide that, hey, anorexia is great material for a comeback pop single? She hoots with laughter and agreement.

“What the f*** have I done? It’s on the f***ing radio! I’m insane!”

If she is, at least she’s no longer insane through boozing. A previously enthusiastic partygoer, Welch has been clean of alcohol and drugs since the beginning of the recording of her last album, 2015’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. Touring sober, she acknowledges, “is so much better, but also harder. It’s lonelier.

“I use to be drunk on stage constantly, and I thought that was part of [being a performer],” Welch admits. “Then I realised how good it was to really connect with an audience and be present. Yeah, I won’t be drunk on stage again, even if I decide to start drinking again in a casual way — which I really doubt because I’ve never done it casually in my life!” she laughs hysterically, setting off another jangle of jewellery.

“One glass of wine? What is that?” she scoffs. “I was always straight onto the shots. People ask me, ‘don’t you miss a glass of wine?’ No — I miss seven vodka shots in a row.”

In Glasgow a week and a half later, it’s clear where Welch now gets some of her buzz — through contact highs. Towards the end of a never-less-than-impassioned 100-minute set she bounds off stage — still barefoot — and plunges into the packed audience. Trailed by her security guard, she sings as she goes, clasping hands with fans, climbing onto railings, vaulting over barriers, circumnavigating the arena, before returning to the stage.

Then it’s into main-set closer, What Kind Of Man, which she sings inches away from the fans jammed up to the crush barrier, pressing forehead to foreheads and applying palm to faces as if offering absolution to her male followers.

It’s quite the performance, a night bookended by hold-on-to-each-other tactility and connection. Lord knows how far she’ll go at her two south London homecoming shows this week.

“The quieter my life became offstage, the more ferocious the performances became,” Welch had acknowledged in Camberwell.

“A lot of those self-destructive urges and energies that I used to kick the s**t out of myself with suddenly had a new place where they could live and be free. The beast was finally free,” she said with another guffaw, “but in a way that was constructive.”

Florence + The Machine plays The O2 (theo2.co.uk) tomorrow and Thursday