LULU has leapt out of her seat to do an impression of Paul McCartney washing his hair over a sink.

”I was in their dressing room and he puts his head under the tap of this old-fashioned sink, wets his hair, then shakes it off and stands up like this and – oh my God, that hair,” she sighs, collapsing back into her seat. “I was mesmerised.”

Lulu, who is bringing her three-woman singing show to the Echo Arena next week, was 15 when her debut hit Shout reached the top ten in 1964 and, apart from the memory of hanging out with The Beatles backstage at the Hammersmith Apollo, which she says is “clear as day”, the 62-year-old claims recollections of the time are hazy.

In an accent which sounds soft Glaswegian by way of London and Los Angeles, she says: “My life was a whirlwind. Most of the time I was living in ‘Lulu land’ and it was so exciting because I was making music.

“But decades went on and people were obsessed with the Sixties, and would ask me about it. I’d say, ‘Ach, been there, done it, got the t-shirt,’ but actually I’d only been in London and there were a lot of things going on outside that.”

Although the former redhead says she loved the kinky boots and short skirts of the Sixties, and today is looking glamorous with attentively coiffed blonde hair and trendy jewellery, she also remembers being plagued with insecurity about her looks.

“I had acne,” she reveals. “I was consumed by the fact I had spots. It was really tortuous, thank God I had music or I probably would have killed myself. It was terrible.

“There’d be big pictures of me, and when I saw To Sir With Love I went out crying thinking, ‘I’m so ugly’. I was always hanging out with rock stars and their model girlfriends, who were all blonde and leggy and I was a midget. That part was not fun.”

The colourful stories are now in full flow. She reveals how much she and her backing band, The Luvvers, hated being patronised by plummy English people saying, “Pardon?” when they spoke in their broad Glasgow lilt, how great it felt to see herself on music programme Ready, Steady, Go for the first time, and how, after her first year in the spotlight, she treated her family to a holiday to Torremolinos in Spain.

“We all got sunburnt and there was absolutely nothing to do,” says Lulu who will be performing with Anastacia and M People star Heather Small in the Echo Arena show.

“There was a lot of getting very dressed up to go across the road to the local restaurant, I recall.”

HERE Come the Girls is at the Echo Arena on November 25. Tickets on 0844 800 3680.