GO WITH THE FLO; FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE CELEBRATE A YEAR THAT'S SEEN THEM HIT THE BIG TIME.

Byline: GAVIN MARTIN

Florence Welch is the tall, flame-haired front woman of 2009's best-selling new act. And with her striking stage outfits, commanding theatrical presence and well-bred, operatic voice, Florence's live appearances have sent hearts aflutter all the way from Newcastle to New York and Glastonbury to Glasgow.

But tell Florence, 23, that she is undoubtedly a new kind of sex symbol and she goes all coy.

"Am I? Really?" she says. "But I like slobbing around in really weird clothes."

Today, taking time out in a canalside Amsterdam cafe after Florence And The Machine stormed the stage at the Melkweg, she is living up to her off-message fashion sense. A long, pink lace pyjama top employed as a dress highlights her peaches and cream English rose complexion under a candy-striped jacket that once belonged to her father.

The flamboyant image is underlined by lyrics such as, "I'll drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart".

But maybe Florence, whose on/off boyfriend Stuart doesn't like her to talk about their relationship, isn't quite the maneater her music suggests.

"I'm not really sure about the whole sex symbol thing," she admits. "I'm not really counting the guys when I'm onstage."

Florence Leontine Mary Welch is probably the poshest female pop star since Dido. Her mum is a professor and her father was a big cheese in advertising. They split when she was a child and her mum married a neighbour.

"I wouldn't classify myself as a rich kid," she shrugs. "I'm just a person. I dunno. Maybe if you don't have the pressure of having to go out and finding a job, concentrating on music is a lot easier. But even if you were super-rich it wouldn't get you anywhere unless you were good."

Florence And The Machine's album Lungs has sold 380,000 copies, making it the biggestselling debut of the year. Its success is all the more remarkable when you consider Florence only began performing two years ago.

"I was quite an awkward kid," she says. "I always found it difficult. I was quite odd looking and into punk bands like Nirvana and Hole. I dyed my hair black and it was a way of using music to find an identity.

"I never fitted in with the popular crew. My best friend and I were more interested in watching Withnail And I and going to strange art parties. We tried to live the Withnail lifestyle, but it's difficult to do that when you are two 17-year-old girls."

Her witchy image goes back further than that to her pre-teenage years. "I did a ouija board when I was 10 in the middle of school," Flo recalls. "The principal found us and he was soooo angry. This was before the days of Harry Potter.

"I still have some rituals, but I'm not sure how magical they are. I dance in the dressing room before I go onstage. I've been dancing by myself for a very long time."

Florence got her big break when she impressed future manager Mairead Nash - one half of the DJ outfit Queens Of Noize - with her vocal expertise.

"I used to sing in church but my choirmaster would be horrified to think I was now a professional," she says. "I was a slightly wayward choir girl and wasn't his favourite as I was absent most of the time.

"But I enjoyed it. There's something wonderful about performing in churches that are designed for acoustics. My love of choral music definitely filtered through to the album."

There was one noticeable cloud on the Florence's sunblessed year - her failure, after being much favoured, to win the Mercury prize.

"I was pleased it was all over," she says. "It was a distraction from what I like doing - playing and writing music. I was quite relieved, though. To win would have been an added pressure.

"But it's brought Speech Debelle a tremendous amount of exposure. It's great for an artist like that who perhaps wouldn't have got it otherwise."

Despite mising the Mercury, Florence has had many compensations. One came when she played Edinburgh Castle with Duran Duran and Simon Le Bon gave her a rose.

"We always seem to make it rain," Flo laughs. "When we played Edinburgh it started to thunder in the middle of the set in time to one of the songs - it was weird."

Maybe her magical energy is stronger than she lets on.

"The drums are really important on the album," she continues. "We have three different drum set-ups on stage. I play one lot - it's important to get that primal energy across.

"I think drums are the heartbeat of music. They are the first instrument I ever played on stage. I was chancing it, like most of the stuff I do!"

New single You've Got The Love is out on Monday.

CAPTION(S):

BIG SELLER: Band's debut album Lungs