Paloma Faith on her Carlisle Racecourse concert

She has never played a racecourse before. Arenas, yes. Festivals, tick. Even a woodland. Never a racecourse.

“I’ve heard that people are definitely up for it by the time you come on,” she says, a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

“They want to have a good time because they are either commiserating their losses or celebrating wins.

“Before I spoke to you I was talking to a very posh man and he said racing was the sport of kings, so I said ‘I’d better stay in the stables then’ and he was very apologetic saying ‘nooo, I didn’t mean that!” she laughs.

She quotes from Rudyard Kipling’s If saying “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch”.

What her fans can expect is an all-action show featuring some massive hits and showcasing her latest hit album – amazingly her first to reach number one.

Hits such as Only Love Can Hurt Like This, Picking Up the Pieces, New York, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful Never Tear Us Apart and her recent ones Cry Baby and Guilty from her new hit album, The Architect .

There are no kings featured on her new tracks, but the album is packed with celebrity. Actor Samuel L Jackson leads a glittering list of collaborators that includes Sia, John Legend, TMS, Starsmith, Eg White, Rag’n’Bone Man and journalist and left wing activist Owen Jones who has opened for her on tour.

“I did not realise until I put the album together what an array of celebrities there was – I did not do it purposefully,” she insists, her north London accent is as broad as the Thames.

“The further I have gone in my career, I have made more connections by default.

“They are all like-minded people. John Legend is political with a small ‘p’”

You’ve certainly done well in your career if you have Samuel L Jackson on your speed dial.

Faith explains that they met after she performed at the 2013 BAFTA ceremony. She then helped Jackson’s charity One For The Boys which raises awareness of testicular cancer.

He said he owed her a favour, so she called it in.

Jackson opens the album with a speech written by Faith, in which he states: “Do something, say something, believe in something, but most of all, know you can change things. Yes, you. What are you waiting for? Do not be fearful of evolution, the time is now!”

It feels like a call to arms and Faith, who became a mum for the first time in December, admits she is worried about what is happening in the world around her.

The Architect is almost a concept album. Stitching it together with a political thread is a risky one, but the production and general upbeat tone of the music, mixing her trademark retro soul sound with power ballads, Bond-style sweeping string arrangements, funk and dance makes it accessible and prevents it from sounding like a lecture or a sermon.

And there is a vagueness about the lyrics that allow them to be read in a personal or political context.

She says she wrote Guilty about the Brexit vote and suggests Warrior , which was written by Sia, as a song about the refugee crisis.

Meanwhile, Surrender is about homelessness, and Lost and Lonely explores isolation in old age

Raising issues and political awareness “is a duty” she says, and adds: “Nina Simone said if you are an artist you have a duty to do that, it is an obligation. It would be a waste of your position if you did not.”

The mix of political and social conscience has echoes of Marvin Gaye’s iconic album What’s Going On? Whether it achieves such legendary status or manages such longevity, time will only tell.

“I started writing it two years ago when I started to feel there was a murmuring of things changing and as things moved forward I was increasingly feeling sure of what I thought,” she explains.

“It feels like there is a real kind of political change happening and I’m not sure it is for the better.

“I’m hoping it is going to provoke better before it gets any worse.

“Marvin Gaye’s album was very appropriate for the day and unfortunately it seems as though not much progress has been made.

“It felt like I had a duty as an artist with a platform, not to overlook or acknowledge what was happening.

“I thought I had established myself with the three albums as a person capable of singing about human emotions and what people can think on an emotional level, but I overlooked our relationship with the world we live in.

“I was raised in a socially and politically aware household. We had someone live with us from South Africa because she couldn’t teach because she was black and she lived with us on a refuge programme.

“She was with us for a year and a half and went back when Nelson Mandela was released.

“There were squats near us and my mum used to drop things round for them because they had no money.

“I have never felt I was a singular person. It was never every man for himself. I have always had a strong sense of community and that we should care for each other.”

There is a danger of being too political and of switching people off. Judging by the huge welcome the album has received, she has managed it brilliantly.

Her first three albums all turned platinum or multi-platinum, but stuck at number 2 in the charts. The Architect is the first that has claimed top spot.

“I wanted to access as many people as possible. I made sure all the songs were written in the first person so it sounds like personal experience and less preachy,” she explains.

“I have not hit anyone round the head with my opinions, I have just raised a point.

“We live in a politically apathetic culture. You raise the ‘p’ word and people switch off.”

She won the Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist in 2015 following the phenomenal success of her last album, 2014’s A Perfect Contradiction , and she is nominated again for next weekend’s awards.

You might think her huge sales and critical successes have lifted her above celebrating such a milestone as racking up a number one album.

The new mum admits: “It was like ‘yay!’ then five minutes later I was squishing up some sweet potato.”

She confesses that she worries about success the longer she enjoys it.

“I feel like it is a worse every time I release an album.

“Every time I put a new album out, my options of what I could do if it doesn’t go well are increasingly limited. At the beginning, I had this cocky attitude that I had this master’s degree and if it all ended I could teach in university or I could get a job writing.

“Now I have done this for 10 years and I have done nothing else and don’t know what I could do.”

The suggestion that she could be a magician’s assistant, one of the jobs she held before breaking through as a singer, is met with a giggle.

“I don’t think I’m quite as bendy as I was,” she says.

* Paloma Faith performs at Carlisle racecourse on Saturday, July 7. For tickets and information, go to live.thejockeyclub.co.uk