NINA Persson,singer with Swedish outfit The Cardigans, acknowledges that fans in the UK have had a wait on their hands to see the band live.

“It’s been a while hasn’t it?” said Nina. In fact The Cardigans haven’t been in the UK since 2007 but are set to make up for that by coming to Manchester next week, the opening night of a tour which will see them play their most popular album Gran Tourismo in its entirety.

“I suppose the main reason we haven’t been over before is that we really haven’t had a record in a long time,” said Nina. “But it’s going to be super fun to get back out on tour.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Gran Tourismo, an album which sold more than three million copies worldwide and featured the hit My Favourite Game.

And Nina is delighted to be getting the chance to play the whole album live.

“I’m one of those people who does feel nostalgic about the album format,” she said.

“I think it’s really nice that people can listen to a product as a whole – they can consume the art the way we made it and the way we intended it to be heard without having bits chopped out.

“As the artist, the album tracks are equally dear to me as the singles, perhaps more to be honest. They tend to have more of a story to them.”

Nina is hoping that fans going to the live shows will find out more about The Cardigans.

“For those people who were only exposed to the songs off Gran Tourismo on the radio they might discover a bunch of songs that they didn’t know,” she said.

Looking back to the making of Gran Tourismo, Nina said that the band were pretty confident about their latest release.

“We felt that we had made a good record and we knew the songs were good,” she said. “Having said that I was in a pretty bad place when we made the record, I wasn’t particularly happy and that, to me, really shines through in the record.

“It was our depression record,” she laughed. “In a weird way though, now when I sing it, I still feel that it is relevant and applies to various degrees. It does seem to have stood the test of time very well.”

It is 13 years since The Cardigans released their last album, Super Extra Gravity. Since then the various members of the band have worked on solo projects.

After a six year break the band got back together for sporadic live dates in 2012, although without main songwriter and guitarist Peter Svensson who decided not to take part.

But fans hoping there will be new music look like being disappointed.

“A new record? I really don’t think so to be honest,” said Nina. “We talk about it once in a while, but although Peter’s technically in the band still, he’s not playing with us and he doesn’t want to write songs again.

“For us to make a new record without him would be weird. I think it’s more elegant for The Cardigans to arrest rather than carry on without him as that would alter our core.

“You do get bands which carry on by bringing in new members but to me, that’s all a bit wrong.

“Our later records were really good and are very precious to us. So instead of starting to do things just for the sake of it, I think we’d rather let the legacy rest in peace.

“But the four of us will get the chance to bring those records out and take them to the fans. They have been waiting a while for us to do this in the UK and I think we are going to have the time of our lives."

The Cardigans, Manchester Apollo, Monday, December 3. Support from Moto Boy. Details from www.ticketmaster.co.uk