Vintage Radio, the radio station of the world’s largest arts organisation, is about to be transformed into a live music venue, and the singer-songwriter is about the only female on the bill.
The Rodeos have long been a staple of the music world, with Mandy’s classic albums (her first album being ‘Shelter in Place’) still in the top ten on the US charts.
But this summer she will be the first woman in the US to play the Roto at a live show.
Her show will be on the BBC Radio 4 Classic Hits show, which airs from 11am to 6pm on Saturday (June 18).
‘The Rodeoes are like the old ladies of the arts world, and they are doing it because it’s important for the music industry, and that’s something that’s really exciting,’ she says.
‘We’ve always felt like we’re not just a ladies’ club, and I think we are really excited about what this means for the future of the industry and the future generations of people in it.’
Mandy has been playing live at Rodeolos for more than 40 years, but the BBC Classic Hits programme will mark her first time playing live in the UK, in the form of a performance at a venue called the Rottnest.
‘This is going to be my first time in a venue, so that’s always exciting,’ Mandy says.
Rodeology: The Story of a Woman’s Band on BBC Radio Four Classic Hits in May 2011, Mandy played at the Root Club in London for the first time.
But the next month she was in a band for the very first time at the BFI.
‘I had just finished doing a residency at the Museum of Modern Art, and there was an opportunity to go to the Museum and perform for the BBC, so I said to the producers, ‘Let’s do it for free, we’ll just do the show and I’ll come as a guest.’
So we did a show and did a number of shows and I got to see myself at the forefront of the movement, in my very first show.’
Rodeolo’s first gig in the Rotoscope Lounge was at the Barbican Theatre in London.
‘When we first started playing in London in the early nineties, we had just a few hundred people.
Now we have about 20,000 people at the venue and that was very exciting, because that was my first gig, and it was a big deal for me.
‘There were no barriers to entry, we were allowed to come in and perform and we were given a little bit of money, so we did get paid to do that.’
The Rotoscalopes have changed a lot since then, because now we have a whole range of people that come in every day, and we also have the opportunity to have the music coming through and there’s a lot more space now to do all that.
‘It’s just so exciting to have a big show in a big venue, but it’s really fun to go and play.
I’ve never been in a room before where you can sit down and have a full bar and you’re actually dancing, you can sing and you can have the show.
‘So it’s exciting to play a live venue and to see all the people that are there and all the performers that are on stage.
‘You know, if I was to get in there to play in front of a crowd and a few thousand people I would feel quite a bit different.
But if you get to know a lot of the people who are coming in to play then it’s like a family.
‘People love to come to a show, but there are some really good ones that we can’t really play live, and those are the shows that we do at the museum, and at the studio, and in the studio.
‘The best live shows are when we can really have an audience, and you know, I can’t see myself ever doing live, because I’m really shy and I have this weird, shy personality, so if you just go to a live performance, you’re just kind of getting into the environment and you’ve got to be very careful what you say, because you might offend someone.
‘But I would love to do a show where you really can have an environment where you feel really at home and you feel like you’re part of something special, where you have the people in the audience that you want to see and you are singing and you want them to get a kick out of it.
‘And then you can actually put it all together and really have it happen.’
Rottos are a new phenomenon at the moment, but Mandy is not the only one bringing her talents to the Rotscope.
She has also joined the likes of Jools Holland and Ramin Djawadi,