LITTLE Boots — aka Victoria Hesketh — is pretty chuffed with her new-found success.

“When New in Town entered the charts I was so pleased to get a top 15 single,” she said.

“It went in at number 11, just missing the top 10, and that's full of people who have massive careers and stuff, so it's amazing. It’s crazy really.”

The name, in case you were wondering, comes from a nickname given to her by a friend, and is a reference to her size 2½ feet.

The 25-year-old, who was born in Blackpool and later lived in Little Thornton, is due to perform on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross tonight, and when we spoke to her yesterday afternoon was just about to go into filming.

“I'm not nervous at the moment but maybe I will be right before,” she said.

“I've done a bit of telly now so I know what I’m doing and I've been doing gigs one way or another for a long time. It's my mum who gets nervous for me. I’m normally pretty calm and she's the one doing all the worrying.”

Is she prepared for Jonathan Ross's flirtatious ways?

“I don't have to sit on the sofa. I’m just performing at the end so I won't be being grilled by Jonathan. I think I’ll be OK.”

As well as not suffering from pre-performance jitters, Victoria seems pretty down-to-earth generally. She isn't worried about success going to her head. Her mum, she said, has that side of things under control.

“Mum says she'll give me a good talking-to if I get too stroppy,” she said.

“I don't think I'm going to get too big-headed, anyway. I've got a good team around me and that's the most important thing. I've got a good family, good friends, a good boyfriend and a good team. I think I'll be all right.”

Despite Victoria's seemingly overnight success — her debut album, Hands, released on the June 8, peaked at number 5 in the UK album charts — she has been making music her whole life.

Classically trained on piano from the age of five (she also plays the flute, harp, keyboard, Stylophone and a Japanese electronic instrument called the tenori-on), she spent her formative years immersed in music, locking herself away in music rooms during break time at Rossall School, Fleetwood, and rushing home to fit in more practice before tea.

At the age of 16 she appeared on ITV's Pop Idol and made it through to the third round before being eliminated. Afterwards she went on tour in Europe with a jazz trio and later became the lead singer of dance-pop band Dead Disco before eventually embarking on a solo career.

“It is strange in a way that people see me as being new to music when I've been making music for a long time,” said Victoria. “But it's not like I feel as though I've been plugging away my whole life and it's finally paid off. I just love making music and this is what I'd be doing whether I had a number five album or not. I’d still make music if I never got to produce an album in my whole life. I suppose I just feel grateful that I’m in a position now where I can make music all the time. It's very flattering when you're being called the hottest new thing of 2009 and stuff like that, but I just love doing what I'm doing.

“The most glamorous thing that I've done so far is when I got to go in a helicopter at Glastonbury — that was amazing.”

Victoria's Lancashire links are important to her and she's returning to perform a gig at Preston's 53 degrees as part of her just-announced October UK tour.

“I've performed there before and it was really good, so I'm hoping it'll be just as good if not better this time,” she said.

“It'll be great because all my mates and family will be able to come and if I'm lucky, depending on where the next gig is, I'll be able to have a couple of nights at home, which would be really nice.”

This year is a big one for Victoria with a string of festivals, a tour and trips to Australia and America planned, as well as the release of her second single Remedy in August.

“I'm really excited about everything,” she said. “I'm just going to work hard and keep enjoying it.”