AFTER nursing her dad back to health Dido found more choppy waters on her second album, Life For Rent. Mono caught up with her on the road to her Welsh gig next week.

A singer-songwriter with a trip-hoppy bent, Dido was never going to change the face of music.

But her brand of misery has taken root in the British consciousness thanks to platinum albums No Angel and Life For Rent. Her fans come from all over and in Cardiff next week there'll be as many Ford Mondeo-driving middle managers as there are angst ridden teenage girls.

Twelve million of them bought No Angel, confirming Dido as one of only a handful of British artists capable of breaking through to a global audience in the new millennium.

Life For Rent gave us White Flag which, if you listen closely, is probably backing some advert or a trailer for a new series right now.

It's a superb, confidently written pop song impossible to wipe from your memory yet its ambling beats and simple strings follow exactly the same format as anything on No Angel.

But for Dido the big picture is not what it's all about. "For me, it's about the little things, the detail," she says. "Always has been, always will be.

"As in life, I concentrate on that, leaving the big stuff to just take care of itself."

The title, she adds, and the song from which it's taken, represents how she feels about her life right now and where she wants to take it.

"It's about not being afraid to take chances, or to live life to the full," she explains. "It's so easy to slip into complacency, or to disengage from the world. This album works as a constant reminder to myself not to do that." Just days into making Life For Rent Dido's father was taken seriously ill and she found herself rushing home.

William Armstrong almost died after being admitted to Middlesex Hospital with severe lupus and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, which led to septicaemia and liver failure.

He spent two months in intensive care before going on to make a remarkable recovery.

His doc and one of the UK's leading experts in the field, David Isenberg, described him as "one of the most severely ill people I have known to have survived".

Dido has since opened new offices at University College, London, in April this year.

Even so, it was a productive time for Dido with several of the song ideas born there making it on to the final album.

A majority of the 11 new tracks were built up on piano and guitar, either there or back home in London.

Some were collaborations with her brother Rollo, others with Rick Nowels, who helped produce No Angel.

And studio assistant from those sessions, Pnut, has also had input into Life For Rent.

"It turns out we had a hip hop genius in our midst," says Dido. "I'm often nervous when people hand me backing tracks they've made, because I find it hard to be anything other than painfully honest about what I hear. "But in this case it was, 'Wow! Unbelievable! I want to write lyrics to this right away'."

It was a struggle but it's always been this way for Dido. No-one expected the north London girl to make it.

She had given up on the UK, gone to the States and had been promoting No Angel for a year when Eminem decided to sample six lines of the Dido song Thank You for Stan.

"It was bolt from the blue when I got word of his interest," she admits. "It was the spring of 2000 and I was in New York when this CD arrived with a covering letter.

"When I played it, I was completely blown away. I already loved his stuff, but this was something a bit different as well.

"Yet, naively, I just didn't predict the effect it would have on my career. I simply told a few mates who also thought Eminem was cool and, hence, who I knew would be impressed, and then carried on promoting my own album. But, of course, the eventual effect would be insane."

When Eminem came to the UK to promote the single he brought his sample with him and introduced her to her own country.

No Angel was released here for the first time and the rest, as they say, is history.

Dido plays Cardiff International arena on Friday, August 27. Call 029 2022 4488 for more info.

DIDO FACTS

A dido is a slang word of unknown origin for an antic caper or a frivolous or mischievous act. To act dido is to play the fool. To cut up didoes is to behave in an extravagant way.

Dido's real name is Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong!

She was born on Christmas Day 1971 in London.

She is 5ft 8ins or 172cm tall.

Before Dido was famous she worked at a literary agency and did a law degree by night.

The daughter of rave DJ Rollo, she immersed herself in club culture in the early 90s but left it be when some friends ended up in mental institutions.

She used to smoke but gave up. She was smoking 30-a-day and dreamt that a doctor gave her six weeks to live.

Her first concert was a trip to see Tears for Fears with her mum when she was 13. She smoked a pack of ciggies and threw up.

She was a trouble- maker at school always on the wrong side of the law for smoking and drinking and generally leading people astray.

Dido was big in the States before the UK. It wasn't until her Eminem collaboration Stan that the British public woke up to her.