SAINT Etienne singer Sarah Cracknell is delighted her proponents of pristine pop will be headlining the first ever Friday night main stage at the Deer Shed Festival 3 tonight at Baldersby Park, Topcliffe.

“Speaking for myself, I basically prefer the small festivals, like when we played Truck at Oxford last year,” says Sarah, whose band released their first studio album since 2005 in the spring.

“I love the atmosphere of small festivals; they have much more tranquil settings, and much as I love Glastonbury, it’s so big now, I get lost.”

New album Words And Music combines Saint Etienne’s grasp on the electronic musical pulse with reflections on music’s impact on their and our lives through the years. With that in mind, does that make Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Peter Wiggs a “heritage act”, to use the parlance of the day?

“Heritage act?” says 45-year-old Sarah, mulling over the question. “It’s fair enough, because we’ve been going for 22 years now, but I don’t think we’re stuck in our past. In the seven-year period between albums we were doing so many things, always working on other projects.”

Sarah, who now lives in the Oxfordshire countryside, sees Words And Music as a continuation rather than a comeback. “I hate that ‘comeback’ thought. We’ve been just as active doing other things to do with music and film, and I’m thrilled with the reaction the new album has had, especially Over The Border, the first track but the last one we recorded.

“The amount of people who’ve said it’s reduced them to tears – not that I want to make them cry! We certainly don’t want to be nostalgic or too melancholy.”

Deer Shed Festival 3 runs from today until Sunday at Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, featuring a music bill, arts bill, activities and Monsters theme. Tickets: deershedfestival.com/tickets/ or Ticketline on 0844 888 9991. Music acts include headliners Saint Etienne tonight, Villagers tomorrow and Cherry Ghost on Sunday.