Nerina Pallot

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Nerina Pallot

Nerina Pallot at Cornbury Music Festival, 2006
Background information
Birth name Nerina Natasha Georgina Pallot
Born (1975-04-26) 26 April 1975[1]
London, UK
Origin Jersey, Channel Islands
Genres Pop rock, alternative rock
Years active 2001–present
Labels Polydor Records
(2000–2002)
Idaho Records
(2004–2005)
14th Floor Records
(2005–2008)
Echo Label
(2009–2010)
Geffen
(2010–present)

Nerina Natasha Georgina Pallot (born 26 April 1975, London) is a platinum-selling, Brit- and Ivor Novello Award-nominated British singer and songwriter. Although born in London, Pallot was brought up in Jersey by a half-French father and a mother from Allahabad, India.

Early life

Pallot played piano as a child and wrote her first song aged 13. She has identified seeing singer and pianist Kate Bush perform her hit song "This Woman's Work" on television as a catalyst for her to pursue a music career. She attended Jersey College for Girls.[2]

Career

Dear Frustrated Superstar

Pallot released her debut album, Dear Frustrated Superstar, on Polydor records in August 2001. This spawned two commercial singles, "Patience" and "Alien", with a third, "If I Know You" mooted, a video for which was filmed, but has never been publicly shown. Her album was withdrawn shortly before an arena tour with Bryan Adams, pending a planned reissue.

Subsequently she was dropped from the label partly as a result of a message she wrote on the Tipsheet message board relating to the actions of her A&R man around remixes of "Photograph", a track intended to be on the re-issued Dear Frustrated Superstar. This incident and many others related to the industry and her experiences with her debut album are discussed in stories on her official website.

The album was eventually re-issued several years later after her second album, Fires had become a commercial success. The re-issue matched the original version and did not include "Photograph". Initial retailer listings showed the re-issued album as including several B-Sides from the era, but this version was never issued.

In 2003 she sang lead vocals on the track "Truly" on Delerium's album Chimera, which was also released as a single in the UK.

Fires

Her second album, Fires, was released in April 2005 on her own independent label, Idaho. It was published by Chrysalis Music Publishing, who have stuck with her since her Polydor days and provided her with a development deal. They initially provided her with £50,000 to make the album. When that proved insufficient for Pallot's needs, she remortgaged her house to pay for the rest of the album and for living expenses. Pallot wrote all of the songs on Fires.

The album was produced and mixed by Howard Willing (OK Go, Stevie Nicks, Lisa Marie Presley, Melissa Auf der Maur, Liz Phair, The Smashing Pumpkins, Van Hunt), with producers Eric Rosse (Tori Amos, Lisa Marie Presley, Anna Nalick) who produced "Learning to Breathe" and "Heart Attack" (co-produced by Willing) and Wendy Melvoin (member of Prince's band The Revolution) who produced "Damascus". After the initial tracks were finished the rest of the record was apparently completed by Willing and Pallot flying files back and forth from London to Los Angeles. With the contacts and friendships that he had acquired over the years they were able to obtain the help of A-level musicians.

The album was preceded by a download-only single, "Everybody's Gone to War". A second single from the record, "Damascus" was released in June 2005, and a third, "All Good People" (a Radio 2 single of the week) was released in September 2005.

At the end of 2005, Pallot signed with major label 14th Floor Records (a Warner label), the home of Damien Rice and Joseph Arthur. After signing with 14th Floor Records, a re-issue of the album which was more 'spangly' (Pallot's words) and featured additional strings on some tracks, was released on 24 April 2006, earning Pallot a chart success by reaching Number 21. With over 100,000 sales it was certified gold in the UK.[3]

The first single from the revamped album was "Everybody's Gone to War", which was playlisted on most major British radio stations. The video was shown on most music television stations and on her MySpace profile. The single became the third most played song on British radio the week before its release, and reached Number 14 in the UK Singles Chart.

The second single from the album was "Sophia", a re-recorded version, created in LA along with producer Mitchell Froom, which entered the UK singles chart at Number 32. In April 2007, the song was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award.

The next single from the re-released version of Fires was "Learning to Breathe", which reached Number 70 in the UK singles chart.

The Graduate

Pallot worked with several big name co-writers in preparation for the follow-up to Fires, including Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful") and Rob Davis (Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"). She also wrote an album's worth of material with Rick Nowels (Madonna's "Power of Goodbye", Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place on Earth"). However, she struggled with the co-writing process and in the end only self-written songs made the album.

The Graduate was released on 5 October 2009 in the UK and reached number 46 in the Official UK Album Chart in its first week of release. The standard version of the album features 10 original tracks, whereas the iTunes version contains three additional tracks, and the deluxe version contains seven acoustic versions of the tracks. The album has polarised critics, with some lauding it as her best album yet and others seeing her change of direction from Fires as a mistake. Having had no intention of releasing Fires 2, Pallot has defended the need for a progression between the two records.

Year of the Wolf

In July 2010, Pallot returned to Geffen Records and to the A&R that first signed her to Polydor. Pallot confirmed her new album would be titled Year of the Wolf via her Twitter page on 21 January 2011. She recorded with Bernard Butler for the album. The lead single was "Put Your Hands Up", released 24 April. The album was slated for release on the Geffen label on 30 May 2011 according to Nerina's Twitter page on 9 March 2011, but the release date was pushed to 13 June 2011, a change announced via Twitter on 5 May 2011. The American release date is 21 June 2011.

Tours

Nerina Pallot at Cornbury Music Festival 2006

Pallot has toured the UK many times as support act to more established singer-songwriters such as Sheryl Crow, James Blunt, Suzanne Vega, Joseph Arthur, Ray LaMontagne and Missy Higgins. She performed at the 2005 Guilfest music festival and headlined her own show at Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush, London later that year.

The first full headlining tour for the Fires album took place in May 2006. During the year she also played headline shows in London at ICA, the Bloomsbury Theatre, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and at Shepherd's Bush Empire.

Another UK and Ireland tour took place in January and February 2007, taking in venues in Penzance, Bristol, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Manchester, Newcastle, Coventry, Brighton, Belfast, Dublin, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Sheffield.

She toured the UK in October 2009, including a performance at Glasgow's Oran Mor venue on Wednesday 7 October, showcasing songs from the new album The Graduate. This was her first proper tour in almost 3 years.

She also toured the UK and Ireland once again in 2010, beginning 21 April in Bath, with eight dates, ending on 4 May in Dublin.[4]

Videos

Pallot has released six videos to go with singles from Dear Frustrated Superstar, Fires, and Year of the Wolf.

Her first video for "Patience", directed by Swedish director Emma Hvengaard, features Pallot in various scenes, notably wearing white and barefoot, continually floating to and from earth. "Alien" begins with Pallot lying down, it then becomes apparent that she had fallen onto a plumber's van, crushing it, and the video implies she has fallen from the sky "like an alien". The unreleased "If I Know You" video features multiple Nerinas fighting each other in a theatre.

For "Damascus", Pallot is seen playing piano and singing in a recording studio. Pallot's next video was for "Everybody's Gone to War", which includes cabbage-throwing goths and pineapple bombs. Her next video was for "Sophia", and was filmed in the middle of the desert in Morocco. It has Pallot sitting at a piano, playing and singing while fire surrounds her in a circle and her piano smokes and is also alight. Nerina's next performance, "Learning To Breathe", is more "abstract" and is computer-generated with her playing the guitar in a house with many pictures decorating the walls.

The video for "Put Your Hands Up", the lead single from Year of the Wolf, was shot in and around Lant Street in Southwark, London.

Songwriting and production

Notable events

  • 'Record of the Week' on BBC Radio 1
  • A spot on Top of the Pops
  • An appearance on BBC One's Heaven and Earth with Gloria Hunniford on 18 June 2006
  • A cover story in The Times magazine (see link below)
  • An appearance on The Charlotte Church Show on 29 September 2006
  • An appearance on Children in Need 2006 broadcast 18 November 2006
  • Pallot featured in Asian Woman magazine. She spoke of her Indian heritage and of her evolving musical career. The photo shoot featured was styled by celebrity fashion stylist Fiona Fraser and photographed by Paul West. The shoot took place on location at Canazaro House, Wimbledon Common in November 2006
  • A BRIT Award nomination for Best British Female 2007
  • An appearance on Never Mind the Buzzcocks broadcast 31 January 2007
  • An appearance on Live from Abbey Road in March 2007, performing the song "Idaho". The live session was recorded in November 2006 and she shared her episode with The Zutons, Ray LaMontagne and Shawn Colvin
  • In 2009 she began working with Diana Vickers on her upcoming album and wrote the song "Put It Back Together" that features on the album. The album was released in May 2010 and charted at Number 1 in the UK Charts.
  • In 2010 she co-wrote a song with Brazilian singer Sandy, called "Dias Iguais" - from Sandy's album "Manuscrito".

Awards and nominations

Pallot was nominated for British Female Solo Artist at the 2007 BRIT Awards. On 23 April 2007, it was announced that she had been nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for "Sophia" in the category of 'Best Song (musically and lyrically)'.

Discography

Main article: Nerina Pallot discography

Personal life

In early 2006 Pallot became engaged to Howard Willing, one of the producers who worked on her second album Fires, but the relationship ended later that year.

Pallot met fellow Jersey resident and Grammy Award-nominated record producer Andy Chatterley in January 2007. They became engaged within the first half hour of their first date, and married six weeks later on 14 February 2007. The story was told by Pallot on Janice Long's BBC Radio 2 show on 3 June 2009. Pallot recently completed her degree in English Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. The couple now reside in London.[5]

On 9 September 2010, Pallot announced via Twitter: "@Andy_Chatterley and I are proud to present our finest song. Our son, Wolfie Chatterley, born this morning". The child's full name is Wolfgang Amadeus Chatterley.

On 1 July 2012, while performing at Cornbury Festival, Pallot confirmed once again that she is a fan of Arsenal F.C..

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ Ankeny, Jason. "Nerina Pallot: Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved 26 February 2012. 
    2. ↑ "Nerina Pallot on life, love and Kylie Minogue". 
    3. ↑ Certified Awards BPI - British Recorded Music Industry, 9 June 2006
    4. ↑ "Nerina Pallot Tickets | Nerina Pallot Tour Dates & Concerts | Ticketmaster UK". Ticketmaster.co.uk. 1975-04-26. Retrieved 2012-04-18. 
    5. ↑ Nerina Pallot Blog MySpace

    External links

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