Nerina Pallot
(born Nerina Natasha Georgina Pallot
, 26 April 1975, London) is a platinum selling, BRIT Award nominated British singer and songwriter. Although born in London, Pallot was brought up in Jersey to a half-French father and mother born in Allahabad, India.
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NERINA PALLOT TICKETS
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Career
Dear Frustrated Superstar
Pallot released her debut album on
Polydor records,
Dear Frustrated Superstar
, in August 2001. This spawned two commercial singles, "Patience" and "Alien", both played by
Dermot O'Leary on
BBC Radio 2 with a third single, "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 Her album was withdrawn shortly before an arena tour with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 web site.
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.
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.
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 Howard) 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 Howard and Nerina 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.
After signing with 14th Floor Records (see below), 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 #21. With over 100,000 sales it was certified gold in the UK.
[1]
The first single from the revamped album was "Everybody's Gone to War", which was playlisted on most major British radio stations. A video can be seen on most music television stations and on her Myface profile. The single became a the third most played song on British radio the week before its release, and reached #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 #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 only reached #70 in the UK singles chart; the fact this was actually the fifth single to be taken from the album over its two releases was a major factor in its low chart position.
The Graduate
Pallot has been writing and working on demo songs for a third album, expected to be released at some time in 2009. On the 10th of June 2009 , Pallot told
Absolute Radio her album would be called "The Graduate". This is to be released on the 5th of October 2009. Nerina worked with many writers for the album but when it came down to the final tracklist only pallot written material has made the cut.
She wrote in her blog that she has approximately 60 viable songs for this long-anticipated album.
Tours
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 was a crowd favourite 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, details of which can be found on the 14th Floor Records website. During the year she also played headline shows in London at
ICA, the Bloomsbury Theatre, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and a triumphant gig at Shepherds Bush Empire.
Her most recent UK & Ireland tour took place in January and February 2007, taking in venues in Penzance, Bristol, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Manchester, Newcastle, Warwick, Brighton, Belfast, Dublin, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Sheffield.
Videos
Pallot has released five videos to go with singles from Dear Frustrated Superstar and Fires . Her first video for "Patience" 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 , which includes cabbage-throwing goths and pineapple bombs. Her next video was for "", 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, "", is more "abstract" and is computer generated with her playing the guitar in a house with many pictures decorating the walls.
Recent events
At the end of 2005, Pallot signed with major label, 14th Floor Records (a Warner label), the home of
Damien Rice and
Joseph Arthur.
Highlights included:
- 'Record of the Week' on BBC Radio 1.
- A spot on Top of the Pops
.
- 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, which will hopefully be release in early 2010.
Awards and nominations
Pallot was nominated for British Female Solo Artist in 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
Albums
| Release Date
| Album
| Chart Positions
|
| UK Albums Chart [2]
|
| 20 August 2001
| Dear Frustrated Superstar
| #82
|
1st release: 4 April 2005 2nd release: 24 April 2006
| Fires
| #21
|
| 5 October 2009
| The Graduate
| TBC
|
EP's
| Release Date
| Album
| Chart Positions
|
UK Albums Chart
|
| February 2009
| Buckminster Fuller EP
| N/A
|
| June 2009
| Junebug EP
| N/A
|
Singles
| Year
| Title
| Chart positions
| Album
|
UK
| UK Airplay
| AUS
| NET
| SWE
| SWI
|
| 2001
| "Patience"
| 61
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| Dear Frustrated Superstar
|
| "Alien"
| 98
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
| 2004
| "Truly" (Delerium featuring Nerina Pallot)
| 54
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| Chimera
|
| 2005
| "Damascus" 1
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| Fires
|
| "All Good People"
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
| 2006
| "Everybody's Gone To War"
| 14
| 3
| 41
| 48
| —
| 98
|
| "Sophia"
| 32
| 16
| —
| —
| 48
| —
|
| 2007
| "Learning To Breathe"
| 70
| 28
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
| "TBC"
| "Real Late Starter"
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
1 "Damascus" charted at #180 in the Physical CD sales chart, but it did not make the overall singles chart.
Other contributions
- Acoustic 05
(2005, Echo) - "Idaho"
- The Saturday Sessions: The Dermot O'Leary Show
(2007, EMI) - "Confide in Me"
Personal life
Pallot
married fellow Jersey resident and
Grammy Award nominated
record producer Andy Chatterley on 14 February 2007. Pallot and Chatterley went to the same secondary school (he was a year above her) as did her grandfather, father and brother, but the two did not meet at the time. As adults they used to drink at the same local pub; they became engaged within half an hour of going out for a drink together for the first time, and married six weeks later.
[3] The couple now reside in London.
[4]
References
- The BPI: ''Certified Awards'', 9 June 2006
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- The story was told by Pallot on Janice Long's BBC Radio 2 show on June 3, 2009.
- Nerina Pallot's MySpace Blog: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=4838455