| Paolo Giovanni Nutini
(born 8 January 1987) is a Scottish singer/songwriter from Paisley. Both his parents are Scottish, although his father is of Italian descent, from Barga, Tuscany, and his family has been in Scotland for four generations.
|
PAOLO NUTINI TICKETS
|
Musical career
Paolo Nutini was taught singing by Avril McCusker for three and half years, but was expecting to follow his father into the family fish and chip shop business. He was first encouraged to sing by his music-loving grandfather, Jackie, and a teacher at his school, St Andrews Academy, who recognised his talent. He left school to work as a
roadie and to sell t-shirts for
Speedway. He spent three years learning the music business, performing live, alone and with Dome and Dick from the Dongues. He mentions Dome and Dick as great influences on his later career, especially Dick's singing. He later worked as a studio hand at Glasgow's Park Lane Studio. He later met Mike Bawden, who went on to manage him, along with Craig Beck.
His big chance came when he attended a concert staged by 102.5 Clyde 1 for
David Sneddon's return to his home town of Paisley at the beginning of 2003. Sneddon was delayed, and as the winner of an impromptu pop quiz, Nutini was given the chance to perform a couple of songs on stage during the wait. The favourable reaction of the crowd impressed another member of the audience, who offered to become his manager.
Daily Record
journalist John Dingwall saw him performing at the
Queen Margaret Union, and invited him to appear live on
BBC Radio Scotland. Only 17, Nutini moved to
London and performed regularly at
The Bedford pub in
Balham while still legally too young to drink alcohol himself. Other radio and live appearances followed, including two live acoustic spots on
Radio London,
The Hard Rock Cafe, and support slots for
Amy Winehouse and
KT Tunstall.
Throughout 2006 Nutini played a number of sold-out concerts in the UK and performed at a wide variety of venues worldwide, including
King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, a TV appearance on
Later with Jools Holland,
Carnegie Hall in
New York, The
Montreux Jazz Festival, The
Wireless Festival,
Oxegen and
T in the Park. He supported
the Rolling Stones in
Vienna and was invited to appear with them again at the
Don Valley Stadium in August 2006. He was also booked to appear at the
V Festival and The
Austin City Limits Music Festival,
Texas later in 2006, with a European tour in the autumn. In May 2006, he also played at
BBC Radio 1's
Big Weekend in
Dundee.
On
Hogmanay 2006, Paolo appeared on
BBC Scotland's
Hogmanay Live celebrations, after the official celebrations in
Princes Street Gardens were cancelled at short notice due to abysmal weather. He performed several songs in the Great Hall of
Edinburgh Castle for the TV audience with little or no rehearsal.
On Wednesday,
April 11, 2007, Paolo performed in a concert that was streamed live via .
Paolo is a big
Celtic F.C. and
FC St. Pauli supporter and was criticised by fans for allegedly coming on stage seemingly drunk after celebrating Celtic's title win in April 2007. This has been vigorously denied by Paolo himself and his management, who said that Paolo was just mumbling as he sang, and that the set was subject to several technical problems that made him difficult to hear.
Paolo performed at the
Glastonbury Festival in June 2007 on the famous Pyramid Stage on the second day of the event. Nutini also performed at the
UK leg of
Live Earth at
Wembley Stadium on
July 7,
2007, with his set including a cover of "
What A Wonderful World", a classic pop tune by
Bob Thiele,
George David Weiss, and George Douglas. He performed the following day at
T in the Park, in
Scotland.
[1]
Scottish independent TV company Volt MediaFix are currently making a one-off special documentary on Paolo's recent US tour. The programme, for the BBC, was scheduled for broadcast on BBC2, on Thursday 7 June throughout Scotland and on Sky channel 990 throughout the rest of the UK.
His song "Last Request" featured at the end of the
Scrubs
episode "
My Words of Wisdom" from season 6 and also during the
One Tree Hill
season 4 episode "The Birth and Death of the Day."
His song "Million Faces" was featured at the end of the
Grey's Anatomy
episode "
Testing 1-2-3" from Season 3 and is on the
Volume 3 Soundtrack of the show.
His song "Rewind" was also played at the end of
CSI: Miami
episode "Broken Home" in season 5. His song "Jenny, Don't Be Hasty" was also featured on another member of the
CSI
franchise when it was played on the season 3 finale episode of
CSI: NY
, "
Snow Day".
His song "New Shoes" was featured in
The Jane Austen Book Club
and in a TV ad for
Puma AG during summer 2008.
On
24 July,
2007, Paolo was awarded The Golden St. Christopher medal by the city of
Barga in
Italy, the highest honour the city can give, to celebrate his extraordinary contributions to Barga and its people.
[2]
On September 17, Paolo performed on
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno
performing the song "
Last Request".
In September 2007, Paolo recorded a short radio show with
imeem.com where he listed his top 10 favourite tracks and the reasons behind his choices.
[3]
In October 2007, Paolo performed for the annual Voodoo Fest held in New Orleans, Louisiana.
In 2008, Paolo's music will also be featured in a
movie adaptation of
Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel
Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance
.
On New Year's Eve 2008–09, Paolo performed at the
Hogmanay street parties in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland, becoming the first act to play both locations on the same day for the event.
In
The View's new album
Which Bitch?
, he is featured singing on the song "Covers".
On 29 May 2009, Nutini released his second studio album
Sunny Side Up
, after the first single from the album "
Candy" was released on 18 May. In July, he appeared on
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
, performing "Coming Up Easy". This was released as the second single to the album on 10 August and it debuted at #62 in the
UK Singles Chart on 16 August 2009.
[4]
Recording history
Paolo made his first demo which saw him signed to
Atlantic Records in May 2005, shortly after his 18th birthday. He released his first single "These Streets" as a free
download in May 2006, this was then followed by his next single "
Last Request" which was released on
4 July 2006 and charted at #5 in the official UK charts.
In the video for "Last Request", Nutini plays the part of a robber - though this is not revealed until the end.
Nutini's third single, "
Jenny Don't Be Hasty", was released on
25 September 2006 and got to #20 on the
UK Singles Chart.
"
Rewind" was Nutini's fourth single. It was released on
4 December 2006, and reached #27 in the UK.
His debut album
These Streets
, produced by
Ken Nelson (who has also worked with
Coldplay and
Gomez), was released on
17 July 2006 and immediately entered the UK album charts at #3. Many of the songs on the album, including "Last Request" and "Rewind", were inspired by a turbulent relationship with his girlfriend Teri Brogan, and "Jenny Don't Be Hasty" is a true story about encounters with an older woman.
These Streets, as Paolo himself puts it on his official website, he states, "The album is a little glimpse of some of the experiences I have been through in the last three years". In late 2007 he covered
Madness' version of
Labi Siffre's
It Must Be Love for
BBC Radio 1's
Radio 1 Established 1967 album.
New self-produced second album
Sunny Side Up
was released on June 1, 2009.
[5]
Discography
Albums
- These Streets
(2006)
- Sunny Side Up
(2009)
|
Singles
- "Last Request" (2006)
- "Jenny Don't Be Hasty" (2006)
- "Rewind" (2006)
- "New Shoes" (2007)
- "Candy" (2009)
- "Coming Up Easy" (2009)
|
References
- BBC Scotland: T in the Park [1]
- barganews.com
- Paulo Introduces His Top Ten Tunes
- UK Singles Chart - Week Ending: 22 August 2009
- paolonutini.com