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Nerina Pallot

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Nerina Pallot
Nerina Pallot at Cornbury Music Festival, 2006
Nerina Pallot at Cornbury Music Festival, 2006
Background information
Birth nameNerina Natasha Georgina Pallot
Born (1974-04-26) 26 April 1974 (age 50)[1][2]
London, England
OriginJersey, Channel Islands
GenresPop rock, alternative rock, indie pop
Years active2001–present
LabelsPolydor 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 1974, London) is a British singer, songwriter and producer, who has released five albums and over a dozen EPs. She was nominated for British Female Solo Artist at the 2007 BRIT Awards and nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for "Sophia" in the category of 'Best Song (musically and lyrically)' in the same year. Besides her own material, Pallot has written songs for Kylie Minogue and Diana Vickers. She mostly tours around the UK and is married to record producer Andy Chatterley.

Early life

Although she was born in London, Pallot was brought up in Jersey by a half-French father and a mother from Allahabad, India together with her sister.[3] 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 series Wogan as a catalyst for her to pursue a music career.[4] She attended Jersey College for Girls[5] and received a music scholarship for Wellington College.[3]

Career

Dear Frustrated Superstar

Pallot released her debut album, Dear Frustrated Superstar, on Polydor records in August 2001.[6] This spawned two singles, "Patience" and "Alien". She was subsequently dropped from the label mainly due to failing sales.[7] The album was eventually re-issued several years later after her second album, Fires had become a commercial success. Her then-manager Richard Ogden noted that his company spent "three years managing her while she had a huge record deal and was a massive priority for Polydor. We did the best job we possibly could, but it just didn’t happen".[8]

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.[9]

Fires

Her second album, Fires, was released in April 2005 on her own independent label, Idaho. It was published by Chrysalis Music Publishing, to whom she remained signed 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 complete the rest of the album.[7]

The album was produced and mixed by Howard Willing together with producers Eric Rosse who produced "Learning to Breathe" and "Heart Attack" (co-produced by Willing) and Wendy Melvoin 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.

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. She performed at the 2005 Guildfest music festival and headlined her own show at Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush, London later that year.

At the end of 2005, Pallot signed with 14th Floor Records (a Warner label), who re-issued the album after adding strings on some tracks, 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.[10]

The first single from the revamped album was "Everybody's Gone to War", which was playlisted on most major British radio stations. 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. She undertook her first full headlining tour in support of the Fires album 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.

The second single from the album was "Sophia", a re-recorded version, created in LA along with producer Mitchell Froom, entered the UK singles chart at Number 32. In April 2007, the song was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award, while she toured around the UK and Ireland in January and February of that year. 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. 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.

Year of the Wolf

In July 2010, Pallot returned to Geffen Records and to the A&R that first signed her to Polydor while embarking on an eight-day tour around the UK and Ireland. She 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, while the album was released 13 June 2011. The inspiration behind the album was the birth of her son, Wolfgang.[3]

2014-Year of the EPs

For her next project, Pallot decided to release an EP every month in 2014, as she 'just got sick of the album, tour, single… that whole cycle'.[11] The first was called 'The Hold Tight' in January, followed by 'We Should Break Up' in February. She found that 'I’m at a point in my career where I can pretty much make it up now. I’ve also realised that a true fan base [...] cares about hearing as much music as they can get their hands on".[11] Pallot supported the releases with a handful of tour dates across the UK. In September 2015 she released her fifth album The Sound and the Fury.[12]

Nerina Pallot at Cornbury Music Festival 2006

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 Cannizaro 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".

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. In 2009 she completed her degree in English Literature at Birkbeck, University of London.[3] The couple now reside in London.[13]

On 9 September 2010, Pallot gave birth to her first son, Wolfgang Amadeus Chatterley.[citation needed]

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

References

  1. ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Nerina Pallot: Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
  2. ^ Singer Nerina Pallot tells us... Bath Chronicle, November 28, 2014
  3. ^ a b c d Gordon, Jane (6 August 2011). "Nerina Pallot: 'Live your life, make mistakes, have fun!' - Daily Mail Online". Mail Online. Mail On Sunday.
  4. ^ Sawer, Patrick (4 April 2010). "Nerina Pallot: Cowell, Minogue and me". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  5. ^ "Nerina Pallot to play Jersey music festival for Haiti". BBC News. 26 January 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  6. ^ Listing for the Dear Frustrated Superstar album on DIscogs.com, (accessed 12 January 2015).
  7. ^ a b Lindvall, Helienne (10 September 2009). "Behind the music: How to survive being dropped". The Guardian.
  8. ^ Bouwman, Kimbel (3 November 2004). "Artists need to understand where exactly they fit into the media spectrum". Hit Quarters.
  9. ^ Listing of the Chimera album on Discogs.com, (accessed 12 January 2015).
  10. ^ Certified Awards BPI - British Recorded Music Industry, 9 June 2006
  11. ^ a b Kheraj, Alim (27 March 2014). "Interview: Nerina Pallot". planetnotion.com.
  12. ^ "Nerina Pallot: Sound and the Fury - album review - Louder Than War". Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  13. ^ Nerina Pallot Blog MySpace
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