Nerina Pallot: I got the band playing in thongs...

Nerina Pallot might just be one of the finest singer songwriters around today that you haven't heard of.

Despite four critically acclaimed albums and both Ivor Novello and Brit nominations and songwriting credits for the likes of Kylie Minogue, her fiercely loyal fan base is still far, far lower than her considerable talents deserve.

More observant students of the music scene will be aware of her. And some may recognise her chiefly from her breakthrough single Everybody's Gone To War.

Pallot's musical journey began when her parents brought home a piano they'd bought at an auction for £30.

By the time she was 13 she was writing her own songs, influenced by her early idols Kate Bush and Elton John.

Her debut album, Dear Frustrated Superstar, received glowing reviews but failed to set the charts alight.

She followed it up with the wonderful Fires, which spawned Everybody's Gone to War and the stunningly beautiful Sophia, which earned her the Ivor Novello nomination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rbfgj4og-M&feature=fvst

And under-promoted third album, the Graduate, followed before this year's release of Year Of The Wolf.

Pallot will be bringing songs from her latest release and back catalogue to Birmingham when she plays the Academy on Wednesday.

"I'm really looking forward to Birmingham," she enthuses. "We always have a really good gig there.

"We normally do 20 dates in a row but this time we're just doing the bigger cities. We tend to do where I have a big following.

"You can definitely tell the difference between audiences in different cities. Going to Glasgow, they love to sing, even from the very beginning of Sophia, which I do solo, but elsewhere you could hear a pin drop.

"Birmingham is always hilarious. Last time I played there I got the band playing in thongs and did a cover of Living on a Prayer, because someone dared me to."

Before embarking on her UK tour, Pallot warmed up with gigs back in her native Jersey and sister Island, Guernsey.

"The home gigs were great," she says.

"I always start a tour with gigs there. You're guaranteed being related to half the audience so they have a lot of love for you.

"The first two nights in Jersey sold out. I went back to play the Opera House. The third night was in Guernsey and there's always been this rivalry between the two islands, but the audience there was really nice. I think half of them were people who'd come over from Jersey!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKTCScoUFWk

Much of her latest album Year Of The Wolf was written while Pallot was pregnant with her first child with producer husband Andy Chatterley. It is named after him (they called their son Wolfgang).

"I didn't realise at the time, but being pregnant changed how I wrote a song," she says.

"For instance, Grace I wrote years ago but never really did anything for me, but then it spoke to me when I was pregnant in a way it hadn't before and I thought I had to put it down on record.

"History Boys was written when I was pregnant. You would see the Chilcott enquiry on television and it would be cut with images from Wooton Bassett and I couldn't understand how Tony Blair, who has no military service and whose children have no military service, could father kids and still do what he did.

"What I find really difficult is he is prepared to put other people's kids on the front line and then he wouldn't apologise. And his wholesale lack of humanity. It was all about his ego."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eMgRRYuvfc

History Boys is a more sombre companion to Everybody's Gone To War, dealing with the same subject and delivering the same message, but with a more world-worn feel.

"I wrote Everybody's Gone To War and History Boys about six or seven years apart and I see big personal development in those songs," says Pallot.

"I'm so angry but now it just seems hopeless, whereas with Everybody's Gone To War, when I was angry I believed that anger could be channeled into something positive. History Boys means a lot to me."

Recently, Pallot has added another string to her bow as a song writer for other people.

She says: "Working with Kylie happened purely by accident. I wrote a song and, I can't remember how, her publisher heard it and thought it was perfect for Kylie and asked me to give it up. Then I got a call out of the blue to say she wanted to work with me and my husband.

"As a kid she was my favourite pop star, even over Madonna, so it was really important to me. My list of heroes and heroines is very short."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2D7GGkrJPM&feature=related

Pallot spends a lot of time on Twitter and also performs free online mini-gigs from her home or studios in London.

"I like playing gigs and I realise that not everyone can get to them or afford them," she explains.

"I'm always noodling around and there's no difference in noodling around in a more organised fashion with a camera pointing at me.

"A lot of artists only connect with their fans when they've got something to sell them. There was some pressure to change my Twitter user name to NerinaPallot (she uses the handle ladychatterley), but I went on Twitter as a normal person, not as a work thing.

"I don't want to use it as a work thing, but I still plug gigs because that's what I am and everybody talks about work during the day, don't they?

"I don't understand people who use it and just retweet things about themselves. I really like it. It lets you talk to people you wouldn't necessarily otherwise talk to about all sorts of things."

So why isn't she as famous as she should be?

"I get asked that question a lot. Possibly because I'm not comfortable with the idea of fame. I see it as a by-product of what I do.

"I think maybe somehow there might be some part of me that's afraid of it. In Jersey I am quite famous and people do come up to me in the street but some people are jealous of it.

"It frustrates me in a sense because it means I'm not as successful as I want to be. But I've got friends who are famous and I'm not sure they're really happy."

By David Burrows