GuilFest 2006. The 3 Day Guildford Music Festival on 14th, 15th and 16th July 2006

About the bands
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Artist: Nerine Pallot
Genre:
Performing: 16th July 2005 /Uncut Magazine Stage
Website Address: [www.nerinapallot.com] ,
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“Someone once wrote the words ‘go, little book, go’. I want to re-phrase it and say ‘go, little song, go’. See, to me, songs have lives of their own, (the good ones at any rate): they spin their webs and catch moments, memories, emotions, and people too. Some songs are small and shy like a nervous child that suddenly breaks into a smile when you least expect, and some bully you into submission or knock you out straight up. Some you don’t hear from for ages, and then you meet them again one day and you are pleased to see they have grown up ok and aren’t stealing from grandmothers or selling you insurance. Or asking you to vote for them.”

Whilst working on her new record in LA with Wendy Melvoin Wendy's studio was destroyed by stunt car driver for a Harrison Ford movie hitting a fire hydrant by the wall outside, we went to war and Nerina wrote a song about it.

Some months later Wendy got her studio back up and running and Nerina started recording again variously across the Atlantic between LA and Nerina’s London home.

Fires was miraculously born in late 2004 teaming Nerina’s classical music training with her love of country, folk and rock music and eclectic influences ranging broadly from Paul Simon , Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Carole King and Rufus Wainwright to the Stone Roses.

“Years ago having given my parents’ record collection one last chance it yielded a couple of gems: Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits and Carole King’s Tapestry. I thought Paul Simon should win a Nobel prize for the lines ‘still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest’ (The Boxer). And I liked Carole King because alot of her songs were in easy keys and she had a kind of funny voice too which made me feel better about my own. I didn’t really know what it meant to sing ‘there’ll be good times again for me and you’, because I was a kid, but I kind of know now and I love her all the more because of it.”

Fires was produced by Howard Willing (Smashing Pumpkins) with Wendy Melvoin (Prince and the Revolution, Wendy and Lisa) and Eric Rosse (Tori Amos).

The album features performances from drummer Jim Keltner (who played drums on John Lennon's "Imagine" among many other top tracks), Jon Brion the musical wunderkind and Fiona Apple producer on guitar and keyboards, Doyle Bramhall II currently known as the 'other' guitarist in Eric Clapton's band playing guitar and singing back up with his wife Susannah Melvoin, Lyle Workman a long term member of Beck's band playing electric and acoustic guitars and bass, Roger Manning Jr a founding member of Jellyfish performs hammond and rhodes and Sebastian Steinberg of Soul Coughing contributes bass.

All of the piano, most of the keyboards and some of the guitars are played by Nerina and she wrote and sang the songs as well.

“So, go, little songs, go........”.

Fires is released on Idaho Records on the 4 th April 2005.