Clive

News! News! And more news!

Hello Dear Reader

I have packed a lot in since I last accosted your inbox. Some of it involved going to Luton Airport - one hesitates to call it London Luton because one does not fancy a visit from Trading Standards - which was not as traumatic as anticipated. We picked our way through the shopping mall that passes for the departures lounge and the early morning revellers cradling their third pint before 9am and boarded our easyJet special jet to the Alps. I am sad to say that nobody got into a punch-up and Jess Glynne was nowhere to be seen. I dunno. Yet again, my theory that nothing that exciting happens in or on the way to Geneva stands uncontested.

Our trip was bookended by blizzards, which was perfect really, and your correspondent came down those slopes like an octogenarian mountain goat, that is to say: seldom graceful but always steady, mindful of the fact that in exactly two months’ time she would be playing the gig of her life, and she needed all limbs intact for this spectacle. One night I ate more cheese in one dinner than I have in my entire life. It was amazing. For the next two months I will be surviving on Ryvita and Goji berries otherwise I’ll be wearing a boiler suit on stage.

Before I left for the alps, I handed over every lyric I have ever written and released to Darragh Hughes, who has been designing what will be a very special limited edition lyrics and art book spanning my entire 25 year career. I’ve never done anything like it before, and realistically, it’s unlikely I’ll ever do anything like it again. Once I get the proofs back from the printers I will be able to share more. If you’re one of the two people in the world who loves to sing along to We Should Break Up and have had to rely on a dodgy internet website version with lyrics courtesy of someone who speaks English as a fourth language, soon your pain shall end. If you’d like to reserve a copy before it goes on general sale, please head over to my CHMBR account, Your Own Private Idaho where you can fill in a form to make sure you don’t miss out.

Arriving around the same time will be Fire Escape Symphonies: The Best of Nerina Pallot. Some of you kindly suggested the title, and all of you suggested songs that will make the final track-listing across two formats of vinyl and CD. Soon I will be regaling you with pre-order links and such, but for now here is a sneak peak of the album artwork.

Once the book is finalised in the next week, I shall be moving on to the set list for THE BIG SHOW. Of course, there shall be songs you know and love and have seen me play live before - but for this show there will be some surprises. Songs some of you have been nagging at me to give their day in the sun. Songs that will be re-worked to shine in the grandeur of the Royal Albert Hall. And a song or two that I want to do for me and just me. I mean, it’s my party, innit?

BUT NOW FOR THE BIG NEWS.

THE BIG SMALL NEWS.

THE BIG TINY NEWS.

His name is Clive and he has come into our lives and we shall never be the same again.

And this is how this newsletter arrived in your inbox today:

I did not realise how glum I had been feeling until I held all 2.1kg of him in my arms and remembered the unique and transformative spirit that is DOG. It’s no accident that word is God spelt backwards. Clive has arrived with the spring, and not a moment too soon.

This weekend as I’m sure you know is Easter. For me, it feels like more of a new year than the one we celebrate in January when everything looks dead and cold and forbidding. As I look out onto my garden, my hound asleep on my lap, the birds are singing in extremis and the tulips I planted in between shows on the All Roads Lead To… tour are bursting into bloom. I would like to visit this quiet, contented bliss upon each and every one of you reading for just one moment. It’s magic.

If I don’t speak to you before Easter, have a whatever the best kind of Easter means to you. If that’s sending yourself into a chocolate coma or being first in the queue in B&Q on Easter Monday morning, may it be everything you dreamed of.

With love as ever,

Nerina xxxx